EduClaytion

Pop Culture & The Meaning of Life

The 40 Worst Dressed Cities In America?

spacer

Image via Wikipedia

My hometown of Pittsburgh is the third worst dressed city in America according to the new write up from GQ about the 40 Worst Dressed Cities In America. According to the short article:

“The citizens of Pittsburgh…indulge a style that could be referred to as “Game Day Casual” (or “Meth Lab Formal,” depending on your preference.) It stems from their love of a certain NFL franchise and an utter indifference to their personal appearance and what you think of them.”

I personally prefer thrift store chic.

The piece concludes with:

“…there is no city on Earth that can equal the utter sloppiness of Pittsburgh.”

When I asked a random Pittsburgher what he thought about being called one of the sloppiest urban humans in the country he had this to say: “At least we beat Cleveland again right?”

The clowns at the magazine know what they’re doing. They pretty much picked a city from every state in America except for places that will literally never buy one copy of GQ. You know, places like Montana.

As a former editor who’s written pieces like this one, I know how it works. You look at a map and start spitballing, trying to come up with ideas based on first impressions of city names, personal experience, and whatever funny photos you have floating around. Then everyone starts firing out one-liners and writing abstracts until some copy is completed. After that, you just decide which markets you want to really get a response out of and insert the weaker entries throughout.

And the formula works. I heard about this as the local news played in the background one evening last week.

If you look at the rankings (and I wouldn’t waste my time if I were you), you’ll see that literally every style of dress in America with the possible exception of nudist is called worst-dressed at some point. I say this after an extensive analysis that involved me clicking through pictures for 20 seconds. So unless the writers at GQ are nude lumberjacks from Montana, they also fit into their own worst-dressed list which could probably be more accurately titled the ”Cities In Which People Wear Clothes” list.

I’m not surprised that this list is made or that Pittsburgh is 3rd, but the rankings got my attention when I saw who rounded out the top 5. Those cities are Manhattan (#5), Chicago (#4), Los Angeles (#2), and Boston (#1). So all you have to do to increase web traffic is insult the largest cities in America? Why didn’t I think of this sooner? Let me try:

San Francisco can’t get a girlfriend! Ooh, burn. I hope I don’t crash the server.

I planned to mention the irony that Mr. Boston Tom Brady has been on the cover of GQ at least three times, but as I looked at the images in a quick Google search a new question came to mind.

Is this a men’s magazine? Because I’m kind of catching a Playgirl lite vibe.

I suppose I mean that facetiously, but I’ve had enough moments in life where I laugh at the brilliant humor of others only to realize later that they were actually being serious as humans. Then I felt awkward. So now I’m unsure. I think GQ is for guys and assumed that the funny parodies of American cities were created by clever satirists. But now I’m wondering if these people are serious, like elbow-patched professors in a private lounge who actually believe that the rest of the world thinks like them.

I’m gonna need your help on this one, so I’ll leave you with a couple questions. See you after I get back from the thrift store*.

Has anyone out there read GQ?

How does your city/town dress?

*Seriously. Those places are the best spacer .

Join me on Twitter @ClayMorganPA

Advertisement

Show Others!

  • More

    Like this:

    Like
    90 bloggers like this post.
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer
    • spacer

    July 25, 2011 - Posted by educlaytion | Humor, Life

    213 Comments »

    1. Our little Burgh has been getting a lot of attention, lately. I’d say any press is good press. (Then again, maybe they are right. I dressed in black and gold every day for the whole two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl….HERE WE GO STEELERS!)

      spacer Comment by janeanger | July 30, 2011 4:48 pm --> | Reply

    2. Thanks for calling out these morons. I remember a few years ago when a similar magazine (may have been GQ but can’t remember) came out saying that my city is the stupidest city in America. They’re justification was pretty absurd. I don’t think I’ve ever read one full GQ article in my life!

      spacer Comment by Dave White Paintings | July 30, 2011 5:19 pm --> | Reply

      • Inability to spell is one of the symptoms of idiocy…

        spacer Comment by Ingebar Stumperdink | July 31, 2011 12:59 am --> | Reply

        • While the grammar may be horrid, what word would you be referring to?

          spacer Comment by politicalminded | August 1, 2011 10:17 am --> | Reply

    3. I relish the stylistic freedom of living in Pittsburgh. It is a great thing to be able to walk out of the house and be comfortable in paint stained jeans and a wife beater or in five inch heels and a bizarre thrifted 80′s dress or in a full on hipster style outfit or the latest in cutting edge fashion. All of these things are met with savoir faire by steeler fans on the street.

      spacer Comment by sweetridgesisters | July 30, 2011 5:33 pm --> | Reply

    4. I think you absolutely correct about the “choose a city and mock” formula. My city is large, so the clothing depends on where in the city you happen to be. Could be gang-chic, could be business-chic, could be suburban-chic…or even thrift-chic. Yesterday I saw a girl riding a bicycle with neon pink hair, a long printed tee, and patterned tights. Not sure what style that was!

      spacer Comment by Rayme Wells of A Clean Surface | July 30, 2011 5:49 pm --> | Reply

    5. I don’t believe for one moment that 18 people contributed to that article. What? All of them overuse the word sartorial? Great post.

      spacer Comment by newsy1 | July 30, 2011 7:19 pm --> | Reply

    6. Yes. It is a great thing to be able to walk out of the house and be comfortable in paint

    gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.