marrow #14 | posted 17 march 2025
this is part one of a two-parter into how i think about outfits. here i'll cover layering, and in the second part (clothez ii outfits) i'll talk about coordination and overall balance, going a little more in depth about the details i keep in mind when putting stuff together. you might also be interested on "timeless classics" and getting into fashion, a broader post about, well, getting into fashion.
so in the world of dubious fashion advice (a world i realize i am putting myself in) there's something called the third piece rule. which i think is particularly stupid despite the fact that yeah, i guess it often works.
the rule works like this. a base outfit is made of two pieces, a top and a bottom. to turn that into a proper, put together, good outfit you need a third piece. which uh is basically anything but read: vest and jacket mainly, and occasionally hat, scarf or some other large accessory. i've even heard people name garments "third pieces" — usually as an alternative to "kimono", which is fair enough, but also "short sleeve jacket" is right there.
the third piece rule is a promise: you don't really need to change anything, just toss this on and you'll be stylish and tied together. and it's not totally bogus but following rules without understanding the reasons they work isn't particularly helpful. so my objective here is to 1) explain how the third piece works so i can 2) explain ways to consciously and actively implement its functions. basically, this is a post about layering and depth. as always, these are just my views and my approaches to dressing, so please don't feel like you need to replace a rule with another.
the archetypical third piece law abiding evil wizard¹ outfit looks like this: basic tshirt, nice fitting jeans, black blazer. and shoes of some sort that's nearly an afterthought; let's say white sneakers. yes, convergent evolution with timeless classics is no coincidence: third piecing has a certain type of person in mind.
the third piece's explicit purpose is to add visual interest to an otherwise unremarkable set of garments. the way i see it, this is achieved through one or more of the following things, roughly:
in short, visual interest is about having a greater variety of things to look at. i tend to use depth or detail to mean this same thing. the third piece is effective because it's literally giving you, at bare minimum, an extra thing to look at above jeans and a tshirt yknow.
ok let's do an example to make things more concrete.
this is a nice outfit to begin with, the white-black-white-black rhythm is interesting and the shoes aren't super conventional. but the short sleeved jacket / shirt gives it a little extra spice:
also note the jewelry: the necklace is giving a little bit of depth and fills a bit of the white tshirt, while the rings bring detail to the hand. it's pretty subtle, but will come up in a sec. for now, look at some outfits you like and try training your eye to notice these things. exercise to the reader and all that.
well none of these will be me but i thought "how to introduce depth" sounded too much like i was telling you Thee Only Way to do it. anyhow, i've been debating how to best structure this part, about applying those functions i just listed. to keep it simple, i think i'll stick to the same "workflow" the rule expects: let's assume you have a basic outfit you want to make less so, and we can check how it fares in relation to our visual interest "checklist" to find out some things to change or add.
actually, let's make it more concrete by using simple examples that build on common and basic main pieces, so that we're not relying on any garment's detail level or unusual silhouette to do much heavy lifting. these were kinda tricky to find on my pinterest boards² since i've been saving basically only goth / egl / ega for the past few years and that's the opposite of what i needed for this lol.
julesraybrown on instagram (via pinterest)
yes my friend called me a boy scout when i wore something similar to this. do not let this sort of thing stop you. listen to me: go thrift shopping and obtain a silk scarf. the actual print can look stupid and old fashioned because it's not gonna be all that visible once it's folded and tied, plus that's to be expected from the thing anyway. i'd avoid super shiny poly satin because it can look very gaudy imo but it can work. ok onto the outfit:
elijahquebr[?] on tiktok (via pinterest) (you can kill me about this one)
i looove this one. you can tell the point was contrasting a pretty basic and classy (via the tailored shorts) summer outfit with the dark heavy boots. so let's start from the bottom.
an all black one! we're relying pretty much exclusively on different textiles for this, with each piece beign a different texture and thus reflecting light differently (as well as taking dye differently).
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ok i said i'd keep it super basic but like in the grand scheme of things...
well uh that's the post. i hope it helps you start noticing more details... in part two, i'll go a little beyond the concept of a base outfit in the first place — how i might not start from a top + bottom combo before introducing complexity —, and introduce some more detailed garments and outfits. i wanted to keep things pretty general and introductory here so i chose examples that are easier to put into practice with common clothes most people own (which is also the whole thing about the third piece rule), but that's not quite how i usually operate! so keep an eye out on the rss feed for the next part of this.
in the mean time, i suggest looking at stuff with an analytical eye, and just trying stuff out. as i said in the getting into fashion post, you kinda just gotta look at things a lot and break them down into smaller parts to figure out what you can cannibalize for your own creations yknow. idk. have fun.
2: i find using rando photographs like this a little tasteless and would rather use celebs however i don't know celebs. and i'm not profitting off this, so i think it's more acceptable. actually the best option would be taking my own pics, but that's very time intensive and makes me a little uncomfy. so! randos it is! (also not sharing my pinterest because i prefer keeping it private... sorry but i am gatekeeping this. but you're welcome to my fashion tag on tumblr).
3: lolita term for a top made of jersey material. basically a tshirt, but they tend to have different cuts and more details than a normie one: here you have puffy sleeves, often you have colars, ruffles and/or lace.