Lab coats: they're white, mostly plain, boxy. Functional, and ultimately sartorially boring. But ask any doctor or lab tech about their lab coat and they will chat up a storm. Often about how they can't wait to ditch them—if they haven't already.

When Eric Rothenhaus landed a gig as director of design at JanSport five years ago, he wanted to make an impression. He would do it by re-creating, down to the seat-belt straps, the very first JanSport backpack (and the first-ever backpack with a zipper) introduced in 1969. Problem: There were no sketches, patterns or…

Plaid shirts will always represent for me Kurt Cobain, riot grrrls and grunge music. That's because I'm self-centered and lived my twenties in the '90s. But today when I see my husband putting on a plaid shirt, it inspires entirely different connotations. He couldn't be less grunge, but he is a certified geek. And it…

Skinny jeans have been mocked in song, and at least one unfortunate guy has been roughed up for wearing them. Yet the skinny denim style is not waning. Quite the contrary!

No one wears ties anymore. Even fewer people wear bow ties. They're really freaking hard to tie, for one. And the resulting aesthetic is, shall we say, unusual.

When Buddy Holly finally conceded to glasses, his vision was already 20-800. He had tried some of the earliest contact lenses. They became unbearable after about 10 minutes. So he got glasses. His first frames had thick plastic at the top, with a thinner, less obtrusive metal frame for the bottom half.