Are these the best-dressed men in San Francisco?

Members of the Neo Dandy Arts Collective meet regularly to share their appreciation of fine menswear. Pictured are members Alvin Lampkins (left) and Kaya Fortune. Members of the Neo Dandy Arts Collective meet regularly to share their appreciation of fine menswear. Pictured are members Alvin Lampkins (left) and Kaya Fortune. Photo: Gregory Manalo / Manalo Pictures Photo: Gregory Manalo / Manalo Pictures Image 1 of / 30 Caption Close Are these the best-dressed men in San Francisco? 1 / 30 Back to Gallery

The Neo Dandy Arts Collective is a group of five Bay Area men who convene once a month to share some of the finer pursuits in life. Among them: art, photography, music and, especially, dressing well.

The 2-year-old group includes a DJ, photographer, painter, illustrator and fashion designer; a few also work in fine menswear. Sometimes they’ll do a photo shoot; other times it’s organizing a men’s styling event like a recent one at Banana Republic; and others, it’s just hanging out for cigars and Scotch.

Although the group’s mission wasn’t to be ridiculously good-looking, their thing “just happened to be looking really fresh,” says member Alan Maramag, a manager and style consultant at custom menswear service Beckett & Robb.

They’re part of a subset of San Francisco men who are fighting back against the city’s reputation for being underdressed. With everything from vintage ties and made-to-measure dress shirts to double-breasted wool blazers and custom wingtips, they’re disrupting the sartorial status quo simply because they enjoy it, mixing patterns and influences that convey creativity rather than conformity.

In other words, they’re boldly defying the Bay Area’s casual tradition by dressing more traditionally. But it isn’t an effort to fit in, explains creative consultant Gus Walbolt, who blogs about menswear though A Bit of Color.

“How do you do that without looking like an old fogey? You make it kind of cool,” he says. “That’s where the younger guys are having a lot of fun — they’re more expressive with loud plaids and creative linings and contrasting buttonholes.”

In local circles, “dressing up” often leads to standing out, so it takes a certain defiance to make an obvious effort when none is required.

“If you ignore context, you’re not going to be well dressed, even if you wear a tuxedo to work,” says From Squalor to Baller blogger Ian Anderson, who works at tech startup Massdrop. “You’ll just look like a tool.”

His solution? Pairing jeans or chinos with a tucked-in shirt, sweater and nice shoes. “I don’t want to stand out,” he says. “I’d rather just seem really put together.”

Given the absence of a strict male dress code, men are approaching dapper dressing academically, as they would a vintage car restoration or the art of mixology. And they’re using groups like Neo Dandy and online menswear community Styleforum.net to stay informed.

Anderson doesn’t wear a tie to work, though he would like to. Instead, he looks for opportunities on weekends, in addition to attending Styleforum meetups. “Those meetups not only allow me to meet people who love it as much as I do, but I see new clothes, people and new vendors.”

Styleforum managing partner Fok-Yan Leung calls it “the nerd method,” in which guys approach clothes like a hobby, with meetups providing a venue for discussion, comparison and appreciation. The site’s San Francisco members are its most active group, he says.

“Men have traditionally needed to justify this interest in clothing, like buying something that will last forever — never mind you bought that last pair of shoes a month ago,” Leung says.

These men aren’t the only ones who see opportunity in the vast space between the corporate suit-and-tie look and the proverbial hoodie and Crocs. Although dressing up in the land that birthed Casual Friday — and every day — requires more than a modicum of confidence, it’s becoming more common. Bespoke tailoring is experiencing a bit of a rebirth, thanks to a handful of fashion-tech startups.

In October, custom suiting company Indochino opened its second American location in San Francisco, after New York. Director of merchandising Tom Kearnan wasn’t worried about the area’s cultishly casual reputation.

“We have decades of men working out of their basement, and they are finally leaving their man caves,” he says. “Or they’re the kids of these people, who don’t want to be seen in their hoodies.” Kearnan suggests that lads responsible for the casual reputation are being promoted and want to look the part. “Dressing up is a way they can get ahead of their competition.”

“There really isn’t a uniform anymore,” says Mark Lovas, who last year launched Trumaker, a service that makes custom-fit dress shirts. “We call it the 'new professional.’”

“We use the term 'casually sharp,’” says Colin Hunter, CEO of made-to-measure suit company Alton Lane, which just opened its San Francisco showroom, the company’s first in the West. “Ten years ago, if you wore a suit, it was because you had to. Now there’s much more of a focus on dressing well because you want to.”

Trumaker, which recently expanded from dress shirts into blazers (“the grown-up hoodie”), hosts group fittings at Yammer, Facebook and Twitter. Lovas regularly gets groups of up to 18 guys — most wearing T-shirts — getting fitted for a button-down.

“Guys want to look better and also be comfortable and be themselves,” he says. “It’s about fitting in less, and looking better more.”

Recently Wingtip, where Neo Dandy’s Michael Alzona is manager and bespoke adviser, hosted trunk shows with Foster & Sons (bespoke shoes), Saint Crispin’s (custom hand-welted shoes) and Ambrosi Napoli (bespoke trousers).

Alzona considers the 10-year track record of Wingtip “an indication that guys are trying to step it up from North Face fleece and hoodies. The fact that these brands are making Wingtip San Francisco a stop on their worldwide tours shows that these men are succeeding.”

Now the Neo Dandy Arts Collective hopes to mentor youth by using their style to get attention. Maramag describes plans for a youth conference that hosts workshops on style (layering, color coordinating, fit) and life skills (etiquette, financial responsibility).

“The clothing part is just the entryway,” he says. “It can help people be more positively receptive to you, from getting a better job to meeting your soul mate.”