What is going on in men’s lifestyle media?

One need only look at the recent shuttering of Details, a string of layoffs at GQ (disclosure: I used to work there) and the recent launch of Sweet, a Snapchat-only lifestyle publication from Hearst, to get a sense of the current state of affairs.

We had a good run @detailsmag #ripdetails A photo posted by jonmroth (@jonmroth) on Nov 19, 2015 at 1:40pm PST

Like the struggles Gap, J.Crew and Urban Outfitters are experiencing in the retail sector, menswear-focused sites find themselves caught in the middle between easily digestible platforms with more quantifiable ROIs for sponsors (sup, Instagram?) and an old media guard that is finally becoming hip to a long-underserved market.

The New York Times now has a monthly section dedicated to men’s style; the Wall Street Journal is covering niche men’s trends like the current obsession with ‘90s skate style. New media platforms like Mashable, Business of Fashion and Quartz are seeing the advantages of covering men's style as well, with recent stories ranging from why square-toed shoes should be a federal offense to Helmut Lang’s lasting influence on men’s fashion.

But with so many outlets now covering menswear, has it become a saturated market? The New Yorker’s Joshua Rothman thinks so, even positing whether menswear has reached its peak.

Brian Trunzo, cofounder of SoHo men’s shop Carson Street, agrees. For one, he says the market’s become inundated. “We feel the need to cover all of it, when in my mind, there’s only so much worth covering," he tells Mashable.

Brian Trunzo of Carson Street Clothiers in New York City photographed during New York Fashion Week: Men's.

Just three years ago the idea of straight men talking about clothes on the Internet was almost unthinkable. It was novel enough that The New York Times featured five men’s style bloggers as examples of a “new breed.”

The “#menswear” subculture emerged around this time and took its name from the Tumblr hashtag, once curated by guys like Lawrence Schlossman, whose How to Talk to Girls at Parties Tumblr eclipsed the popularity of his service-oriented menswear blog, Sartorially Inclined. Having a select group of guys dictate what would populate on the hashtag resulted in the formation of a unique groupthink.

#Menswear defined itself by its convergence of classic tailored clothing, a healthy love of rap music, and a unique lingua franca in which double monk strap shoes would often be referenced in the same sentence as a Drake lyric about feeling overdosed on confidence. Industry figures like Nick Wooster, a retail veteran with stints at Neiman Marcus, JC Penney and GILT; Eugene Tong, stylist and former style director at Details; and Josh Peskowitz, former fashion director at Bloomingdale’s, became street style celebrities to a very specific set of dudes who couldn’t stop aggregating their photos — partly from outfit-envy, and partly because they just looked damn cool.

Josh Peskowitz, former fashion director at Bloomingdale's, attends New York Fashion Week: Men's. Image: Miles Goscha/Mashable

But beyond the social platform, its roots began in forum culture. Communities like StyleForum, SuperFuture and Ask Andy About Clothes predated Reddit’s popular Male Fashion Advice subreddit, and provided safe, anonymous spaces for guys to nerd out about pick stitches, fully canvassed suits, Filson bags and Alden Indy Boots alike. Guys were learning how to define themselves with clothes without fear of being judged.

But the insider nature of forums made it hard for neophytes to fully dive in.

Enter the menswear site circa 2008, a specialized vertical in which the basic tenets of how dudes dress — filtered through forum culture in an online version of "Telephone" — were made all the more digestible.

“Sites like Valet, Selectism and Uncrate that were looking to contribute to a conversation about men improving their life and style,” says Cory Ohlendorf, who founded Valet in 2008. “And you had regular guys like Lawrence Schlossman looking to be part of that conversation.”

11/13/15 - Last day A photo posted by Legend (@sartoriallyinc) on Nov 13, 2015 at 2:00pm PST

#Menswear’s Judgement Day, the moment a dandified Skynet achieved self-awareness, occurred when Schlossman and Kevin Burrows launched their parody site Fuck Yeah Menswear, a Tumblr that became a book in 2012. Later that year, Schlossman was appointed as the editor-in-chief of Four Pins, which carried the same spirit of the well-dressed snake eating itself.

Image: Daniel Zuchnik/Getty

“The aim was just to be completely honest that there are no real justifications for buying expensive clothes other than you wanting them,” says Jon Moy, one of Four Pins’ most prolific writers, on the site’s tone.

More traditional menswear nerd culture began to converge with hype culture, a digital consumer market obsessed with the latest and greatest obscure Japanese brands and anything emblazoned with labels from cult brands like A Bathing Ape, Supreme or Stüssy. And sneakers, always sneakers.

Supreme/The North Face® A photo posted by Supreme (@supremenewyork) on Nov 16, 2015 at 8:09am PST

For men, timelessness gave way to trendiness, and style wasn’t just about making yourself look good — it became about looking better than everyone else and being first at it.

“By the time a blogger maybe does some research, buys some pieces for himself, tests the look out, and wants to talk to about it, the trend has potentially eclipsed,” says Lawrence Schlossman. “The service angle of the blog — what is that anymore?”

Indeed, more and more men are discovering new brands, designers and even ways to wear certain items via Instagram, rather than men’s sites. As a result, context and storytelling are secondary to visual presentation. Learning about a label’s provenance or educating consumers about things like pedigree and history aren’t as important to the modern menswear guy.

“The media landscape has shifted so much towards Instagram that you don’t necessary need words,” adds Schlossman. “No one wants to consume directly from a website anymore, which is a bummer.”

Nick Wooster, arguably one of #menswear’s most prominent personalities, doesn’t see it as a zero-sum game. While he sees the current state of media as “in flux,” he thinks media companies and retailers just need to add yet another avenue to build brand awareness.

“You might learn about something on Instagram the way you learned about it from a magazine 20 years ago, but the way you still consume it or get further information is a traditional channel,” he says.

Nick Wooster models for Public School's men's fashion week showing in New York City. Image: Miles Goscha/ Mashable

Instagram has also birthed a new generation of menswear bloggers, vastly different than their predecessors. Boasting hundreds of thousands of followers, this new breed of content creator is more than likely a handsome guy who looks good in a suit or whatever featured product is gifted to him, a stark contrast from the clothing nerd of five years ago. In many ways, it’s indicative of a dumbing down of what #menswear stood for, “get the look” versus “get the story.”

“A good segment of the audience just [wants to] see how to put something together,” says Ohlendorf.

Daniel Zuchnik/Getty Images

Jeff Carvalho, executive editor at Highsnobiety and Selectism, says one way they’re trying to differentiate themselves from the glut of sites out there is by cultivating a unique perspective and original voice, something he originally avoided when he started at Selectism in 2007.

“We try to add a layer of opinion through editorial, through conversation on the site, that takes the story beyond the product that it is,” he says. It gives the site and the featured product a more premium feel, in the same vein a magazine feature would. Though Highsnobiety, along with Hypebeast, have quarterly print products, they are ancillary to their online platforms.

Meanwhile, Valet is seeing more traction from posts revolving around men’s lifestyle beyond clothes. Ohlendorf has ramped up the coverage of things like interior design, cooking and cocktails. For many men, clothes functioned as a gateway into better living in general, and this audience shift reflects that.

So where does that leave all the dudes that just want to nerd about about clothes online?

“Menswear right now feels like that last week of college where you’re super excited for the future, but you’re not really sure what’s going on,” says Moy. “You’re hanging out with your friends and not reminiscing, not talking about the future, but just trying to be in the moment.”