'Dressing Against Character' an article by Kevin McHale

THE actor Kevin McHale, 23, plays Artie Abrams on “Glee,” in its third season on Fox. Before that, he belonged to the boy band NLT. A native of Plano, Texas, Mr. McHale now lives in Los Angeles. BEE-SHYUAN CHANG

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5
It’s raining in L.A.! Hell is soon to be frozen over! Although for clothing purposes, colder weather is better. I headed to the “Glee” set in a gray Obey sweatshirt with a pirate on the front over a Hawkings McGill white and red striped T-shirt that hung out of the bottom, both from Urban Outfitters. Then it was super skinny Levi’s 510 blue jeans. I also had on a Michael Kors black and gold PU chronograph watch, my Jil Sander black frame eyeglasses and a Bottega Veneta bracelet that I wear as an anklet because my wrists are too small. One of the cast members was sick and we had to reschedule the day. So I was sitting for an hour doing nothing and hanging with the assistant directors. They made fun of my shoes: Creative Recreation light-brown leather high-tops with plaid fabric details.

THURSDAY, OCT. 6

Still chilly in L.A. I wore a hand-me-down oversize sweater to the set. It looks very early ’90s with a purple and black pattern. My friend Kelly Kousakis and I started this Tumblr page called Parade of Fashions. He loved the sweater, so it was a go. I pulled on plain skinny black AllSaints Spitalfields jeans so as not to distract from the sweater. To break up all the black, I wore beige suede high-top Converse Chuck Taylors that I got at Selfridges in London. The other guys in the show don’t care about clothes as much as I do, but they’re used to my wilder pieces now.

FRIDAY, OCT. 7
I threw on a long-sleeve Marc by Marc Jacobs shirt to go to my friend’s house. It’s black with these brown pumas printed all over it — the piece that I get the most “huh?” looks from. On the bottom, I wore burgundy cotton dress pants and rolled up the cuffs. It was the same Converse shoes as the day before and my usual accessories. My friend has a recording studio at his house so we worked on music the whole day. If I have free time, I prefer to spend it with my friends and mess around with music, to have some normalcy in my life.

SATURDAY, OCT. 8
It was a good friend’s college graduation. I wore a D&G T-shirt that said “Cry Baby” on the front, gray linen AllSaints pants and burnt-orange Aldo wingtips. I also had on my Marc by Marc Jacobs leopard-print cardigan. I took a picture of my outfit and posted it on Twitter. Kelly wrote back asking if I was wearing a lady sweater. Sitting outside in the scorching sun, the thing quickly became impractical. I took it off.

SUNDAY, OCT. 9
Hung around the house and did absolutely nothing apart from going over to a friend’s house to watch “Hocus Pocus.” It was an AllSaints day: a long-sleeve cotton blue and white striped shirt with super drop-crotch jeans. I never wear anything really baggy because I don’t think it looks tailored enough. In my boy band days, I used to get yelled at for sagging my jeans. It’s mostly because I hate wearing belts. Lastly, I had on my Vans shoes by Marc by Marc Jacobs with the drawn-on wing tips — an oldie but goodie.

MONDAY, OCT. 10
I had to be at work at 6:30 a.m. At that early hour, it’s hard to really know what you’re putting on because you’re half asleep. My pants — these are my favorite things on the planet: the Nicholas K Zedler pants in a straw color. They look like crazy Japanese riding pants and have an elastic cuff at the bottom. On top, a D&G black and white tank top with an Elvis graphic (I grew up listening to Elvis; my dad was obsessed with him) and over that, a Nicholas K black and gray checkered shirt. I sported some Gideon high-tops in black and royal blue with Paul Smith striped socks. I have this thing with Chris Colfer because his character always wears the coolest clothes on the show. So every day, I’ll check out all his clothes and see what labels or what the fabrics are.

TUESDAY, OCT. 11
Caught up on some sleep, and then went out with some friends to sushi. I wore these crazy Paul Smith pants, this weird black, white and gray print — it kind of looks like a bedspread for your legs. I wore them with vintage black boots that I got years ago. Then I put on an AllSaints light gray shirt that buttons halfway down and a Levi’s dark blue denim shirt over that. I spent the day fielding work calls and making travel arrangements. I’m going to New York this weekend for literally 24 hours. With our production schedule, that’s all the time I can get in. It’s funny because with work, Artie’s style is the opposite of what I’d wear in real life. I do appreciate his courage to wear vintage sweaters every single day. His parents must go to the swap meet and buy up all those sweaters.

source: nytimes.com