This is an edition of the weekly newsletter Pattern Grading, GQ global style director Noah Johnson’s no-holds-barred view on contemporary menswear, the culture of fashion, and how to get dressed now.

Like anything, you can take patterning a shotgun too far. A turkey hunter told me once he spent $1,000 one winter buying XX-Full chokes and magnum loads for his guns, then he patterned them all to ...