Fashion Simple Tips to Tactical Fashion

[Ross]

Fashion is one of those things that is quite often overlooked. But, even when it is focused upon, it can produce a lot of issues. What do I wear, and when? You may be asking yourself. Look no further; this may clear up that question.

Fashion is something that I'd always sort of been interested in, but it wasn't until around a year ago that I started to take it more seriously. Fashion is basically a part of your being; it speaks volumes to people around you, even though you may not realize it. The idea is to look good in the clothes you are wearing, but only dress slightly up for the occasion.

In numbered format,

1) Look good in the clothes you are wearing. Make sure they fit.
2) Dress slightly up for the occasion.

Most times, if you follow number 1, number 2 is going to simply fall in place. Wearing a nice fitting t-shirt with some excellent jeans while out and about is going to make you look dressed slightly up; add in a nice pair of shoes, a belt, and perhaps a cool looking necklace and/or watch, and you are looking sharp. Making sure your dress shirts fit, in addition to a few gadgets and matching colors is going to set you volumes higher than the next guy in the business meeting.

It's something that takes a little time to get used to (especially if you are colorblind!). But you can really revamp most of your wardrobe in a few weeks. For those of you who like seeing examples, here's a typical go-to-class/approach wardrobe for me:

- Nice-fitting white deep-v t-shirt with a little bit of length to it
- Some nice raw denim grey/indigo jeans
- Dark-red leather boots
- Dark-red leather belt

Sorta James Dean inspired look - sometimes women say I look like him. Because of the clothes no doubt, I look nothing like him. I like things simple, clean, and cut. I do have colors in my wardrobe, but I make do with what I have. I've found that the key to getting the ideal clothes is to either splurge a little bit on clothing. Aim for the stuff that has a good reputation for lasting a good time if you're investing in jeans/boots.

Re-cap

- Look good in the clothes you're wearing. As Chase always says, make sure they fit.
- Dress for the occasion. You come into auto-rejection problems when you are dressed for a business meeting and approach a girl wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt.
- Look slightly better than everyone else. If all the guys around are wearing large t-shirts that don't fit and baggy jeans, and you have nice fitting jeans and a nice-fitting t-shirt, then you are perfect.
- Splurge a little bit on purchases. The higher quality stuff costs more. Try for offbeat, but somewhat popular brands in the mid-upper price range. Specialty retailers are always a plus; they know what they are doing!

 

[Marty]

Ross:

Glad you brought this up.

- Nice-fitting white deep-v t-shirt with a little bit of length to it
- Some nice raw denim grey/indigo jeans
- Dark-red leather boots
- Dark-red leather belt

In the above example, would you tuck the T-shirt? I'm often in a quandary as regards this, since if it's untucked the belt is practically invisible, yet tucked can look a bit too "slick" especially if you're very slim.

Thanks
-Marty

 

[Ross]

In the above example, would you tuck the T-shirt? I'm often in a quandary as regards this, since if it's untucked the belt is practically invisible, yet tucked can look a bit too "slick" especially if you're very slim.

If I'm wearing just the t-shirt, I usually don't tuck it in. I'm right around 6'4, so even long t-shirts tend to be a little bit short, and any axillary movement shows the belt. This is more of a culture thing for me. I always felt that tucking in shirts made things feel a little too formal. Keeping it untucked is a happy medium for me, and I personally feel it is more comfortable.

Now, if I was wearing a jacket of any kind, I'd probably tuck it in. Looking to invest in a nice light jacket for colder temps.

 

[Marty]

Thanks Ross, good point about the axillary motion.

If you have the inclination, would you like to comment upon the following?

Sweater draped over shoulders

 

[Ross]

Sweater over the shoulders doesn't really fit for me. I usually don't like it when clothes are simply tied around the body - it's akin to having a jacket tied around your waist. Extra fabric and gimmicks just feels to try hard.

Also, forgot to add that in order to cut down on prices for quality clothing, you can look for wholesale stores online. When something is sold at wholesale, they don't take into account the costs that retailing brings with it, therefore allowing you to get quality clothing at a fraction of the price.

 

[Richard]

Ross, maybe you can help me out.

I'm 6'3, about 200 lbs, give or take, mostly muscle and little amounts of fat. I've talked to quite a few people who are quote on quote fashion experts if you will, and most of them suggest that a style of clothing that would work for me is casual style.

Anyway, can you recommend anything for my frame?

Admittedly, fashion is an area I've wanted to learn more about but haven't been able to find a suitable teacher so, my current fashion doesn't reflect me, and I'll say its about a 6 or 7 currently =\

Any specific advice Ross?

-Richard

 

[Ross]

It's sort of hard to suggest anything specific for you without seeing what you look like. Another thing to take into account is climate, although if I remember correctly you are about to head into a somewhat colder climate, which isn't my specialty per-se.

There are some universals; make sure the clothes fit right. Something that I personally abide by is showing off a lot of skin and having close fitting clothes; a little trick I learned from the ladies . So, that means in the winter aim for something that is still able to hug the frame and give off the general shape.

Here's a few things that I suggest you do:

- Look around. What are the men and women wearing in the environment? T-shirt and jeans? Hoodies and jeans? Business attire? This is a great key to knowing who you want to approach. An example would be approaching women at the beach. If she's in her sexy bikini showing off great legs, you want to be in tight-fitting board shorts showing off your amazing legs. Of course, not all of us can look like Jeff Seid (but I can certainly try!):

She's in that sexy red dress?

Slim-fit blazer and spectacular chinos/jeans it is.

Different flavors for different people. Can a guy in a t-shirt and jeans pick up the woman in the red dress? Certainly. But it becomes much easier when you have your fundamentals at a state of slightly higher value than the woman that you are seeking. Keep in mind that value is always relative; if she's dressed to the 9s, and so is every other woman, and you are dressed to the 9s and no other guy is, your value is going to be soaring. If every other guy is, you have your other fundamentals to rely on. Everyone is extremely high value, where they've hit the ceiling as far as value goes? Great, why not have an orgy?

If you have any other specifics I'll be glad to answer.

 

[Richard]

Better idea of my stomach, pretty flat but still enough fat to pinch like this.

Arms are really tight as far as muscle goes.

As far as my environment and people around me, its pretty stereotypical ghetto. Long baggy pants, long shirts, hoodies, "thug look," necklaces, watches, earrings...

Women are about the same, some are styled relatively nice, but for the most part they have some "thug" to them as well, very rough bitchy personalities matched by their clothing.

Anyway, it doesn't get too cold around here, even in sub zeros I'm wearing a hoodie:

or


Favorite accessories are slim necklaces, and watches. Currently rocking a Relic watch with the exposed gears, solid black with white outlines matches the hoodies rather nice at the moment.

 

[Ross]

Honestly, the whole James Dean look would work well in that situation. Nice fitting white t-shirt + nice fitting jeans puts you above the whole loose fitting white t-shirt baggy jeans craze. I've always liked to be a bit rough on the edges as far as style went.

My advice would be to upgrade from a hoodie to a nicer jacket in tandem with some nice quality jeans. That's probably what I would do in a winter situation. That simple upgrade from hoodie to jacket makes a big difference.

 

[Richard]

Last question, can you recommend any specific sites, stores, or clothing lines for nice fashion?

 

[Ross]

Do a lot of smart googling. It takes some searching to find what you are looking for. Looking around for fashion blogs, tumblr's, instagram pictures, etc. is a great way to find products that look great. Just don't get too swept up in the whole craze that is men's style these days.

I'll point you towards a few gems that I've found that are in the medium price range. Do some searching for yourself; you may find what you're looking for!

 

[Marty]

Ross: any chance you could repost that "nice jeans" link? I think you accidentally linked to the jacket twice.

And yes I love the jacket, though I'm not sure I'm ready to blow $500 on it just now

 

[Ross]

Marty,

Yeah, that jacket is more eye candy than anything . I'd only get it if I was seriously moving to a cold climate where it would be an everyday type of thing.

Whoops. My bad. Here's the right link.

 

[The Byronic Man]

Hope you don't mind if I share my 2 cents.

I get compliments on my style too, and I've been developing it for quite some years. After much trial and error, I've figured out what looks good on me.

At the most fundamental, dressing well is simply knowing what clothes flatter your appearance. Nothing more and nothing less. People get suckered into trends, which are usually attractive because it's novel, rather than actually flattering. Novelty is short-lived. To be technical, I see fashion as following trends while style is about knowing what flatters your appearance. I rarely buy clothes now because I ignore trends and only focus on flattery. Flattery is timeless; trends usually are not, and requires you to constantly buy clothes. In a way, people who chase fashion are like social status ladder climbers. Like social status, fashion trends are typically arbitrary (watch "The Devil Wears Prada" to understand how fashion trends are created).

Trends are like discoveries of how to make one more attractive. As said before, attractiveness may be based on novelty. With fashion, this is often the case. Sometimes though, fashion comes up with a trend that actually flatters. The thing about any trend...or any styling points...is that it often depends on body type, height, skin tone, etc. For example, skinny jeans only look good on skinny people (anytime I see someone wear something that's not for their body type, skin tone, etc., it immediately tells me that they're blindly following trends...like sheep). One thing about dressing well is proportions. I'm short, so I take a lot of my clothes to the tailor to get the right proportions. For that reason (along with how I compose myself), people frequently overestimate my height by several inches. Another tip: The darker your skin, the more brighter and colorful clothes you can wear; the paler your skin, the less brighter clothes you should wear. For example, bright red clashes with my pale skin, but it could look amazing on those with black skin.

I prefer to be stylish rather than fashionable. Without going into the aesthetic science behind it, a well-fitted suit is timeless because it's stylish. Modern advancements discover "modern twists" on suits. Be careful that these "modern twists" are actually stylish rather than fashionable/trendy.

So if you want to be stylish, you know that flattery is the purpose of clothes. So how do you know what flatters your appearance? I developed the sense over many years, but you probably could develop it in a much shorter period if you didn't spend so much time and money chasing trends like I did. What I do is I try clothes on and honestly ask myself if it flatters my appearance. Things to experiment with is fit, drape, material, texture, and patterns. If I had more time, I can go more into this later.

One word on accessories: Don't overdo it. Less is more. Quality over quantity. There are exceptions of course, e.g. your style is grungy rockstar.

My ideal style: Dress confidently, not boldly. And according to your personality.

Also, it's true that frequently, you have to spend a good amount of money to get really nice looking clothes. That is usually because of the quality (i.e. material and constructions). Fit isn't usually really the reason because it's typically just a matter of sewing at different angles (they will tell you it's a reason though because, well, marketing...when you think about it, there's no reason why cheaper brands can't be slim other than it's not profitable for their target demographic). More expensive brands often have slimmer fits because slimmer people tend to have more money. Either way, I usually buy stuff that fits well in the shoulders and chest, then get my tailor to fix the rest. For pants/jeans, waist should at least fit pretty close--everything else can be tailored as well (yes, even the seat). Sometimes, you can get some nice looking clothes on the cheap. For stuff like socks and belts, you can't really tell whether you spent $300 or $50. Details count because they all add up. But you don't want to look like you spent more than 5 minutes getting dressed (recall sprezzatura and the law of least effort). Quality is better than than quantity (for both clothes and accessories).

 

[Knight]

Just dropping in for a quick word. Drop some cash on a well fitting navy blazer. Navy goes with more pants and styles then anything else.

Go shopping around in-store if it is your first blazer. Go for Theory, Country Road, H&M, Asos, Industrie, David Jones, Myer or any other high end store. Keep in mind that no matter if you have a woman or man who helps fit you tell them what you are looking for straight away (Navy Blazer with Casual (Unstructured Blazer) or Formal (Structured Blazer) and preference on heavy or light materials) and introduce yourself and get their name. It is so important to do this and as obvious as it seems people often skip the formality. Today I had a severely beautiful women attend to my every need and who went out of her way to make my experience better because I semi deep dived her in the store. Do you think I would of got the same treatment if I had told her "I want a blazer, go find me something quick because I hate shopping"? There were other customers in the store who she piled onto another employee.

As for the blazer yourself here are some tips for your best experience:

- Blazers can be tailored for a modest fee and "off the rack" blazers are best taken to a tailor to trim and fit your body exclusively however you must make sure the shoulders fit.
- Go for a "V" outline. A blazer should highlight a V in your silhouette and is very masculine and sexy when done right - my saleswomen was quick to point how good the blazer made me look.
- If you want a tie (Don't feel the need to if it's not formal - just go for what you like!) select your ties width on the size of your lapels. Google "Blazer Lapels" if they sound foreign.
- When sitting unbutton your blazer, it prevents 'pulling' and will make you look effortlessly cool. Men comfortable in their clothes ALWAYS do this.
- The amount of buttons is up to your personal choice. Three and two buttons will highlight your body the best and never goes out of style however have a look around. The number of buttons also show how 'formal' or 'casual' the blazer is.
- NEVER button the bottom button. There is a story passed on which I can tell if anyone wants to hear it but the idea is that the middle button is the preference for buttoning and any others are fair game but never do the bottom.
* It eliminates the V outline immediately and draws area to unpleasant areas.


Ross' points are great - remember fit and quality are what dictates what you should wear. Eliminate shirts with graphics on them unless they are extremely understated - you wouldn't see James Bond with them and they offer no benefit to a man of your caliber either. I hope this long post helped someone.

Go for a fit as shown on this man
Don't go for a fit as shown on this boy trying to be a man

Last question, can you recommend any specific sites, stores, or clothing lines for nice fashion?

Richard, these sites are gems. Theory, Asos, Banana Republic, H&M, ZARA, SABA, David Jones, Country Road and multiple others. A lot of trendy pieces which should be mostly avoided but you will find the timeless pieces in there. I'm not common with sites in your area but you should be fine!

 

[Paulie Walnuts]

Hahaha I actually went to middle school with Jeff Seid, he was on my wrestling team.