Slowly but surely, men are being held to a higher fashion standard … and it’s about time.
No one expects the Typical Male Uniform to morph into high fashion attire overnight, but we do expect men’s clothes to fit well.
That’s it.
We aren’t really asking for much.
Fashion icon and designer Tom Ford wrote a treatise about it for GQ magazine and gave a handful of guys with dreams of upgrading their careers a makeover. The results were drastic, but each guy was equipped with an unrealistic five-figure ensemble.
A recent story on the Huffington Post website explained that when guys hear “makeover,” they figure they need to go out and buy new clothes. The same is true for women. Usually … the solution is less dramatic and much less costly.
Start with a tailor and a critical eye. It won’t help to go out and stock up on new clothes if you don’t have a concept of what fits. A simple button-down, slacks and belt can go from dowdy to dapper with a little tailoring. Or better yet, buy a size or two down. Men come in all shapes and sizes, but smalls and mediums are few and far between on mass retail men’s rack. Why? Because every guy thinks he’s a large or X-large. A proper fit is not an affront to your manhood.
It’s no surprise that most men adopt the childhood practice of getting room to grow. Note: This is not a good strategy when you have no opportunities but to grow wider.
Room-to-grow outfits when you’re 9 can be charming. At 29, it’s ludicrous. I’m a huge fan of form-fit clothing because I like to know when my weight is heading north on the scale so that I can course correct sooner, rather than later.
But weight fluctuates.How do you cope? Here’s a suggestion. Whatever size you are is probably the size you’ll be for the foreseeable future. Embrace it. Accept it. Figure out how to look your best and love it.
Most guys have suitable items in their closets already, but the pants are too long, or short, the jacket is ill-fitting, the shirt too baggy, the style too dated. A tailor or a wardrobe consultant may be able to help zero in on something you are blind to. Most guys have been wearing their clothing too big for so long they feel uncomfortable in fitted clothing. To these men, I have three words: Suck it up.
Your friends teasing you for looking too GQ? Who cares? Would you rather look like a slob to fit in?
When your pants bunch around your shoes, it looks adolescent. When your shirt billows at the waist, you look larger. When your jacket sprouts wings at the shoulder, you look like you’re wearing your big brother’s clothes.
Comfortable attire doesn’t mean clothes you can do cartwheels in it. Suits are not for cartwheels. If you can do a yoga routine in your suit, that suit is either painted on or it’s ridiculously too large.
Imagine if your comfort came from looking put together and enjoying the boost in confidence. You can look relaxed and casual without looking like you grabbed the first thing you saw in the closet and climbed in. And you’ll look infinitely more appealing.
It’s really the little things that count.
Here’s your checklist:
Shirts. A shirt should glide down your torso, not billow. If you raise your arms and can set sail on the fabric under your arms, you have a problem. Quality collar-stays give all your shirts more polish; use them. If you are on a budget, your priority for casual shirts is a fitted torso, especially if you’ll wear it without a jacket. If you can’t button the top button, who cares, you’ll never button it. If the sleeves aren’t quite long enough, roll them and no one will be the wiser. But if the torso makes you look like you’re smuggling a life vest, put it down and keep looking. For shirts you’ll button with a tie, the focus is on the fit at the neck and sleeves, although within a few inches you can get the torso tapered by a tailor and the sleeve shortened, but together that could cost $50 to $60.
Jackets. The top priority is shoulders. The top seam should be as long as the bone underneath it. The seam for the sleeve should start around the point where your arm bone inserts. If you’re standing upright with the jacket buttoned, you should look slimmer and taller. If fabric is bunching at the shoulder, it’s too small, but if it just feels a little snug and otherwise falls smoothly, welcome to a proper fit. Depending on your build, you may ultimately need a little tailoring to narrow the torso, but that’s a relatively easy fix if the shoulders are good. If you can button the jacket but it pulls across your belly, a tailor has an inch or two leeway to relieve some of that stress, but if you can’t button the jacket at all, they probably won’t be able to help you. And note you can’t narrow or widen shoulders.
Slacks. More men should be asking if this makes their butt look good. There, I said it. Posteriors are not one size, so expect to try on multiple pairs of pants when shopping. They should fit your waist, but that doesn’t mean it flatters. Pants with a saggy wrinkled seat make you look like you have a saggy wrinkled butt, no matter what your wife tells you. A good fit will glance your bottom and be comfortable for sitting without pulling or constricting anywhere. A little excess fabric in the seat can be taken care of by a tailor. If the pants are too tight, however, there typically isn’t a lot of wiggle room for a tailor to work with, so err on the slightly loose side. And if the fit is wide enough to fit another set of legs, it doesn’t matter if it fits your waist and butt.
Jeans. Fits vary and so do preferences, but you should still have at least one pair that you can wear with a blazer, and that pair should fit your waist, butt and have a slimmer leg that breaks at the bottom just around the shoe.
Accessories.
You should have a variety of belts to loosely match a variety of leather footwear.
Get some wingtips, lace ups and Oxfords with European toes and stop with the sneakers during the day.
And now that you’ve ditched the dingy sneakers, get some dress socks with color and pattern. Experiment.
Shop for some pocket squares to wear when you aren’t necessarily in a tie and get a new option to dress up a casual Friday or date night.
Watches are the most acceptable guy jewelry around besides wedding rings, so don’t skimp. Invest in a nice-looking, substantially sized time piece with a leather or metal band. Go classic and you can’t go wrong.
And finally rethink your eyewear if you have never, ever gotten a compliment from a stranger. Yes, it’s subjective but strangers will be more honest. If you get an out-of the-blue, “nice glasses” from the woman at the checkout counter, you’ve got a winner.And, no, compliments aren’t everything, but it does mean that you’re making the world a better-looking place. Isn’t that better than the alternative?
High Profile, Pages 44 on 03/02/2014