Dress Like a Man (5 page)

If you desperately need variety, get it with accent pieces. Things like pocket squares and unique belts are a lot cheaper than jackets and trousers, and they do just as much to change up your look.

7. Adjustments Are Always Worth It

Finally, if you're doing a lot of second-hand shopping, remember that adjustments at a tailor's are
always
worth it.

Always.

Spend the $10-20 per piece to get your wardrobe fitted to your body. Some adjustments will be very small and cheap, while others will be more costly, but all of them are worth the extra investment.

It's the difference between wearing second-hand clothing and looking like you're wearing second-hand clothing. Once the garments have been adjusted (and repaired, if needed), there's nothing to make people think they're anything less than the season's newest looks, hot off the shelves.

And that's a pretty big upgrade for a pretty low price.

C
HAPTER 8:
S
HOPPING FOR
Y
OUR
B
ODY
T
YPE AND
P
OSTURE

Many men overlook the details of their body when they shop for clothes. In their minds, they're thinking about what looks good on men in general, not about what will flatter them specifically.

Take it one step further when you shop, and start with the styles that suit your body best.

Styles for Short Men

The idea that short men always want to look taller is a bit insulting. You can look good without buying into airbrushed stereotypes.

That said, short men do look good in styles that streamline their body and help the viewer's eye travel easily up the length of their figure to their face.

To flatter a shorter body, look to eliminate unnecessary horizontal elements and thick, chunky details:

• Starting at the feet, avoid shoes with needless seams or decorations on the uppers. Keeping the footwear sleek and smooth on top may not seem that important, but it helps people's attention focus on the upper body rather than the feet.
  
• Similarly, trouser cuffs don't do anything useful for a short man. Opt for smooth hems to avoid looking chopped off at the ankles (and make sure the trousers are long enough to hide the socks completely, for the same reason).
  
• Belts should be kept slim and simple. Avoid anything chunky or eye-catching. Big belts cut your height right in half.
  
• A little patterning is fine, but avoid heavy horizontal striping or checks. You want most of the elements to be vertical.
  
• By the same token, avoid unnecessary horizontal elements like extra pockets on the jacket and shirt. Your upper body look should be clean and simple.
  

Don't feel like you have to follow each and every one of those rules to the letter. It's not impossible for a short man to look good in a plaid shirt with a breast pocket. You just want your wardrobe to generally lean toward the slimmer, sleeker, more vertical style of clothing.

Styles for Tall Men

It should stand to reason that tall men mostly want the opposite of short men: they do well in styles that are more cluttered and that include heavier horizontal elements. That helps break up the height, reducing the impression of looming that tall men sometimes give.

Look for understated ways to break your height up without getting too aggressive about it:

• Patterned shoes help draw the eye downward. That doesn't make people stare at your feet or anything -- it just gives a little downward pull to your look, which helps balance the height out some. Brogues work well, as do styles with visible seams on the uppers like cap toes and wingtips.
  
• Outside of your most formal dress trousers, there's no reason not to have cuffs on your pants. It helps cut a bit of height off at the ankles, and the extra durability is just an added bonus.
  
• Wider belts and larger buckles help give a solid anchor to your midsection. Like the shoes, that weights the viewer's eye down a little, keeping them from focusing on your height.
  
• Small horizontal elements like flap pockets clutter your look up a bit, making you less of a monolithic whole. In low-formality settings, go for a busy look.
  
• Horizontal patterns are fine, so long as they're not too bold. A really aggressive check or plaid on a big man is a lot of visual information all at once, so keep things simple to avoid overwhelming the people around you.
  

As with short men, there's no reason to make this your style gospel. Tall guys can do just fine in vertical stripes, within reason. All you're doing is avoiding extremes, and erring on the side of breaking your height up a little.

Styles for Heavyset Men

There's a lot of advice out there for men who want to appear slimmer. Some of it's good and some of it's not.

Try not to get hung up on the idea of "slimming down." The goal is to look good, not to look like you have a different body. Simple solids, dark colors, and a clean silhouette all go a long way toward making a broad man look big and powerful, rather than out of shape.

• Jackets are the big man's friend. Wear one whenever you can! A simple dark blazer or sports jacket frames the torso and directs people's eyes up toward your face.
  
• Keep patterning to a minimum. Thin lines on wide scales work better than closely spaced patterns. A big body has a lot of surface area, and detailed patterns can easily look overwhelming.
  
• Large accents will help keep everything looking proportional. Avoid skinny belts, slim wristwatches, and insubstantial-looking pocket squares. You want your small details to project solidity.
  

The goal for a heavyset dresser is to keep everything looking neat, simple, and proportional. Don't be afraid to be bold -- you've got the body to carry it off.

Clothing and Posture

Men of any size should also keep their posture in mind when selecting clothing.

Ideally, you want your posture to be as straight as possible. The most attractive way for a man to carry himself (and there are deeply-engrained biological reasons for that attractiveness) is with his back straight, his chest forward, his chin up, and his shoulders wide and square.

If you already assume that posture naturally, you're ahead of the game. If you don't, it's worth trying to change your habits, but in the meantime you'll want to be aware of your normal posture when you shop for clothes.

Always try clothing on in your "natural" posture. That means relaxing into your default habits, rather than stiffening up and puffing your chest out for the mirror. Remember, you're not trying to impress anyone in the changing room.

This is particularly important when men are getting fitted for custom clothing or adjustments. Well-made jackets take the "pitch" of the sleeve into account: the angle at which it attaches to the shoulder and torso of the jacket. If you're artificially distorting your posture during the measurements, you're likely to get a jacket with a pitch that doesn't fit your body.

Be realistic, and shop for the body you have rather than the body you want (that's always good advice, for issues of weight gain and loss as well as posture). Work on straightening your back and shoulders -- it's good for your appearance and your health -- but be ready to take a pass on clothing if it wrinkles or distorts on your existing default posture.

Section 3: What to Wear and When to Wear It

C
HAPTER 9:
D
RESS
C
ODES,
W
RITTEN AND
U
NWRITTEN

There are only a few places where you're likely to see a formal dress code set down in writing.

Invitations are the most common. Workplaces may also have a "dress code," although in that case it usually means a written set of policies rather than a simple one- or two-word category like you'd see on an invitation.

That doesn't mean the concept is obsolete, however. Understanding the established dress codes as you would see them written on an invitation is a useful shorthand for knowing how people are expected to dress in other social and professional situations as well.

Different lists will include slightly different terms, but broadly speaking, the scale of men's dress codes (from most formal to least) looks about like this:

• Formal Dress - a rarely-used standard for the most formal events
  
• Semiformal Dress - the typical modern default for high-formality events
  
• Business Dress - the standard for suit-and-tie workplaces and meetings
  
• Business Casual - a broad, relaxed code designed to be less formal than suits
  
• Casual - the catch-all category for "undress" social and work wear
  

Most of the time, you won't be attending an event under a written requirement to wear one of these things. But you'll still probably fit into one of the categories anyway. For most men, it'll usually be casual or business casual.

The advantage of written dress codes is that they give you a "gold standard" example of what that level of formality should look like when it's done as well as possible. In everyday life most men will add a little variety and deviate from the standard -- it's just there as a useful marker or guideline.

There will also be outliers and special situations that don't fall neatly into any of the written dress codes. Social suits are a great example -- they're too light and colorful to be business-appropriate, but to modern eyes they still seem "dressier" than a business-casual blazer and khakis would.

Uniforms and task-specific work clothes like a shopkeeper's apron or a factory worker's coveralls also fall outside of the concept of formal dress codes. They're required, but they're not a fashion statement.

So don't hold too close to the concept of dress codes. But be aware that you're usually following one, whether you think you are or not -- and don't be afraid to "overdress" a little when there's no fixed code.

Unless you're violating a specific, written expectation or you're wildly out of place, there's no error in being the best-dressed guy in the room. It's allowed. It's even a good thing.

There are going to be exceptions. You probably don't want to wear a really expensive jacket and slacks to volunteer at a soup kitchen -- that's just rude. But broadly speaking, if there's no formal dress code, that means you can't be "overdressed." All you can be is "well-dressed," and that's never a bad thing.