Dress Like a Man (2 page)

You'll also be reaping the usual benefits of dressing well, of course -- additional respect, the assumption that you're a fine, upstanding citizen, and all that good stuff. But equally importantly, you'll be prepared to impress anyone you need to, at all times, without advance warning.

Personal Style: A Lot of Reward for Very Little Effort

So let's look back over our list here.

We've got personal and professional advancement, social advantages, self-improvement, good mental training, and constant "curbside appeal" from dressing well -- and that's just the first few examples.

Given that improving your look is easy and affordable (as we'll be discussing throughout this work, don't worry), why
wouldn't
a man want to put a little thought into his personal style?

It's a whole lot of reward for very little effort. And that's a bargain you can get into even if you're not a big fan of runway shows.

C
HAPTER 3:
I
S
S
TYLE
M
ANLY?

Ah, the age-old nagging doubt of a man picking up his first style manual:
is it okay for me to be doing this?

Yes. Yes, it is. Relax and enjoy yourself! This stuff is fun.

Think about it this way: whatever your definition of "manly" might be, it probably doesn't include feeling nervous about a book, or about clothing.

So don't. Approach this stuff with confidence and class. Turns out, you'll be in good company.

Men's Style: An Evolutionary Success

When we say "fashion," modern readers tend to think of things like catalogs, photo shoots, and glamour magazines.

But fashion is much, much older than that, and it's more deeply ingrained in our cultural consciousness than most people are aware of.

Style is literally as old as humanity itself. Ever since our early ancestors first figured out how to drape themselves in hides for warmth, there was a status attached to the guy who had the
nicest
hide.

You can see evidence of this in the burial sites of leaders from just about every civilization in the ancient world: they were interred with their weapons, their armor, and their jewelry. Those were the things that set them apart from other, lesser men.

The association between a unique personal appearance and high status has stayed with us, all the way through various royal families and military establishments into the present day.

The Manly Virtues of Good Dressing

There's a limit to how much you can talk about things being "manly" without starting to sound a little silly in this day and age.

But when people do talk about manliness they're usually talking about virtues of character: dependability, trustworthiness, responsibility, and so on.

Is it a stretch to say that good dressers embody those virtues?

Maybe a little bit. But maintaining your appearance does require -- and display -- a certain amount of personal responsibility. Not
much
responsibility, but more than a lot of people display in their daily appearances, so the bar is set nice and low for you.

Famous "Manly" Men Who Dressed Well

Need a few examples? Here are a few guys whose macho credit is undeniable -- and who make (or made, in the case of the deceased) an effort to look sharp, whether they're on screen or just going about their daily lives.

• Arnold Schwarzenegger
  
• Brad Pitt
  
• Bruno Mars
  
• Carey Grant
  
• Daniel Craig
  
• David Beckham
  
• Edward, the Duke of Windsor
  
• Enrique Iglesias
  
• George Clooney
  
• Humphrey Bogart
  
• James Dean
  
• Johnny Cash
  
• John Wayne
  
• Marlon Brando
  
• Prince Harry of Wales
  
• Sean Combs (Puff Daddy)
  
• Shahrukh Khan
  
• Steve McQueen
  
• Will Smith
  

We could go on (and on, and on, and on), but you get the point.

These are not just ordinary, every-day guys. These are men -- real, world-beating, macho men, in their own fields or overall. They're famous, and rightly so.

And they all dress (or dressed) well.

So maybe don't spend too much time worrying about whether or not it's "manly" to dress stylishly. The evidence would suggest the answer is "no."

And honestly, there's not much manly about worrying in general. Dress like you do everything else: confidently.

Section 2: Building a Wardrobe

C
HAPTER 4:
T
HE
S
TYLE
P
YRAMID

Whether you think of yourself as a stylish dresser or not, it's helpful to have a system for clothes shopping that doesn't waste any time or money.

The "style pyramid" is a simple triage that keeps you from buying needless wardrobe items.

Here's how it works: check everything you buy against each level of the pyramid. If it meets the criterion in question, go up a level and keep checking. If it doesn't meet your standards for that level of the pyramid, put it back and don't worry about the rest.

The style pyramid works in three simple, ascending levels:
fit, fabric, and fashion.

Start at the bottom (fit) and work your way up. Something that makes it all the way to the top, meeting your standards at every level, is worth considering. Something that fails on any level isn't going to be a good purchase, no matter how tempting the brand or the price.

Fit

The base of the style pyramid is fit.

That's is not a metaphor -- that's how clothing works. A good fit is the basis of
everything
else.

A few simple adjustments can make even a pretty battered thrift store cast-off look sharp, when worn with the right accents. And a thousand dollar suit can easily look like something cheap and off-the-rack if the fit's done wrong.

So before you worry about anything else, ask yourself if every piece of clothing you buy is a good fit.

Telling a Good Fit from a Bad One

Most clothing will not be a perfect fit right off the rack. As the old saying in the fashion industry goes, "ready-to-wear isn't."

Mass-produced clothing, whatever the size on the label says, tends to be produced as loose as possible, so that the maximum number of men can at least fit inside the garment.

"Fit inside" isn't the same thing as "look good in," however, and you don't want to confuse the two. Just because something slips on without pinching doesn't mean it's a good fit.

Later on in this book we'll go through all the common garments in menswear on an individual basis. Specifics of fit will get covered in detail there. But overall, when you're trying clothes on in the store, a good fit is one that:

• doesn't pinch, pull, or strain anywhere
  
• has no wrinkled lines from stretching to fit
  
• doesn't sag or billow, especially at junctions like the crotch and armpits
  
• reaches all the way down your limbs
  
• doesn't reach beyond your wrists/ankles
  
• doesn't leave large gaps between the cloth and your body
  

You can tell this stuff with a quick, unscientific examination. We're not talking brain surgery here. Just look in the mirror and see if it's drooping or sagging anywhere.

A fit that's too tight is even easier to identify, since you'll feel it against your body. It's not likely that you're ever going to have to run or jump in most of your clothing, but if it feels like you physically couldn't, the fit's too tight.

Adjustments: Making an Okay Fit into a Good Fit

If you apply a standard of perfect fit to everything you try on, very few items of clothing will make the grade.

The reality is that, unless you have a body with the exact same measurements that got programmed into the factory machines, all off-the-rack clothes are going to have an imperfect fit somewhere.

And that's fine. The trick is knowing which imperfect fits can be easily (and cheaply) turned into perfect ones by a skilled tailor.

Minor adjustments are cheap and quick. They're the secret weapon of all the stylish men you know. If a guy looks consistently sharp, you can bet he gets his clothes adjusted.

The following list describes the cheapest and easiest clothing adjustments. These are the places you can accept a little bit of a bad fit in the changing room, since you know you'll be having them adjusted anyway:

• trouser length (easy to shorten)
  
• shirt waist looseness (easy to take in)
  
• cuff length (a little tougher than trousers, but still simple)
  
• jacket waist looseness (a little pricier than shirts, but not too bad)
  

In all cases, it's easier to take something that's too loose or too long and make it smaller. Tailors are limited by the amount of cloth in the garment. They can't make a sleeve longer than whatever spare cloth is lurking under the hem.

More difficult adjustments include the width of a collar, the length of a jacket, and the shoulders of a shirt or jacket. Those are going to be challenging and expensive to have altered, so don't by clothes that don't already fit well in those areas.

Remember, this is the base of the style pyramid and the first thing you should check any clothing you buy for.
If it won't fit with minimal adjustments, don't buy it.

That applies equally to everything from suits on down to your underwear. A bad fit is unsightly and uncomfortable. Skip it.

Fabric

Here we use "fabric" as a shorthand for the material and construction of the garment overall.

The idea here is a pretty simple one: you want to buy clothes that will make you look good and that will last for years.

That sometimes requires adjusting what you think of as a "reasonable" price for clothing. The best brands are never going to compete with stores like Target or Walmart for price, but by paying a little more up front you often get a better long-term investment.

Think of it this way: if you can buy one pair of $100 jeans that lasts the better part of a decade, you're spending less than you would buying $30 jeans that need replacing every two years.

Raw Material Quality Check

In the world of high-end custom tailoring, most bespoke suits have their prices listed based on the bolt of cloth used.