Reddit Male Fashion Advice Charles Therwitt
"I'm but not naturally stylish."
Does that sound familiar?
Here's the truth. Dressing well is a skill. And like whatsoever other skill, y'all can learn it and improve. Don't believe me?
Yes, that's me in loftier school rocking a terrible ponytail, along with spectacles that were way too pocket-sized for my head.
And to flesh out the image, my daily outfit in high school consisted of:
- Plaid push up shirts
- Baggy jeans with ripped hems considering they were too long and I kept stepping on them
- Clunky Rockabilly shoes I found at the mall
Information technology wasn't until college did I kickoff paying attending to my style in a serious way. And if that kid above could learn, so can you.
In fact, you take a huge advantage equally an Essential Man reader. I didn't have a existent resource, and had to go through years of trial and mistake before I've truly learned what not bad style was.
Today I'm sharing with you essential style tips for guys who desire to wearing apparel better.
Whether you're a consummate beginner, or have been working on your style for a while and need a refresher, I've refined these concepts and tips over the terminal 11 years to help you await your best in no time.
Heads upward! I put together a special beginner's bonus for this post to assistance you lot kickstart your new style in less than ten mins!
Download my "How Clothes Should Fit You" Cheatsheets. You lot'll learn "clothing fit" hacks that'll assist you find wearing apparel that fit, cut your shopping time in half, and make you lot look really fucking good – even if you have a "weird" body type.
Y'all can larn these simple tricks in 10 minutes. And best of all, it's gratuitous! Just enter your info below and I'll transport it to you lot!
Success! Check your email for your bonus!
i. REALIZE THAT DRESSING WELL IS A SKILL
Just like cooking or shooting gratuitous throws, dressing well is a skill that can actually exist learned.
My chore as a personal stylist isn't to buy clothes for guys and send them on their fashion. I teach men how to cull clothes that raise them so they can exercise information technology on their own. If dressing well wasn't a skill that could be taught, I'd exist out of a job!
With all skills, yous get better the more than you practice. And unless you lot live in some weirdo nudist colony (I would repent here, but if you're a nudist reading this blog, you're in the wrong place), you need to get dressed everyday. That means y'all have an opportunity to practice and nurture the skill of dressing well every single solar day.
WHAT YOU CAN Exercise TODAY: Nobody is built-in in a perfectly tailored 3-piece arrange, or with some magical intuition on how to dress well. (If you demand a reminder, curl back up and await at my high school movie over again.) Realize that dressing well is a skill that can exist developed through exercise.
2. DEVELOP YOUR "Centre" Past IDENTIFYING STYLE YOU LIKE
Correct after guys tell me that they're merely non "naturally fashionable", it's often followed upward with:
"I just don't take an eye for putting together outfits or knowing what looks skilful"
Here's what I tell them:
"Ok. Is there anyone who'southward way y'all call back looks skillful? Something you think 'I'd like to dress like that', fifty-fifty if you don't think you could pull it off. Maybe it's a glory, a musician, an athlete? Even a fictional character. Some of my clients take mentioned James Bond or Tony Stark before."
The guy volition then list off a ton of men he thinks dresses cool. And and so I like to point out that he but debunked his own assumption that he doesn't have an "eye". He just showed me he can run across and recognize not bad style!
Now, he might not know the why yet, and that's often the reason why guys tell me they don't have an center. Agreement why is learnable.
But whenever you're working on a goal, it's of import to identify and challenge stories you tell yourself. Whether it's that you lot don't have an middle for style, you're as well busy to piece of work out, or you're just a shy person. The stories nosotros tell ourselves are often invisible barriers to continue us in our condolement zone.
WHAT You CAN Practice TODAY: Take 5 minutes. List out three or more guys who mode you retrieve looks great and that is in the direction you lot'd similar to get. Fifty-fifty if you don't call back you tin can pull information technology off, list it. It could exist someone you lot know, a celebrity, or fifty-fifty a fictional grapheme from a movie.
3. SOLVE ninety% OF YOUR STYLE PROBLEMS By GETTING THE Correct FIT
"F*@K Ryan Gosling!"
This is something an actual client said to me once afterward seeing the picture of Ryan Gosling higher up.
"How the hell does he look so cool wearing just a t-shirt and jeans?"
The respond, my friend, is fit.
Fit is the most of import thing when it comes to great manner. It'southward so important, in fact, that I tell every one of my clients "wearing clothes that fit properly will solve 90% of your fashion problems."
When wearing apparel don't fit properly, they throw off your body proportions. Because of the excess cloth, clothes that are too big make you lot non just await sloppy, but fatter and shorter than yous are.
Men have the trend to wear dress that are too big for them because it either "feels more comfy", or they just don't know how clothes are supposed to fit in the outset place.
The right fit is how someone like Ryan Gosling (or me, or you) can look effortlessly fashionable rocking a manifestly white t-shirt and jeans, and how someone can look terrible in a "overnice conform" that probably price 20x more.
This as well means if you think you lot demand a suit in order to look stylish, yous don't!
If you're more leather jacket and jeans like me, y'all can exist leather jacket and jeans and look swell, as long every bit yous're wearing wearing apparel that fit right.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY: "How Apparel Should Fit You lot" Cheatsheets which shows you lot my trick to mastering the perfect fit for your shirts and pants in 10 minutes.
four. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH Stylish PEOPLE (Fifty-fifty IF Information technology'South ONLINE)
When making any change in your life, particularly something that's physical similar your style, the biggest roadblock is going to be the most surprising.
When it comes to the people around you now, your friends and family, your girlfriend, your coworkers, in that location is a high likelihood that they won't all have a positive reaction to your change.
If you lot want to piece of work with me one on one as a client, you take to agree to piece of work with me solo. That means your girlfriend or wife is non immune to sit down in to any of our sessions or shopping trips.
I created this dominion after working with a customer whose wife insisted she sit in in our styling sessions. She would requite me feedback on every single piece of advice I'd give. Her notes and comments amounted to "He doesn't like that, he prefers to wear this." Essentially negating any communication I would give.
She was enabling his bad way.
After a couple of weeks, I promptly refunded his coin and created this rule.
Alter is uncomfortable for people. It makes them face the reality that someone is working difficult to better, and it challenges what they're doing for themselves.
One of my favorite quotes of all fourth dimension is "Y'all are the boilerplate of 5 people around you." Who we surround ourselves with has an extremely important affect on our actions, behaviors, and mindsets.
This is why wealthy successful businessmen tend to exist friends with each other. Information technology'south why fit attractive Crossfitters are surrounded past fit bonny Crossfitters in Instagram pics. And it'southward why obese parents are more than likely to have obese kids.
When it comes to your mode, that's exactly what y'all need if you want to improve. You need to surround yourself with people with the same goals as you.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY: The simplest modify you can make is to kickoff post-obit stylish people on places like Instagram. Information technology'll give you a double whammy: Information technology'll expose you lot to cracking way and give you some inspiration, merely it'll also create an environment where dressing well is "normal". Need some stylish Instagram recommendations? Check out this postal service I wrote about my favorite stylish Instagrams hither.
5. FOCUS ON A Archetype Fashion FIRST Earlier TRYING TO DEVELOP A PERSONAL Style
A mistake people make when trying to improve their style is thinking they need to create an original, 100% unique personal style.
This is a classic example of what's called "Extreme thinking".
Desire to lose 20lbs?
"Ugh. I accept to give up staff of life, rice, beer, booze, processed, meat AND have to do some crazy crossfit workout, and spend ii hours at the gym. Forget it"
Want to salve money for a vacation?
"That ways I have to cancel my Netflix account, end going out on weekends, defer my pupil loans. I probably had to miss some credit card payments if I ever want to have fun. That'due south going to ruin my credit. I'm never gonna be able to relax on vacation now."
When you're starting to improve your way, call back of information technology like how chefs learn to melt:
They don't go into the kitchen thinking they demand to create some amazing and original dish never seen earlier.
They learn the classic recipes and techniques first. Then they start calculation bits and pieces of their personality and interests in to put a spin on them.
You're going to do the exact same thing with your style.
Focus on classic styles first, so slowly add together your own personal spin subsequently.
WHAT You lot CAN DO TODAY: I write about archetype styles in my "Essentials" serial, you lot tin can see all the Essentials I've written about and so far by clicking here.
6. THIS ALSO Means BUY Classic STYLES FIRST BEFORE DABBLING INTO TRENDS
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
Yous open your cupboard. It's filled with clothes.
You sift through all the hangers squeezed into your cramped closet and recall to yourself "I have nothing to wear."
So y'all go to the mall and purchase fifty-fifty more clothes.
And so a month afterwards, the same thing happens. Y'all have "nothing" to wearable.
Yous're not going crazy.
This is what I call "Panic fashion shopping". Yous open your closet and freak out because things are outdated, they're difficult to mix, and at that place are so many choices. So y'all go out and purchase more apparel and add to the problem.
It'south a vicious wheel. And one of the biggest reasons for this problem is trendy clothes.
Trendy translates to what's cool at present. It'due south what all the blogs and magazines are talking about. Information technology'due south what's in the stores. And because it'southward new and fresh, information technology'due south a petty exciting.
But the big problem with any trend is that it eventually dies downwards.
Remember how leather sweatpants were really pop a couple years ago? And what virtually double monk shoes before that? Or if you're old like me, trucker hats?
Trendy wearing apparel are like that large Summer blockbuster that you can't escape.
The actors are on every talk show. Commercials are playing not-stop. Posters are everywhere. Simply, come Fall, we've moved on.
Classics styles are similar archetype movies. The Godfather. Dorsum to the Future. Taxi Driver. They're not going anywhere.
That's the advantage of classic styles of clothes. They're time tested to look skillful. A leather jacket, dark blueish jeans, boots? Looked keen in the 1950s, still looks good today.
WHAT You Tin can DO TODAY: Start shifting your shopping habits to expect for and buy classic styles. What's the departure between something that's archetype and trendy? How exercise you residuum classics and trends in your wardrobe? Check out this post I wrote that answers that question.
7. STAY Clear OF GRAPHICS, LOGOS, AND WILD PRINTS (FOR Now)
Many Essential Man readers are older professionals (xxx+), and I often get asked "How can I look older/more mature/get taken more than seriously?"
One of the ways is to stay clear of graphics, logos, and wild prints on any kind of clothing, whether it's a t-shirt, sweater, or god forbid, pants.
Whenever y'all wear a logo or graphic t-shirt, yous either look like you're in college, or are y'all're on your way to a UFC fight. (Don't get me incorrect, I'yard a HUGE MMA fan. But there is a certain style that goes with it.)
I'one thousand not opposed to logos and graphic t-shirts equally part of a solid wardrobe, only when you're starting out, going solid colors is going to make you look 10x more mature and serious.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY: Solid colors and graphic/logo-less clothes brand you wait more refined and mature. The great thing is that this alter is a uncomplicated swap. Replace your graphic t-shirts and dress with solid versions, similar with the examples to a higher place.
eight. STICK TO SOLID NEUTRAL COLORS
Every man'south wardrobe should be based effectually neutral colors.
What are neutral colors?
They're colors that aren't overpowering. Because they're not overpowering they easily mix with each other. Powerful colors similar a neon greenish and orange? Pretty difficult to work with.
If your wardrobe is all neutral colors, you don't need to know "how to mix and match colors". A neutral color wardrobe is substantially self-working!
Here's the other thing: You've probably already been dressing in mostly neutral colors without even knowing it.
Neutral colors are white, black, navy, olive, grey, khaki, brown
What I love nearly neutral colors, aside from it existence cocky working, is that it'due south a very masculine colour palette. It makes y'all look refined, serious, and put together. It likewise provides the perfect backdrop when yous desire to commencement introducing more color to your wardrobe.
WHAT YOU Tin DO TODAY: I recommend a ratio of 3:1 when it comes to solid neutrals and non-neutral colors. Take 10 minutes check your closet. Exercise y'all have more non-neutrals, graphics and pattern apparel than solid neutrals? Brand a annotation to start balancing it out to hit a iii:ane ratio.
9. TO Chop-chop UNDERSTAND QUALITY, GET Hands ON
Why are some cashmere sweaters $100, and other $1,500? Is the $1,500 ane actually 15x amend?
Are higher quality clothes "worth it"?
No doubt these questions have crossed your listen. And my reply is…
It depends.
It'southward hard to brandannihilation expert for a depression toll. Whether that's a pair of jeans, a laptop, or a steak dinner at habitation. When you lot accept a express budget to work with, there has to be some compromises.
There's an assumption that because college quality or designer clothes are expensive, "you lot're getting ripped off" as a customer. You lot'll sometimes read guys on blogs and forums proclaim you're just "paying for the marketing costs"
I can tell yous having worked 11 years as a menswear designer, it's just not actually true.
Better materials, better construction, and better design cost more than to make, so it costs more for you lot to purchase.
A perfect example: Inexpensive jacket zippers can exist depression as $0.l a zipper. They're light, can be frustrating to utilise and, of grade, interruption hands.
When I was making leather jackets, I was using high end RiRi zippers. They're heftier and nearly impossible to break. When you zip upwardly your jacket, it was buttery shine.
The downside? They can sometimes price as much as $xx per attachment for me as a designer. That means by the time the jacket hits y'all in the stores, that single $20 zipper adds $60 to the price of the jacket thank you to a standard 3x markup.
That's non marketing, that'south math.
Just it's difficult for you to grasp how much better that attachment or $1,500 cashmere sweater is without trying it. The aforementioned way I can tell yous ane of the best meals I've e'er had cost $220, per person ,no affair how well I describe it, you lot tin can't truly empathize until you have a bite.
WHAT Yous Tin Practise TODAY:Get to a store that you would consider out of your budget. A place that might even be uncomfortably expensive for you. You don't have to purchase anything. Just walk around, touch the dress. Peradventure even try something on. Make mental note of how things fit, experience, and how you experience wearing it. And then become to a fast fashion store similar Zara or H&Grand and try similar items on. Make annotation of what's unlike and what'southward similar. Annihilation surprising?
10. Buy THE BEST QUALITY Yous Can FOR YOUR Budget
This leads united states of america to the question, how much should you lot spend on apparel?
Simple: My recommendation to all my clients is to buy the best quality that fits in their budget.
If you lot're making mid 6-figures a yr, then a $200 pair of jeans might not be a big deal. But if $200 is barely what y'all brand a day, there are enough of great options at lower prices.
WHAT YOU Can Exercise TODAY:To start, I always recommend J.Crew. They're in most every major city, are classic with a bear upon of tendency, and they have solid prices. For more store recommendations, check out my post "Where I personally shop (and what I become there)"
11. Relieve TIME IN THE DRESSING ROOM USING THE "PULL three" Play a joke on
Whenever I'm out shopping, I ever see people pulling one size, then going back and forth from the showroom to the dressing room.
It drives me crazy! Information technology's such a waste product of fourth dimension.
Imagine cooking a repast at abode where y'all took out one ingredient at a time from the refrigerator.
I'chiliad going to show you lot how to cutting your shopping time in half with one play a joke on.
When yous're pulling clothes to try on in the dressing room, "Pull iii" of the aforementioned detail:
- I in the size you retrieve you lot are
- I size upwards
- One size down
And so if you're shopping for jeans and y'all retrieve yous're a 33, pull a 32 and a 34 and take all iii to the dressing room. It saves y'all a couple trips, and is a bit of insurance in case information technology's a new cut or the brand inverse their sizing.
WHAT Y'all Tin can Do TODAY:Use the "Pull 3" play a trick on when you're out shopping
12. Utilise "THE SWAP TRICK" TO GRADUALLY STEP OUT OF YOUR Comfort ZONE
There's no change without stepping exterior of your comfort zone.
But it doesn't accept to be terrifying.
I teach my clients what I call "The Swap Fob". It'south a fashion of introducing something into your wardrobe – a new trendy slice, a new color they thought they could never wear, or an item of clothing they never considered before – gradually.
Here's how it works.
Think of it like trying out hot sauces. You wouldn't get from a mild hotsauce straight to a super hot ghost pepper sauce. You would try something slightly hotter than the final and work your mode up.
It'due south the same affair when you're trying something new with your mode. You probably don't desire to jump from a black leather jacket to a neon green ane. The adjacent footstep up would probably be a brown leather jacket.
Hither'due south another example:
You want to beginning wearing more colors and patterns for summer.
I'll start with an like shooting fish in a barrel outfit: linen oxford shirt, navy lounge pants, sunglasses, white sneakers. The color palette,while perfectly fine, feels a little boring and condom. So allow's swap out the shirt for something a little more colorful. Nosotros tin can go two ways, a brighter color, or a blueprint/print.
Even though the choice of a low-cal blue shirt isn't so crazy, y'all can already encounter information technology feels a lot more than colorful than the outfit we started with. With the print, it'due south even better and more than in the spirit of summer.
Merely notice how i simple bandy tin can change the entire mood of the outfit! This is really the central to starting to wear more color. Y'all don't take to vesture a lot to brighten up your expect.
Equally a starting recommendation, I always suggest to first with merely one swap per phase. When you get more comfy with wearing some color and patterns, accept it a step further.
Each time, bandy out 1 more than item in your look for something a bit brighter and colorful. The keen thing is, if you lot experience similar y'all went overboard, you lot can always pull it back a level or two and still accept a dandy outfit.
WHAT You CAN Practise TODAY: Recollect about something you wanted to add together to your style that you're nervous about. How could y'all suspension it down and gradually innovate information technology into your wardrobe using "The Bandy Trick"? If you demand a specific case on how to employ The Swap Fox for something like trends, check out this post I wrote on Effortless Gent.
xiii. YOU DON'T Commencement WITH CONFIDENCE, YOU BUILD IT
Recollect about when you first started learning how to drive a car.
You were probably terrified.
You were pretty certain inside the first 10 seconds of hitting the road, you were going to crash.
Y'all weren't confident. Withal, every bit you kept driving, your conviction grew. Driving got easier. Now you illegally Snapchat on your phone while sipping your java and playing with the radio equally y'all steer with your knee, and still go work in 1 piece.
It'southward the aforementioned with your style.
You don't need to beginning with confidence to improve your style. Your confidence grows as you piece of work to improve your style.
Just similar with driving, the more you practise it, the easier it gets.
WHAT Yous CAN DO TODAY: Get-go with one outfit. Simply one. Use the communication in the previous tips – stick with neutral colored, classic styles that fit well. You're going to await and feel great. That quick win is important. Now use that feeling to proceed going. Then, read the adjacent tip to acquire my favorite play a trick on to help you build confidence even faster.
14. Apply MY FAVORITE TECHNIQUE TO FEEL More CONFIDENT IN A NEW OUTFIT
This is a great technique to use in conjunction with The Bandy Fox, and is a KILLER hack for a first date. In fact, it'south something I used when I first started dating my electric current girlfriend.
Whenever you have a date (or a conference, interview, or speaking event): Article of clothing the outfit yous're going to wear to appointment for an unabridged mean solar day earlier the date.
Even if it'due south a dressy outfit. Become almost your twenty-four hours similar it's whatever other day. Go java. Go grocery shopping. Go to piece of work.
What you're essentially doing is "breaking in" the outfit. Getting yourself used to wearing it.
I started doing this because I noticed that when I would clothes upwardly for a date, even if it's apparel I've had for years, I would always feel uncomfortable during the date. I'd feel self-conscious. I'd fidget a lot.
Then one twenty-four hour period I had schedule a date correct afterward piece of work, since I had no time to go home and change, I wore my date outfit to work. By the fourth dimension the date rolled around, I had spent an entire day in my date outfit and felt relaxed.
WHAT Yous Can Do TODAY: Whether information technology'south a new jacket you got or an entire outfit for a date, suspension it in by wearing it around to do errands. Got a final infinitesimal date or event and can't spare an unabridged day? I've found even wearing the outfit for a few hours before helps.
Need some date outfit ideas? Check out this post: "A cute woman lets you lot know how to dress (and what to do) on a beginning engagement"
15. SEEK THE HELP AND Communication OF EXPERTS
According to Mint, I spent $7,360 terminal year on books, courses, and consultants to help me improve my business, my skills like writing, and general cognition in topics I'm interested in similar philosophy.
It sounds like a lot, but inquire yourself this question: What's the cost of bad communication?
Imagine yous're a CEO of a company and you have a marketing budget of $25k. Yous read some communication from marketing forums filled with anonymous writers. You lot decide to take some of the advice and it turns out to be bad. Now you lot're out $25k. Of a sudden, a $7k investment in an meridian good seems like a steal.
How many months, even years, volition you lot waste following bad communication when it comes to your fitness routine? Your finances? Your style?
This tweet from Amy Hoy sums it upward perfectly:
When it comes to learning how to dress, there are TONS of options. From mode blogs, Instagrams, Reddit, and Youtube channels.
Some dish out great advice. Most are filled with guys who like to shop and similar to talk about it online.
When it comes to style advice, information technology tin can exist tricky to filter out the expert from the bad.
Equally someone that's been doing this for over 11 years, I know how style communication can be challenging to teach. Telling someone what to buy isn't the aforementioned every bit teaching them how to have great style. The same way a cook telling you to buy ingredients doesn't assist y'all learn the technique.
WHAT YOU CAN Exercise TODAY: Whenever you read advice online, always consider the source. Practise they dress well? More important, is information technology a style you desire to adopt? If they are a stylist or have products, how do their clients and readers look? Good, or terrible? Do they have a background in fashion or way, or are they "a regular guy just similar you!"
In one case you find an expert y'all've vetted. You have two options:
- Pay for their advice
This is the fastest style to acquire. Whether that's a book they've written, a course they've created, or hiring them for one-on-i time. And while this is the fastest, this is also the more than costly choice. This is my personal preferred way to learn because my time is limited. I can always make money back, but one thing I can't make back is my time. - Reach out to them via email for advice
On the flip side, this option is "costless", but is going to take more time on your cease. Before you reach out to an expert for advice, make sure you do your homework. Experts are frequently busy people. Brand certain yous search if they answered the questions you desire to ask earlier. Skim through their blogs, Twitter, cheque if they've been interviewed on a podcast or magazine. If y'all tin't find the respond y'all're looking for, merely then should y'all consider reaching out to them. For that, I highly recommend reading this post: "How to get the attention of your favorite expert"
xvi. Larn TO Have IT SERIOUSLY Plenty NOT TO Take IT As well SERIOUSLY (AKA Accept FUN, IT'Due south Only Dress)
I take a confession to make: I don't read fashion blogs.
Shocker, right?
Sure, I skim sites similar Hypebeast and Gear Patrol to see what'south new, but when information technology comes to blogs, forums, news almost the manufacture, I stay clear. Why?
Well, for i matter, a lot of information technology's really boring. Information technology also doesn't help me with my chore.
I do a lot of inquiry when it comes to learning the pains men have when it comes to their style. I ofttimes come across forums where guys are incessantly debating selvedge denim vs non-selvedge, having long discussions about the "death of original style", and share their theories on what "DESIGNER X" was trying to say with his latest collection.
One thing I realized after I went from designing menswear to becoming a private personal stylist: I've learned to take it seriously enough non to take it too seriously.
Yes, not bad mode can truly touch your life. I've seen information technology start hand.
Meliorate way tin can make you get taken more seriously in your task. Information technology can brand you an unforgettable brand. And yes! Information technology will brand you more bonny! (What woman doesn't desire a well dressed, successful homo?)
Merely the last thing I want you lot to practice is spend hours on forums debating almost clothes. I'd rather you put on an amazing new outfit (you learned cheers to me, of form), exit and live your life. Trounce it at your job. Go on an amazing appointment.
Have fun.
Because if you aren't having fun dressing meliorate, it'due south not going to terminal very long.
HAVING Astonishing STYLE IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK
To sum it up, brand sure you:
- Purchase apparel that fit – It will solve 90% of your way issues
- Focus on the classics offset – classics are classics for a reason. They're fourth dimension tested essentials that wait good on every guy.
- Stick to a neutral color palette – Neutrals automatically mix with each other, and so y'all don't accept to worry about mixing colors. They make you wait professional person and masculine, and when you lot're gear up to introduce more colour into your wardrobe, they serve every bit the perfect backdrop
- Accept fun
Want to kickstart your new fashion in the next ten mins?
Download my "How Clothes Should Fit You" Cheatsheets. You'll learn "wear fit" hacks that'll help y'all detect clothes that fit, cut your shopping time in one-half, and make you look really fucking proficient – even if y'all accept a "weird" body blazon
Yous can learn these simple tricks in ten minutes. And best of all, it'southward gratuitous! Just enter your info below and I'll send it to you.
Success! Check your email for your bonus!
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