Lacing Vans Male Fashion Advice Reddit
"I'1000 just non naturally stylish."
Does that audio familiar?
Here'south the truth. Dressing well is a skill. And like whatsoever other skill, you can acquire it and improve. Don't believe me?
Yes, that'south me in high school rocking a terrible ponytail, along with spectacles that were fashion besides pocket-size for my caput.
And to flesh out the epitome, my daily outfit in loftier school consisted of:
- Plaid button up shirts
- Baggy jeans with ripped hems because they were too long and I kept stepping on them
- Clunky Rockabilly shoes I institute at the mall
It wasn't until college did I start paying attending to my manner in a serious way. And if that kid higher up could learn, so tin can you.
In fact, you have a huge advantage equally an Essential Man reader. I didn't have a real resource, and had to become through years of trial and error before I've truly learned what great fashion was.
Today I'g sharing with yous essential style tips for guys who want to clothes better.
Whether yous're a complete beginner, or take been working on your way for a while and need a refresher, I've refined these concepts and tips over the concluding 11 years to aid y'all expect your best in no time.
Heads up! I put together a special beginner's bonus for this post to assistance you kickstart your new manner in less than x mins!
Download my "How Wearing apparel Should Fit You" Cheatsheets. You lot'll acquire "clothing fit" hacks that'll help y'all find clothes that fit, cut your shopping fourth dimension in half, and make you look really fucking good – even if y'all have a "weird" body type.
You can acquire these simple tricks in 10 minutes. And best of all, it's free! Just enter your info beneath and I'll ship it to you!
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1. REALIZE THAT DRESSING WELL IS A SKILL
Merely like cooking or shooting complimentary throws, dressing well is a skill that tin actually be learned.
My job every bit a personal stylist isn't to purchase clothes for guys and send them on their style. I teach men how to cull clothes that heighten them so they can do it on their own. If dressing well wasn't a skill that could exist taught, I'd be out of a task!
With all skills, you get improve the more than yous practice. And unless you lot live in some weirdo nudist colony (I would apologize here, simply if you're a nudist reading this weblog, you lot're in the incorrect place), you lot need to get dressed everyday. That ways y'all have an opportunity to practice and nurture the skill of dressing well every single twenty-four hours.
WHAT You lot CAN DO TODAY: Nobody is built-in in a perfectly tailored iii-piece adapt, or with some magical intuition on how to dress well. (If you need a reminder, scroll back up and look at my high school movie again.) Realize that dressing well is a skill that tin be developed through exercise.
ii. DEVELOP YOUR "EYE" BY IDENTIFYING Mode Y'all LIKE
Right after guys tell me that they're just not "naturally stylish", it's often followed up with:
"I just don't accept an eye for putting together outfits or knowing what looks skilful"
Here'southward what I tell them:
"Ok. Is there anyone who's style you think looks adept? Something you think 'I'd like to dress like that', even if you don't think you could pull information technology off. Maybe it'due south a celebrity, a musician, an athlete? Fifty-fifty a fictional grapheme. Some of my clients have mentioned James Bail or Tony Stark before."
The guy will then list off a ton of men he thinks dresses cool. And then I similar to betoken out that he just debunked his own supposition that he doesn't have an "heart". He merely showed me he tin can meet and recognize corking style!
At present, he might not know the why yet, and that's often the reason why guys tell me they don't take an eye. Understanding why is learnable.
But whenever you lot're working on a goal, information technology's of import to identify and challenge stories you lot tell yourself. Whether it'south that you lot don't have an eye for mode, you're besides decorated to work out, or y'all're just a shy person. The stories we tell ourselves are often invisible barriers to keep usa in our comfort zone.
WHAT Yous Tin Do TODAY: Take 5 minutes. List out 3 or more guys who mode you lot think looks great and that is in the direction you'd like to become. Even if you don't call up y'all can pull information technology off, list it. It could be someone you know, a celebrity, or even a fictional character from a movie.
iii. SOLVE 90% OF YOUR Manner Issues By GETTING THE RIGHT FIT
"F*@K Ryan Gosling!"
This is something an bodily customer said to me one time after seeing the picture of Ryan Gosling above.
"How the hell does he expect so cool wearing only a t-shirt and jeans?"
The respond, my friend, is fit.
Fit is the most important thing when information technology comes to great style. Information technology's so important, in fact, that I tell every one of my clients "wearing clothes that fit properly will solve 90% of your mode issues."
When clothes don't fit properly, they throw off your body proportions. Because of the excess fabric, clothes that are likewise big make you non only expect sloppy, but fatter and shorter than you are.
Men have the trend to wear wearing apparel that are besides big for them because it either "feels more than comfortable", or they just don't know how clothes are supposed to fit in the commencement place.
The right fit is how someone similar Ryan Gosling (or me, or you) tin can look effortlessly stylish rocking a apparently white t-shirt and jeans, and how someone can await terrible in a "squeamish adapt" that probably cost 20x more.
This also means if you think you need a suit in social club to look stylish, y'all don't!
If yous're more leather jacket and jeans like me, you can be leather jacket and jeans and expect great, as long equally you're wearing clothes that fit right.
WHAT YOU Tin can DO TODAY: "How Clothes Should Fit You" Cheatsheets which shows you my trick to mastering the perfect fit for your shirts and pants in 10 minutes.
iv. SURROUND YOURSELF WITH Stylish PEOPLE (EVEN IF Information technology'S ONLINE)
When making any alter in your life, especially something that's physical like your style, the biggest roadblock is going to be the almost surprising.
When it comes to the people around you now, your friends and family, your girlfriend, your coworkers, there is a loftier likelihood that they won't all take a positive reaction to your change.
If you want to work with me ane on one every bit a client, you have to agree to work with me solo. That means your girlfriend or wife is non allowed to sit in to whatever of our sessions or shopping trips.
I created this rule later working with a customer whose wife insisted she sit in in our styling sessions. She would give me feedback on every single slice of advice I'd give. Her notes and comments amounted to "He doesn't similar that, he prefers to wear this." Essentially negating any advice I would give.
She was enabling his bad style.
Afterward a couple of weeks, I promptly refunded his money and created this rule.
Change is uncomfortable for people. Information technology makes them face the reality that someone is working hard to improve, and it challenges what they're doing for themselves.
One of my favorite quotes of all time is "You lot are the average of 5 people effectually you lot." Who we environment ourselves with has an extremely important impact on our deportment, behaviors, and mindsets.
This is why wealthy successful businessmen tend to exist friends with each other. It's why fit attractive Crossfitters are surrounded by fit attractive Crossfitters in Instagram pics. And it'due south why obese parents are more than likely to have obese kids.
When it comes to your style, that's exactly what y'all need if you want to improve. You lot need to environs yourself with people with the same goals as you.
WHAT YOU Tin can DO TODAY: The simplest change you can brand is to showtime post-obit stylish people on places like Instagram. It'll requite you a double whammy: It'll expose yous to great style and give you some inspiration, but it'll too create an environs where dressing well is "normal". Demand some stylish Instagram recommendations? Cheque out this post I wrote virtually my favorite stylish Instagrams here.
5. FOCUS ON A Archetype Mode FIRST Before TRYING TO DEVELOP A PERSONAL Fashion
A mistake people make when trying to meliorate their way is thinking they need to create an original, 100% unique personal style.
This is a classic case of what's called "Extreme thinking".
Want to lose 20lbs?
"Ugh. I have to surrender bread, rice, beer, booze, candy, meat AND accept to do some crazy crossfit workout, and spend 2 hours at the gym. Forget it"
Want to save money for a holiday?
"That means I have to abolish my Netflix business relationship, stop going out on weekends, defer my student loans. I probably had to miss some credit carte du jour payments if I always want to have fun. That'due south going to ruin my credit. I'm never gonna be able to relax on holiday now."
When you're starting to amend your manner, think of it similar how chefs learn to cook:
They don't become into the kitchen thinking they need to create some amazing and original dish never seen before.
They learn the classic recipes and techniques first. Then they start adding $.25 and pieces of their personality and interests in to put a spin on them.
You're going to do the verbal same matter with your style.
Focus on classic styles outset, then slowly add your own personal spin subsequently.
WHAT YOU Can Practice TODAY: I write about classic styles in my "Essentials" series, you can see all the Essentials I've written almost so far by clicking here.
6. THIS Also Ways Buy Archetype STYLES Starting time BEFORE DABBLING INTO TRENDS
Tell me if this sounds familiar:
You open up your closet. It's filled with apparel.
You sift through all the hangers squeezed into your cramped closet and think to yourself "I have naught to habiliment."
And so y'all go to the mall and buy fifty-fifty more than clothes.
Then a month later, the aforementioned thing happens. Y'all have "zippo" to wear.
Yous're non going crazy.
This is what I call "Panic mode shopping". You open your cupboard and freak out because things are outdated, they're hard to mix, and at that place are so many choices. So you become out and buy more dress and add to the trouble.
It's a vicious cycle. And 1 of the biggest reasons for this problem is trendy clothes.
Trendy translates to what's absurd now. It'southward what all the blogs and magazines are talking about. Information technology'south what'south in the stores. And considering it's new and fresh, information technology'south a little exciting.
But the big problem with any tendency is that information technology eventually dies down.
Remember how leather sweatpants were really popular a couple years agone? And what about double monk shoes earlier that? Or if y'all're old like me, trucker hats?
Trendy dress are like that large Summer blockbuster that you tin't escape.
The actors are on every talk show. Commercials are playing not-stop. Posters are everywhere. Just, come Fall, we've moved on.
Classics styles are like archetype movies. The Godfather. Back to the Future. Taxi Driver. They're not going anywhere.
That's the advantage of classic styles of apparel. They're fourth dimension tested to look adept. A leather jacket, dark blue jeans, boots? Looked great in the 1950s, still looks good today.
WHAT You lot CAN Exercise TODAY: Start shifting your shopping habits to look for and buy classic styles. What'south the difference between something that's archetype and trendy? How do you lot balance 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 Homo readers are older professionals (30+), and I often get asked "How can I look older/more mature/go taken more seriously?"
Ane of the means 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 you wear a logo or graphic t-shirt, you lot either expect like you're in higher, or are you're on your way to a UFC fight. (Don't go me wrong, I'thou a HUGE MMA fan. But in that location is a certain style that goes with information technology.)
I'yard not opposed to logos and graphic t-shirts every bit office of a solid wardrobe, merely when you're starting out, going solid colors is going to make you look 10x more mature and serious.
WHAT Yous Tin can Exercise TODAY: Solid colors and graphic/logo-less clothes make you wait more refined and mature. The great thing is that this change is a unproblematic bandy. Replace your graphic t-shirts and dress with solid versions, like with the examples above.
viii. STICK TO SOLID NEUTRAL COLORS
Every man'due south wardrobe should be based around 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 green and orange? Pretty hard to work with.
If your wardrobe is all neutral colors, you don't need to know "how to mix and friction match colors". A neutral colour wardrobe is essentially self-working!
Here's the other thing: You lot've probably already been dressing in mostly neutral colors without even knowing it.
Neutral colors are white, blackness, navy, olive, grayness, khaki, dark-brown
What I love about neutral colors, aside from it beingness self working, is that it's a very masculine color palette. It makes you look refined, serious, and put together. Information technology besides provides the perfect backdrop when you want to start introducing more color to your wardrobe.
WHAT You Tin can Practise TODAY: I recommend a ratio of 3:one when information technology comes to solid neutrals and non-neutral colors. Have 10 minutes check your closet. Do y'all have more than non-neutrals, graphics and pattern clothes than solid neutrals? Make a annotation to first balancing information technology out to hit a 3:one ratio.
nine. TO Chop-chop UNDERSTAND QUALITY, Get HANDS ON
Why are some cashmere sweaters $100, and other $1,500? Is the $1,500 ane really 15x meliorate?
Are higher quality clothes "worth it"?
No doubt these questions have crossed your listen. And my answer is…
It depends.
Information technology's hard to makeanything skillful for a low price. Whether that's a pair of jeans, a laptop, or a steak dinner at home. When you have a express budget to work with, there has to exist some compromises.
There's an supposition that because higher quality or designer clothes are expensive, "you're getting ripped off" as a customer. You'll sometimes read guys on blogs and forums proclaim you're just "paying for the marketing costs"
I can tell you having worked xi years equally a menswear designer, information technology's merely not really true.
Better materials, meliorate structure, and better pattern cost more to make, so it costs more than for y'all to buy.
A perfect case: Cheap jacket zippers can be low as $0.50 a zipper. They're light, tin can be frustrating to use and, of course, interruption easily.
When I was making leather jackets, I was using loftier end RiRi zippers. They're heftier and nearly impossible to break. When you nada upwardly your jacket, it was buttery smooth.
The downside? They can sometimes toll as much as $20 per zipper for me as a designer. That means by the time the jacket hits you in the stores, that single $20 attachment adds $60 to the price of the jacket cheers to a standard 3x markup.
That's not marketing, that's math.
But it's hard for y'all to grasp how much amend that zipper or $one,500 cashmere sweater is without trying it. The same way I can tell you one of the best meals I've ever had price $220, per person ,no matter how well I describe it, you can't truly empathise until you take a bite.
WHAT Yous CAN DO TODAY:Become to a shop that you would consider out of your budget. A place that might even be uncomfortably expensive for y'all. You lot don't have to purchase anything. But walk around, touch the clothes. Perhaps even try something on. Make mental note of how things fit, feel, and how you experience wearing information technology. Then go to a fast fashion shop like Zara or H&M and attempt similar items on. Make annotation of what's different and what's like. Annihilation surprising?
10. BUY THE BEST QUALITY You lot CAN FOR YOUR Upkeep
This leads us to the question, how much should you spend on clothes?
Simple: My recommendation to all my clients is to buy the all-time quality that fits in their budget.
If y'all're making mid 6-figures a year, then a $200 pair of jeans might not be a big deal. Simply if $200 is barely what y'all make a day, there are plenty of great options at lower prices.
WHAT Yous CAN Do TODAY:To start, I ever recommend J.Crew. They're in about every major city, are archetype with a affect of trend, and they have solid prices. For more store recommendations, cheque out my post "Where I personally shop (and what I go at that place)"
eleven. SAVE TIME IN THE DRESSING ROOM USING THE "PULL 3" TRICK
Whenever I'chiliad out shopping, I always see people pulling one size, then going back and along from the showroom to the dressing room.
It drives me crazy! It'south such a waste product of time.
Imagine cooking a repast at home where you took out one ingredient at a fourth dimension from the fridge.
I'm going to show you how to cutting your shopping time in one-half with one fox.
When yous're pulling wearing apparel to endeavour on in the dressing room, "Pull 3" of the same detail:
- 1 in the size you lot recollect you are
- I size up
- One size down
So if you lot're shopping for jeans and you think yous're a 33, pull a 32 and a 34 and have all three to the dressing room. It saves you a couple trips, and is a bit of insurance in case it's a new cut or the make inverse their sizing.
WHAT You lot Can DO TODAY:Utilize the "Pull 3" trick when you're out shopping
12. Utilise "THE SWAP Play tricks" TO GRADUALLY Pace OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE
There'southward no change without stepping outside of your condolement zone.
But it doesn't take to exist terrifying.
I teach my clients what I call "The Swap Trick". It'southward a way of introducing something into your wardrobe – a new trendy piece, a new colour they thought they could never vesture, or an particular of clothing they never considered before – gradually.
Here's how information technology works.
Retrieve of it similar trying out hot sauces. You wouldn't get from a balmy hotsauce straight to a super hot ghost pepper sauce. You would try something slightly hotter than the concluding and piece of work your manner upwards.
Information technology'southward the same matter when yous're trying something new with your mode. You probably don't want to bound from a blackness leather jacket to a neon green i. The next pace up would probably be a brown leather jacket.
Here'southward another example:
You lot want to start wearing more colors and patterns for summer.
I'll start with an easy outfit: linen oxford shirt, navy lounge pants, sunglasses, white sneakers. The colour palette,while perfectly fine, feels a little slow and rubber. So allow's swap out the shirt for something a petty more than colorful. Nosotros tin can go 2 ways, a brighter color, or a blueprint/print.
Fifty-fifty though the choice of a calorie-free blue shirt isn't so crazy, you tin already see information technology feels a lot more colorful than the outfit nosotros started with. With the print, it's even better and more in the spirit of summer.
But notice how one simple swap can change the entire mood of the outfit! This is really the key to starting to wear more color. You don't accept to wear a lot to burnish up your wait.
Every bit a starting recommendation, I e'er advise to outset with only i swap per phase. When you go more than comfy with wearing some color and patterns, accept it a step farther.
Each time, bandy out 1 more item in your look for something a scrap brighter and colorful. The smashing thing is, if you experience like you went overboard, y'all can always pull it back a level or 2 and yet have a keen outfit.
WHAT You lot CAN Do TODAY: Think about something you wanted to add to your way that you're nervous about. How could you interruption information technology downwardly and gradually introduce it into your wardrobe using "The Bandy Trick"? If you need a specific case on how to utilize The Swap Trick for something like trends, bank check out this post I wrote on Effortless Gent.
thirteen. You lot DON'T START WITH CONFIDENCE, YOU BUILD IT
Think about when you first started learning how to drive a machine.
You lot were probably terrified.
You were pretty sure within the start ten seconds of hit the route, y'all were going to crash.
You lot weren't confident. Yet, as you kept driving, your confidence grew. Driving got easier. Now yous illegally Snapchat on your telephone while sipping your coffee and playing with the radio as you steer with your knee, and yet go work in ane slice.
Information technology's the same with your style.
You don't need to beginning with confidence to amend your way. Your confidence grows as you piece of work to better your manner.
Just like with driving, the more yous exercise it, the easier information technology gets.
WHAT YOU Tin can Practise TODAY: Start with one outfit. Just 1. Use the advice in the previous tips – stick with neutral colored, classic styles that fit well. You're going to look and experience groovy. That quick win is important. Now use that feeling to go along going. And then, read the adjacent tip to learn my favorite trick to help you build confidence even faster.
14. USE MY FAVORITE TECHNIQUE TO FEEL More CONFIDENT IN A NEW OUTFIT
This is a great technique to use in conjunction with The Swap Play a joke on, and is a KILLER hack for a start appointment. In fact, it's something I used when I first started dating my electric current girlfriend.
Whenever you have a engagement (or a briefing, interview, or speaking event): Wear the outfit you're going to wear to date for an entire twenty-four hour period before the date.
Even if information technology's a dressy outfit. Go about your day like it's any other day. Get coffee. 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 considering I noticed that when I would dress up for a date, fifty-fifty if information technology's clothes I've had for years, I would always feel uncomfortable during the date. I'd feel self-conscious. I'd fidget a lot.
And so one day I had schedule a date right afterwards work, since I had no time to go domicile and modify, I wore my date outfit to work. By the time the appointment rolled around, I had spent an entire twenty-four hour period in my date outfit and felt relaxed.
WHAT Yous CAN DO TODAY: Whether information technology's a new jacket you lot got or an entire outfit for a engagement, pause it in by wearing information technology around to practice errands. Got a last minute engagement or consequence and tin't spare an unabridged twenty-four hour period? I've found even wearing the outfit for a few hours earlier helps.
Demand some engagement outfit ideas? Check out this post: "A beautiful adult female lets you know how to dress (and what to exercise) on a get-go appointment"
15. SEEK THE Help AND Communication OF EXPERTS
According to Mint, I spent $7,360 last yr on books, courses, and consultants to assist me improve my business, my skills similar writing, and general knowledge in topics I'k interested in like philosophy.
It sounds like a lot, but enquire yourself this question: What's the cost of bad advice?
Imagine you're a CEO of a company and you have a marketing budget of $25k. You read some advice from marketing forums filled with anonymous writers. Yous decide to take some of the advice and it turns out to be bad. Now you're out $25k. Suddenly, a $7k investment in an top expert seems like a steal.
How many months, even years, will you waste following bad advice when it comes to your fitness routine? Your finances? Your way?
This tweet from Amy Hoy sums information technology up perfectly:
When it comes to learning how to clothes, in that location are TONS of options. From style blogs, Instagrams, Reddit, and Youtube channels.
Some dish out great advice. Most are filled with guys who like to shop and like to talk about it online.
When information technology comes to style advice, it can exist tricky to filter out the good from the bad.
Every bit someone that'due south been doing this for over eleven years, I know how manner communication can be challenging to teach. Telling someone what to buy isn't the aforementioned as educational activity them how to have neat style. The aforementioned style a cook telling you to buy ingredients doesn't aid you larn the technique.
WHAT You CAN DO TODAY: Whenever you read advice online, ever consider the source. Do they dress well? More of import, is it a mode you lot want to adopt? If they are a stylist or take products, how do their clients and readers look? Expert, or terrible? Do they accept a background in manner or way, or are they "a regular guy just like you!"
One time yous find an expert you've vetted. Y'all accept two options:
- Pay for their advice
This is the fastest mode to learn. Whether that's a volume they've written, a grade they've created, or hiring them for ane-on-i time. And while this is the fastest, this is also the more costly choice. This is my personal preferred way to learn considering my fourth dimension is express. I tin can always make money back, but one affair I can't make dorsum is my time. - Reach out to them via e-mail for advice
On the flip side, this option is "gratis", merely is going to accept more time on your cease. Before you accomplish out to an expert for advice, make sure you do your homework. Experts are often busy people. Brand sure you search if they answered the questions you want to inquire earlier. Skim through their blogs, Twitter, bank check if they've been interviewed on a podcast or magazine. If you can't detect the answer you're looking for, only then should you consider reaching out to them. For that, I highly recommend reading this post: "How to get the attention of your favorite expert"
xvi. LEARN TO Accept It SERIOUSLY ENOUGH NOT TO Take IT Likewise SERIOUSLY (AKA HAVE FUN, Information technology'S Simply CLOTHES)
I have a confession to make: I don't read fashion blogs.
Shocker, correct?
Sure, I skim sites like Hypebeast and Gear Patrol to encounter what's new, but when information technology comes to blogs, forums, news about the industry, I stay articulate. Why?
Well, for one thing, a lot of it's actually boring. It also doesn't aid me with my job.
I do a lot of research when it comes to learning the pains men have when information technology comes to their way. I ofttimes come beyond forums where guys are endlessly debating selvedge denim vs not-selvedge, having long discussions about the "death of original fashion", and share their theories on what "DESIGNER X" was trying to say with his latest drove.
One thing I realized after I went from designing menswear to condign a private personal stylist: I've learned to take it seriously enough not to have it likewise seriously.
Aye, great manner can truly impact your life. I've seen it commencement hand.
Better style can brand you get taken more than seriously in your job. Information technology can make you an unforgettable brand. And yes! It volition make yous more than attractive! (What woman doesn't desire a well dressed, successful man?)
But the last thing I want you to do is spend hours on forums debating well-nigh clothes. I'd rather y'all put on an astonishing new outfit (you learned thanks to me, of class), get out and live your life. Beat it at your chore. Get on an amazing appointment.
Accept fun.
Because if you aren't having fun dressing improve, it'southward not going to last very long.
HAVING AMAZING Way IS EASIER THAN You Recollect
To sum information technology up, make sure you:
- Buy wearing apparel that fit – It will solve xc% of your style issues
- Focus on the classics get-go – classics are classics for a reason. They're fourth dimension tested essentials that look practiced on every guy.
- Stick to a neutral color palette – Neutrals automatically mix with each other, then yous don't have to worry about mixing colors. They make you look professional person and masculine, and when you're ready to innovate more color into your wardrobe, they serve as the perfect properties
- Have fun
Desire to kickstart your new style in the next 10 mins?
Download my "How Clothes Should Fit Yous" Cheatsheets. Yous'll larn "wearable fit" hacks that'll help you observe clothes that fit, cut your shopping time in one-half, and make you wait really fucking good – fifty-fifty if you lot have a "weird" body blazon
You tin acquire these uncomplicated tricks in ten minutes. And best of all, it'south free! But enter your info below and I'll send it to yous.
Success! Check your email for your bonus!
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