- Create a style icons list and/or a board with your favorite style inspirations (you can use something like Notion or pinterest or a tool of your choice
1.5 Journal about what vibe you want.
Ultimately the vibe you want and the people who you admire is going to be more important than any of the guidelines we list below.
Some of this will come out of your life experiences, history, and interests. Perhaps you gravitate towards workwear or americana. Perhaps you gravitate to italian summer suits and pinky rings. Whatever your vibe, respect it and try experimenting with it.
Initially it’s nice to have a couple descriptiors of a line or two to figure out what you’re going to try out first.
Personally I came up with this one liner:
"Rock and roll, California cool, relaxed classic, with a modern slimmer fit”
The vibe will also make a difference in the brands you follow.
I like all saints, sunspel, rag and bone for the edgier vibe they have mixed with a modern cool.
Often saying what you DON’T narrows down the vibe.
For example, I’m allergic to preppiness and fruity colors. This helps narrow it down.
We’re not a huge fan of this person’s style, but this distinction can be interesting reading:
- Find your color season:
- Figure out your face shape (this will give you a good idea of what beards + hairstyles would look best on you). After you find your face shape you can look up what beards, hairstyles would look best for that faceshape
- Are you short? Skinny? Long legs?
This will help you determine the colors that you can gravitate towards and how you should think about contrast. You should keep most of your wardrobe the easy staple colors: Black, white, navy, gray. And then use dark autumn colors as the rest of the wardrobe. If you want to get really geeky, you can do some fashion math:
Short? Wear lighter colors at top and darker colors at bottom. Wear boots such as chukkas that can give you an additional lift. Make sure you don’t have too much break at your pants as well (slight break or no break is best). At the same time, be-wary of excessive cuffing ot can make you look short.
For skinny people you want to use fabrics that add bulk. You also want to layer (so if possible always try to wear a jacket on top). Wear pants that fit better (doesn’t have to be super slim fit). Make sure the leg break of the pants isn’t too big.
If you have long legs wear your pants low rise. Otherwise, wear your pants high rise. You want the top half of your body and the lower half of your body to have similar proportion.
4.5 The best hack: When possible exercise and get fit. That’s going to be the biggest bang for your buck in terms of looking good. Don’t ignore leg day. Especially glute, hamstring day. Looking good in pants is HUGE.
- Build your own style and learn your own philosophies.
All fashion is built on your own life and way of looking in the world. Fashion is just an experiment. Something that changes with age, your looks, and your life philosophies. Respect that.
For example rn, I love the idea of sprezzatura which is embodied by this quote:
"’Don’t try too hard while choosing clothes. The most fashionable people look like they didn’t put any effort in the way they look.’ - Armani”
I love this idea of effortless greatness. It’s what I respect in people and think is cool in men.
I want to put deep care into what I look like behind the scenes, but at the same time look like I threw something on to the outside person.
At the same time, I like balancing this sprezzaturra with a couple interesting signature items that make people want to ask questions. Stuff like rings, necklaces, bracelets, and cool thrifted jackets adds a little bit of personality for me.
But perhaps you’re more of a maximalist who likes dressing like this:
or this:
Well more power to you.
Eventually you have to create your own philosophies. Your way of seeing the world becomes the way you dress. It becomes the way you advertise yourself to those who see you.
Ultimately just like the pirate’s code all styles rules are more like guidelines.
Yet it’s helpful to keep these in mind. So you know when to break them.
Become the midwit to leave the midwit.
