A couple of men's fashion and style hacks.
The Five Suit Rule:
You need to own five suits, black, navy blue, gray, brown, and tan. Once you have those five suits, get two white shirts, two cream colored shirts, and two powder blue shirts. Once you have all that, get two color dress shoes, black and brown.
Now, having the suit tailored to you is a necessity, and frankly non-negotiable, so be pretty chummy with your tailor.
But once it's all done, it's worth it because with those 5 suits and 6 shirts, you can make 75 different outfits, as every last one of those shirts, go with every last one of the suits. Every last one of the pants go with every last one of those jackets, and the dress shoes go with all of them, so it's impossible to not look good.
Of the five, if buying your first suit, navy blue is what you want. It will be the most versatile suit you'll buy. Great for business, formal occasions, dresses up or down nicely, and it pairs with almost every shirt and tie combination. Black tends to be very formal, so maybe save it for more formal occasions. Tan is the most casual, so it's the easiest to dress down. Gray is a great all arounder. And brown is great for adding a more sophisticated look, especially when you get the shade of brown just right and the fit is immaculate.
Snip the Vent Thread:
Suits have a vent thread that prevents the garment from getting wrinkled while it ships to a store or stays on a rack for an extended period of time.
When you get your new suit or skirt, you'll find a pretty weak little stitching that can be easily removed with the fingers, or snipped off. It's supposed to be snipped off so the suit jacket falls on your body in just the right way that the tailor accounted for.
It doesn't matter if the jacket is double or single vented, snip that vent thread and instantly it'll look better and feel better.
The Pant Hack:
When deciding if a pair of pants will fit you, here's a handy trick.
The distance from your elbow to your fist is roughly equivalent to the size of your waist. So if you want a quick way to tell if a pair of pants will fit, see if you can fit your forearm in the waistband, and leave the changing room line for the suckers.
The Shirt Hack:
When buying a new shirt, don't just admire yourself how you look in the shirt while standing up, take a moment and sit down. Your stomach naturally bulges out a bit when sitting down, and if the shirt looks good and feels good while you're sitting down, and while standing up, you've made the right choice.
Beard Grooming:
When your beard grows in, it's best to define the borders by cleaning up the lines and sideburns. It makes it less annoying, and looks better. Also, hairdryers are great for beards, especially if yours, like mine, tends to grow naturally in pretty gnarly ways. When you get out of the shower, towel dry your beard and oil it just as you normally would. Then, get your round brush and hairdryer and brush your beard out away from your face, and down, while applying heat with your hairdryer.
Once you complete one side, lock it in place with cool air, then do the front, and the other side the same way.
This will give texture and fullness to your beard.
Save Clothes Shopping for Later:
By this, I mean go shopping for clothes in the afternoon, when you've had breakfast and lunch. Weird as it sounds, your body expands a bit when you've eaten and are properly hydrated, therefore, shopping in the afternoon is more accurate when you're shopping for clothes that'll fit.
The Lazy Dryer Hack:
Are you just too lazy to iron your dress shirts properly?
Take a damp washcloth, throw it in the dryer along with your shirt, and let the dryer run for about 10 minutes. When the dryer heats up, the steam from the washcloth will relax the fibers in the shirt, removing a lot of the stubborn wrinkles. After that, hang it up.
Running late? Just iron the cuffs of the shirt, the front of the shirt, and the collar. Assuming you have to wear a suit for work, nobody will see that you didn't iron the back of your shirt, and your body heat will help to remove some wrinkles too.
If you have a wool or cashmere sweater, throw it in the dryer with two dryer sheets keeping the heat of the dryer low. This will freshen them up. Works for pants and shirts too.
And now you too can create the dreaded "Chair" where you put clothes that are too clean for the dirty laundry, but not clean enough to be with the clean clothes. Welcome to: the Chair!
