Issue # 19 - What Suits you?

Issue # 19 - What suits you?

I recently had the chance to attend a wedding reception, and I was quite looking forward to it. Why? Because I love observing style. You should know this by now. And where else to observe style than at a wedding reception? This reception was different though, since the couple got married out of town and were just having a party here for friends and family. The event was more lax than most receptions, so the dress code was more of a Do-what-you-think-is-best code.


Since it was an informal affair, i decided to forgo the dress pants and jacket, and opt for something much more my style: A black and white dress shirt with a somewhat edgy checker/plaid pattern, A black cotton tie, A tweed grey waistcoat, vintage black leather belt, dark, slim dress jeans, and a pair of black leather Steve Madden Slip ons....with Black and purple Argyle socks for flare. Can't picture it? That's ok, just trust me. I arrive to the reception, and I am immediately bombarded with typical, ridiculous wedding attire from the prime example of the clueless men this blog is all about.


Not sure what i mean? Look at the picture above. If you think this looks fine, then you're one of the clueless men. Sorry if that offends you....actually no I am not. See, I have noticed that far too many men think that just putting on a suit and a tie automatically means you are 'dressed up'. This is not the case...in fact, in a vast majority of cases, I find that men actually look MUCH more sloppy in their 'dressy' attire than they do on a lazy sunday afternoon. How is this possible? Please refer to my issue "Messy isn't Sexy" to get a precursor to what I am about to write.


A suit SHOULD NOT BE MESSY. If you go to any men's formal store, and buy a suit directly off the rack, or any dress wear for that matter, it will hardly EVER fit properly. So get it tailored. A suit should be tailored and fit perfectly. Yours doesn't. This reception was no different than any i have seen before. All around me were men wearing suit jackets that had the fit of potato sacks; Far too wide in the shoulders, far too long past the waist. They essentially looked like boxy black fabric sheets with a few buttons attached. (On that note, why do so many men insist on just BLACK suits? Newsflash boys, black doesn't always mean formal. A charcoal or lighter grey suit will work for every occasion, so try it out. ) Their dress shirts were ill-fitting and billowing out of their equally baggy pants at such a speed, i couldn't take it all in.


But the most dominant factor of my distaste, was the ties. Someone needs to make a mass bulletin somewhere in the media saying that WIDE TIES ARE NOT IN STYLE. All around me were massive ties hanging far too low, and just not matching ANYTHING in the outfit. There was one gentleman wearing a pink dress shirt which actually fit quite well...but he paired it with a shiny white tie which was far too wide, and black pants and black shoes. The tie was not echoed anywhere in the outfit, therefore it looked just completely out of place. Not to mention it hung a good inch below his belt which is a major no-no.





So what is it...what is it that tells men to dress this way? Well, I blame it partially on the male inherited gene of not caring enough to care what they look like, partially on a blue collar city's ultimate lack of style in general, and partially on the vast lack of knowledge of salespeople in men's stores. One gentleman i spoke to at the reception told me that he just walked into freeds, told them he had a reception to go to, and that he needed to be dressed. I would think that as a salesperson at a men's fashion store in the year 2010, he would have done something...well...good. But alas, he did not. So what did this gentleman leave the store with? An oversized black dress shirt, black tie, black belt, oversized black pants, and really bad shoes. How did such a thing occur? Well, it's a combination of 2 things. First, the salesman was most likely clueless as to what looks good in today's day and age, and Second, this is most likely because he's 96 years old. I couldn't believe this. Here was this man, roughly 5'6'', and thin, looking as if he was a little boy wearing his dad's clothes, because his brand new outfit was so vastly oversized.


Bottom line here men, wearing a suit does not mean you instantly look good. It takes as much work to look good in a suit as it does to look good in anything else. So spend the time and a little bit of money, tailor the suit and abide by the basic of all basic style rules, and you should be set.


Until next time gents,
S.G.