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What if you’re in a university or a beach town where everyone
dresses casual. How do you tailor your image to there? Via the 5
wardrobe spectrums – that’s how.
After my most recent article entitled “How Should I Dress? Men’s Guide to Sexy Going-Out Attire” was posted, I found a question in my inbox from a reader named Tom:
“Thank you for all your articles, I've learnt so much about style from you and it’s truly improved my game! I do have a question: I currently live and study in a university town in New Zealand, and the standard style for dress here (as in, for the guys that get laid) is either street wear like long sleeve shirts with basketball kind of shorts or gym track pants and Nike running/gym shoes, or a kind of 'bum' style, with baggy hooded jumpers or old rugby jerseys and often shorts. Both styles tend to incorporate caps on the head too. Quite opposite to your own style!
My question is, how much do you want to take in the local style, especially if it’s working for other guys, and how much do you want to stand out? I do want to stand out somewhat, and I'm getting the hang of trying to incorporate what you teach and what the people here do, but I find when I mix them, I often end up with a pretty 'normal' look. I imagine you travel quite a lot? If so, it would be rad to see an article on adapting your personal style to different locales!”
And what a great question it is! Except, it’s the wrong question….
You see, without knowing it, chances are you’re running into the same issue yourself.
Contents
3. How to Tailor a Dressy Image
4. How to Build Outfits from Scratch
No, you probably don’t care how to dress sexy in a university town in New Zealand. Instead, you might be wondering “How can I apply those tips when I’m dressing for work?” or “How do I dress for best results in my favorite bar or club?” or “How should I dress for day game if I live in Canada... and it’s cold?” etc.
All of the above questions point to the same core dilemma: How do I tailor my outfit to look sexy in a particular situation – without looking like I’m sticking out?
Well, if all goes according to plan, you’ll have your answer by the end of this article.
Comments
style
The articles on this website can be quite insightful (the more philosophical ones by Chase lately are good to read) but the ones on fashion seem quite off. The photo used here with the guy in a denim jacket screams fashion victim to be honest. The adidas shoes with the green tab every basic girl or guy wears, the long tee on tight black pants making him look like he's following Justin Bieber or any other pop singer and wants to be like him, the denim jacket is fine but the grooming and sunglasses is way too try hard.
These articles need to delve into finding your own style while knowing what the clothing you wear represent. Good style is about social cues, the smallest details can say so much about an individual. It should be more about understated style that still gets noticed because it looks so damn good. Nonchalance. Being true to yourself, maybe your background, maybe your current position or an aspired position or blending it all into one style while knowing why you do it and knowing if that would be what others perceive too, or they can't exactly tell - which only creates intrigue (as long as it's not offensive to the eye and doesn't clash). Knowing the difference between fashion (seasonal) and style (not-seasonal, but isn't timeless either even though some marketeers or other people love to say it is) is an important factor. What's originally workwear? What's originally 'menswear'? What originates from certain subcultures? When does all of this mix? I hope this helps for the next article on this topic. In certain social classes knowing this stuff really does make a difference (a lot easier at least).
Good critique
Hey man,
First off, thank you for the comment. You have some interesting points here and I'd like to address few of them.
First, I'd like to draw your attention to the following from you comment:
"The photo used here with the guy in a denim jacket screams fashion victim to be honest. The adidas shoes with the green tab every basic girl or guy wears, the long tee on tight black pants making him look like he's following Justin Bieber or any other pop singer and wants to be like him, the denim jacket is fine but the grooming and sunglasses is way too try hard."
What I would like to invite you to do is think for a moment why you're holding those beliefs? Why "fashion victim"? Why the Justin Bieber reference? And especially the "way too try hard"?
It's fine to have an aversion to modern trends, it's okay to dislike Justin Bieber's style (I personally dislike most of it, especially the heavily anti-fit outfits), it's okay to dislike this type of grooming. But objectively looking that outfit's execution is solid, the transitions are smooth, the grooming is flattering based on the model's features, the sunglasses are contextually appropriate, etc., etc. - I'm not saying this to change your mind, it's not my place to do, but draw attention that you might have some lingering limiting beliefs around image/style (you might be fine with it and that's cool, but it should be a conscious decision to keep them).
"Good style is about social cues, the smallest details can say so much about an individual. It should be more about understated style that still gets noticed because it looks so damn good. Nonchalance. Being true to yourself, maybe your background, maybe your current position or an aspired position or blending it all into one style while knowing why you do it and knowing if that would be what others perceive too, or they can't exactly tell - which only creates intrigue."
This is very well said! Unfortunately getting there is not as romantic as typing it out is. With articles like this I'm pretty much sharing "how the sausage is made", my goal is to provide with practical, actionable frameworks and if implemented (combined with other topics on style execution we have here), it will lead to that result.
You might not necessarily like a specific outfit (like the last one in this article), but objectively looking that's the result. If you pull that look on the street (assuming it fits your features, personal preferences), it would work great, it would look intriguening to most people seeing you.
The alternative is spending years and decades studying menswear, image, experimenting, crashing & burning and trying again. I applaud those who take this approach but if you want to get results in the real world, it's just not very practical.
And this is what it boils down to, with my articles my focus is on helping you guys get better results on nights out, dates, etc. Not to prepare you for a "history of menswear" exam.
That said, I'm really liking the "fashion vs style" as an article idea (and okay, okay, maybe some menswear history because I personally like the topic quite a lot.)
Anyway, I hope this didn't come off as attacking/aggressive, I genuinely appreciate your comment and thoughts.
Cheers,
Darius
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