The Men’s Style MORE List – Suit Separates, Shipping, & More

Dear brands and retailers. Can we have more of this stuff? Please? Also, for those of us on the other side, here’s a few suggestions for where to add “more” into your style habits. Whether it has to do with fit, design, or color. So for today, more… is more. Tomorrow we’ll hit the “Less” list.

Suit Separates: Not everyone fits into the standard 6″ Drop that most suit makers use. So according to that Drop, if you’re a 40 jacket? You better be a 34 waist (40 – 6 = 34). Otherwise, you’re outta luck. Suit separates allow those with atypical body types (which are becoming more and more common by way of fitness or, the opposite) to purchase suits that actually fit.

Wider Neckties: Not asking for dinner napkins here, but lapels are starting to expand (the Ludlow still remains slim), and a 3″ tie looks just fine with reasonably slim to reasonably wide lapels. Even silk knit ties look great when designed a bit wider than we’ve gotten used to.

Pant Break: Of course you don’t want gobs and gobs of fabric pooling around your ankles, but the stick straight, no-break look can lead to your pant legs getting caught up on your socks & calves when you stand up. Half break is perfect. And even full break happens, depending on how your pants are riding at any given time.

Break. You want a little, if not more break.

Wiggle room. Especially in Pants: Good on the gals who can somehow pull off pulling on skin tight yoga pants. But for us dudes? Jeans have been getting slimmer and slimmer to the point where our Levi’s and their Lululemons are getting awfully similar. Unless you want your package out there as much as the Riddler had his, opt for fits that aren’t so slim that they cling.

Subtle use of Green: Red, orange, and yellow can all be too loud. That leaves us with the “G. BIV” of Roy G. Biv for working in, often, to our everyday style. A little bit of green can go a long way, and it’d be nice to see more green options (sportcoats, chinos, accessories, etc.) in the men’s style market.

Lightweight, WOOL Sportcoats and Blazers: Cotton and Linen are all well and good, but nothing… NOTHING is as breezy as a lightly constructed, looser weave wool sportcoat. It’s time to put the Wool = Winter myth to rest.

One of Bonobos’ excellent, lightweight WOOL sportcoats. Perfect for hot temps and year round wear.

The Suitsupply Online Outlet actually Opening: They’re averaging… what, once every couple years? How does one say “Pretty Please” in Dutch?

Amazon’s in-house Fashion offerings: There’s promise there, but the debut was pretty limited. Fingers are crossed that they continue to develop and evolve?

Watches that are both affordable, and have a simple, classic style: It’s a mystery that not every single watch brand on the planet has something that looks like a Daniel Wellington. Those DW watches are cheap quartz, but command the price that they do due simply to their simplicity. Hands. Indices. THAT’S IT. Throw in a date window and an interesting pattern on the dial? You’ve got something eye catching and classic. Sure, some brands do have similar watches, but it’s usually the sportier, clunkier stuff that gets the pub.

Seiko’s rare, automatic “Cocktail Time” classically styled watch.

Shirt brands with a slightly lowered 2nd button: Why? Unbuttoning just the top button on many shirts can look a little stuffy. Yet unbuttoning two buttons can get real skeezy looking, real quick. A slightly lowered second button gives you that perfect V. Not too little, not too much. Just right. This is a hallmark of Ledbury’s shirts (see top of post). And Ledbury shirts are awesome. But they better be, for friggin’ triple digits.

More GiltCity offers for discounts on Ledbury Shirts: Please. See above.

Jacket Tail Length: More = longer. Some of the most affordable brands continue to insist on making sportcoats & blazers with chopped tails that are so short they’re barely longer than a casual button down shirt tail. A jacket tail that comes close to, if not totally covering your butt looks much more proportional, and you avoid the Sponge Bob Square Pants boxy look those chopped tail jackets can create.

Left: a GAP blazer with a chopped tail. Right: JCF’s Thompson with a longer tail.
There’s a noticeable difference.

Free Returns & Pre Paid shipping Labels in the Box: It’s completely understandable why many brands do NOT want to do this. It’s expensive. It has to complicate logistics. But from the customer side, offering free and easy returns immensely increases the chance of us clicking “purchase”. And that means it’ll be in our hands, and in our home, in no time. And isn’t that much more than half the battle?

Underwear Options that Offer Precise Waist Measurements: None of this S/M/L garbage. Medium usually = 32 – 34. That’s quite the range. Ballpark is not acceptable for my ballpark.

Sunglasses that cost somewhere between $40 – $65, with reasonable quality to match: THANKS FOR RUINING EVERYTHING LUXOTTICA.

The AO Original Pilot. Made in the USA. $40 – $70. A rare combination.

Casual Shirts with Hidden Button Down Collars: A hidden button down collar works perfectly for casual, lightweight shirts like linen and lightweight, summery poplins. Sticking collar stays in those shirts seems too stiff, but having them flop and curl doesn’t look to great either. A standard button down collar is just fine too, but the hidden button down walks the line perfectly.

SINGLE Monk Straps: Hooray for double monks, but one less buckle = 50% less flash and that means a much more subtle, but still modern pair of shoes.

Allen Edmonds “Merlot” Shade of Calfskin: It’s darker than their “Dark Chili” and sure appears to be less saturated than their “Oxblood”. So it’s still reddish, but leans a little closer to the brown side. And that makes it more versatile.

Hey look. Single Monks in Merlot (i.e. the discontinued AE “Franciscan”)

Lightweight, Cotton/Linen Blend Pants: See GAP’s perfect cotton/linen chinos from last year. Find a brand and fit you love, and get em’ in off-white and medium to dark blue for when it heats up. Wear with everything from t-shirts to lightweight sportcoats.

Foldable Sunglasses: UNIQLO does em’ cheap. Everyone else is pricey. Bottom line: They really are more convenient than you could ever imagine.

Subtle Smelling Deodorants: The main job of a deodorant is to PREVENT odor. Not mask stink with a new, more aggressive odor. So if they could knock back the smell factor by like 25%, that’d be awesome.

Suits + Blazers in Shades of Blue that Aren’t Navy: Navy will never, ever go out of style. But there’s just so much more blue out there, and designers are catching on.

New Steel Blue Suit from Spier & Mackay | J. Crew “Caspian Blue” Sportcoat