15 Little Secrets of Men’s Style

#1. Set your clothes out the night before. On a valet, the back of a chair, or aside in your closet. You’ll feel better because you’ll be in less of a rush, and you’ll look better because you’ll have planned ahead instead of making decisions while still groggy and waking up.

#2. It’s significantly easier to iron a shirt that’s been pulled early from the dryer and is still a little damp.

#3. Shirts with a slightly lowered 2nd button (Ledbury, Proper Cloth, etc.) are worth the expense. No more getting stuck between unbuttoning just the top button and feeling too stuffy, and unbuttoning two buttons and showing too much chest.

How a shirt with a (slightly) lowered 2nd button looks with the top undone.

#4. When you find a good barber as well as a good tailor, stick with them, treat them well, and hold on to them for as long as you can. They’ll help make you and your clothes look and feel terrific.

#5. Go to a good shoe store and get measured with a brannock device. After that, buy your true shoe size and width. Not what you think you should be or what you’ve always worn. Your true actual size and width. If you’re a wide, buy wide shoes and sneakers, and research lasts to find shoes with shapes that are more accommodating. Don’t default to purchasing “D only” (medium width) shoes and sneakers. If you’re a narrow width, have high arches, or other unique foot features, do your research, ask questions, and adapt accordingly. Your feet are your wheels. The rest of the car can look awesome, but if you’ve got a bum wheel, it’s no fun getting around.

#6. Quick release watch bracelets and straps might feel a little cheesy, but they’re 1000% easier to use than a spring bar tool. Which means you’ll get a lot more wear for your watch investments, spendy or cheap.

Quick release spring bars make it super easy to switch between straps and even bracelets,
greatly increasing a watch’s versatility.

#7. Wear sunscreen early and often in your life. You know this. I know this. We all know this. But not all of us follow through. If you don’t, it’ll catch up to you. The sun’s been around for 4.5 billion years. It’ll turn us all to dust long before it fizzles out.

#8. You can save a lot of money shopping at thrift stores, on ebay, and at TJ Maxx, Ross, etc. Additionally, you can spend a lifetime chasing dead ends at those places too.

#9. Pleats on dress pants and suit trousers come and go in terms of style, but single pleats (just one pleat on either side of the center) are subtle, and most importantly make room for those of us with bigger backsides and thighs. And speaking of sartorial geometry… gusseted casual pants will change your life. Your “undercarriage” deserves good geometry too.

#10. Suede shoes & boots are much more versatile than most think. The matte texture looks good dressed up, dressed down, and in all seasons. They’re also easy to protect and clean.

Suede shoes look great and don’t need to be babied.
Use a water/stain resistant spray, and they’ll handle whatever life throws at them.

#9. An unlined sportcoat in hopsack wool isn’t hot. At all. It also looks great with everything from a smart crewneck to a crisp dress shirt.

#12. Eye-contact is cool as hell. Especially now that everyone is buried in their phones 24/7.  No need to be a creep. But look people in the eye.

#13. Posting every little thing on social media is the opposite of eye-contact. There’s no connection, no oxytocin, and certainly no intrigue. It often feels desperate and sad and it’s an easy trap to get pulled into. We’re all “sharing” but we’re sharing alone. Documenting an event often means you’re not truly experiencing it, so what does that mean when documenting one’s life becomes standard? So yeah. It’s hard, but try to turn the phone off every once in a while. Look up and look around.

Make sure your stuff fits long before the day of a big event.

#14. If you’ve got a big event coming up, practice wearing what you’re gonna wear a couple weeks in advance. Book a nice dinner out, or just wear it at home. It’s like test driving a car or stretching and warming up before a big game. Enclothed cognition is real, but that axe swings both ways. Put on something you’re not used to and you risk feeling (and looking) uncomfortable in it. You don’t want to get out there “cold” and feel weird. Practice may not make perfect, but it does make comfortable. And that’s key. Plus if it doesn’t fit? You’ll have time to find or facilitate a fix.

#15. The fashion media (both new and legacy) is mostly full of shit. They have to make stuff up and push nonsense because too much of style (while relative) is still stubbornly consistent and simple. Making ridiculous declarative statements and/or pushing loud if not obnoxious silliness is incentivized because it’s the only way to cut through the noise now that every knucklhead with a smartphone can unilaterally declare themselves a style expert. But the internet isn’t real life. Not in tone, visuals, emotion, or sensory perception. Dress for real life. Your real life.