445,000 RESULTS ! But there's not a lot of good advice on men's fashion...
(almost as many as episodes of the Dorothée club and the Minikeums combined!) To a question as trivial as "how to improve your style and appearance?"...
Google warned me though....
All these answers to this existential question that a man asks himself at least once in his life: "What to wear the day before a date, a job interview, or to celebrate a wedding?" Because knowing how to dress well is an undeniable quality . But developing your style when you have spent part of your life acquiring bad habits (see Benoît's article on this subject which I recommend) is as difficult as honoring your membership card at Waou Club Med Gym. .
Not to mention the disappointments... when those around you ask you with a tight smile if you are " trying to be a fashion guy" while you make the effort (admittedly a little clumsy) to put on an original shirt and appear under your happiest day. ...not to mention the traumatic experiences of department store salespeople who fall on you when you don't want to buy anything.
Or the feeling of helplessness at finding yourself throwing away countless possibilities ( find the odd one out: Zara? H&M? Brice? Celio? C&A?) when you just want a new pair of jeans for your wardrobe. It goes without saying that unless you are really interested in the subject: you give up easily. For lack of motivation, but also for lack of concrete references...
Too little (real) men's fashion advice
As surprising as it may seem: no source (magazine, blog, book, video) makes men's fashion easy to access . The press' treatment of men's fashion is either very specific and specialized (streetwear, costumes, watches, designers, etc.) - which is fascinating but most of the time futile - Or too general and as vague as an enigma of Father Fourras (even inaccurate for the most part). Thin !
It's to the point of wondering if it's not done on purpose! But let's be clear: know how to dress ; it means doing it according to your context, your environment and above all, your budget and your own culture.
It's not finding THE piece in your wardrobe that will make you the cool guy of the evening. And while discussing the time of an afternoon with Benoît (with a Ricard, as usual): I realized that we could summarize the essence of the problem in 4 situations ... in order to better understand it. to understand :
Overthink: or the art of being right while being wrong
What's great about being curious is that you can start a Google search for 3 minutes and end your day playing farmville or clicking on LOLcat images... or vice versa fall into this another (bad) habit of collecting and accumulating information to have a feeling of mastery before a dissertation... which in the end does not clear up the subject any further!
But I understand you for having also been there. This insatiable need for knowledge, to understand and theorize a subject... also has a price! Applied to clothing, the research is done almost according to a mathematical sequence which consists of weighing the pros and cons. Ask yourself 10,000 questions about colors. On the size of the pockets. From the shirt collar. In short, to become a human Wikipedia of men's fashion... but ultimately not knowing how to organize the knowledge, nor prioritize it... and even less APPLY it!
In practice: we find ourselves with endless scientific pleadings about colors, cuts (which looks like a debate on senat.tv) or passionate discussions on jeans about different types, materials of jeans, and in the end... not knowing what to buy .
In short, a situation as strange as attending a virtual Pokémon / Digimon battle... with the masochistic feeling of liking it. This is because this type of research is above all a form of intellectual idealization which has difficulty making sense in everyday life when we are in concrete search for a set that suits us.
I'm still waiting to see someone reproduce the illustrated outfits from men's magazines such as Optimum or Vogue which seem to play more on this area of artistic abstraction (very stimulating for the intellect) , but totally irrelevant once times associated in a person's daily life.
Rather than getting lost in accumulating knowledge gleaned from the internet , remember to save reference images that you like on the internet, and have fun reproducing them (even if the pieces are not necessarily the same). There is always a beginning to everything, and you learn much more by doing it than by contemplating... And don't overthink: this is one of the best men's fashion tips that I can give you.
Budget and outfit consistency: a story full of sound and fury
Liking luxury brands that are 90% off doesn't change things in any way . I know money is a huge barrier. And spending money on clothes is just “waste” for many.
And that many people dream of wearing Dior suits every day matched with Dolce & Gabbana shoes for €1.99 (the most expensive ones, not the cheap D&G ones) . Except that in practice, the problem is more linked to a bad wardrobe which hampers almost every new purchase, thus preventing real progress.
The most common mistake: the superb Armani jacket purchased on sale coupled with vomit blue jeans faded by Skip machine in 99% of cases which makes the jacket pass off... For a thrift store item . You may have $1000 pieces of clothing, but if you don't have the patience to harmonize the rest of your wardrobe, or an income to go with it, I don't see the point...
The mix of genres makes things turn as quickly as a jar of mayonnaise outside the fridge overnight. It is indeed more a question of lack of consistency than of real lack of taste. Think about it, it certainly wouldn't occur to you to mix caviar with diet coke, clean laundry with dirty laundry, or even add an Arielle Dombasles record to your discotheque. In terms of budget, it may be reasonable to consider that the prices (quality included) correspond to:
- shirt : 100 - 150 euros
- jeans : 100 - 250 euros
- jacket : 200 - 600 euros
- coat : 400 - 900 euros
- city shoes : 200 - 400 euros
- t-shirt : 10 - 50 euros
- sweater : 50 - 150 euros
This is a fairly large sample which can give a precise idea of the purchasing order, but it is clear that certain items do not allow "cheating" in terms of spending such as shoes, jackets or coats ( price which differs depending on the hype notoriety of a brand or its exclusivity) . 
Overestimating the power of detail: or the art of thinking ahead
Simply buying an outfit on impulse is often a mistake, and experience proves it. We immediately say to ourselves “this piece is great, it’s just perfect and unique” .
And then it accidentally hangs around in a wardrobe when the time comes to put it on. The following year, she ends up either at the Red Cross or in the hands of your little brother via extraordinary emotional blackmail. Sales are designed to trigger a need to buy, even if it is unnecessary. Just like many brands with an ostentatious tendency. You buy for yourself and not for the pleasure of showing it to others .
The real “luxury” is your originality, and not the name of a brand or a pair of sneakers for 600 euros.
It's not one piece of your ensemble that makes you look good or not.
It's the consistency with your personality and the elegance with which you manage to transcribe it to your "sauce" through your culture, your own history.
The detail yes, but only when you understand why, and especially for what purpose (via your outfit) . If you're going to a friend's party for example, you can go there in a sweatshirt/hoodie and stay cool if your outfit goes beyond the pre-conceived image of the lazy spotty teenager who had nothing else to wear.
Social pressure: or how to “avoid feeling ashamed”
In my opinion, this is the most difficult.
Finding your own style ultimately means finding what suits you best , and discarding what doesn't suit you . So what should we do when someone tries to impose on us a vision of style that is not ours? ( especially when it comes from those around you? - the endless shopping afternoons with your girlfriend, the clothes given as absolutely unbeatable Christmas gifts, etc.).
Not to mention the numerous mockery directed at a person who seeks to improve their physical appearance among their friends... Who are often far from the example they preach. I think there is no point in making 10,000 paragraphs on it. You certainly won't be able to please EVERYONE. The ideal is to find the perfect match between an outfit acceptable to your peers, but sufficiently personal and which makes you happy.
Rather than trying to argue with someone about the length of the jeans at the crotch level, take a look at the outfit models that work , and those that don't. Try them, and reinvent it to suit your style (budget, parts, state of mind) rather than trying to make stupid and nasty copy and paste. Take ownership of the mindset and notice.
The simplest : by looking at other people's lookbooks and taking inspiration from what works until you find the style that suits you. Men's fashion advice will then come to you instinctively, even if it takes time...
You will find quite a few ideas on http://lookbook.nu/ (Click on guys in gender at the top left) (Update): I personally have a weakness for the Dropsnap site which lists a lot of street photos Quite crazy "Japanese", sometimes drinkable, sometimes simply invigorating and inspiring! 😉
I advise you to take a look: http://droptokyo.com/street/ Another possible way would be to look in the "said" topics ' what are you wearing today' which you will find almost everywhere on the net (on google). Create an “ inspirations” folder on your desktop and put them in “do” or “don’t” categories. 🙂
Here are the main ones:
I recommend those from stylezeigeist and superfuture instead. In terms of consistency, but also in terms of inspiration, they are better. For more good deals, subscribe to Benoît’s newsletter (located to the right of the blog) . No spam or offers from rotten sites promised . Just the pleasure of interacting with readers who appreciate what we do.
More articles on how to find your style
- How to find your style? Refine your clothing tastes #2
