🎥 Dress well when you're strong or stout: five outfits scrutinized – Gimmick #14

After the end of Fashion at the Beach , a new season of videos begins.

I'm leading the way with Gimmick , our series where we analyze the style secrets of the best-dressed men.

This time, I chose to talk about morphology and more specifically about style for larger men.

We are sometimes asked about this.

It is true that having an imposing physique entails constraints, but there are techniques, gimmicks, to achieve very beautiful silhouettes. 

To discover them, just click here. 👇

Look 1 - An outfit rich in lessons

For this first outfit, I lied to you a little. 

In Gimmick, we give ourselves the mission of deciphering successful and inspiring looks. I decided to make a slight exception to this rule.

This outfit is not the most successful but it is on the other hand rich in lessons . That is why I chose it. 

We are not going to focus on styling here, but rather on proportions.

We can see that this gentleman has a rather broad trunk: he has a bit of a build, a bit of plumpness too. His shirt fits him well: it is neither too tight nor too loose.

Going down, we see that he has rather thin legs and that he has chosen to wear fitted jeans that follow the line of his leg. 

The first problem is there: this gentleman dresses to his size, chooses clothes that follow the lines of his body, but this is not what is most flattering for his figure.

The legs appear very thin next to the torso.

→ You need to balance the volumes, and more precisely, choose slightly looser pants so that the legs appear less thin compared to the rest of the body.

The second problem is that the belly area is relatively visible.

On the one hand, as the legs are thin, the belly contrasts and stands out more.

On the other hand, jeans are worn rather low on the waist. They are worn under the belly, which protrudes from the pants. 

→ The solution is to wear the pants higher on the hips, so that they cover the stomach.

It is not necessarily easy to find and the question of comfort arises but it's the best in terms of style, silhouette.

I found this visual that sums up this idea well: 

Source

On the left, we see that the torso and leg area are roughly equal with pants that reach down to the navel, and cover the abdominal strap.

On the right, with pants worn lower, two problems appear: 

1. Low-cut pants unbalance the silhouette by shortening the legs and enlarging the torso.
2. The belly sticks out, is more visible 

Look 2 – The power of raw materials

Pictured here is Anthony Madsen Sylvester aka Toneloki on social media.

The first thing I like is that this photo is quite spontaneous , it has a natural side : there is not too much staging. It was probably taken with a smartphone.

This outfit is relatively simple in its composition : gray turtleneck sweater, blue pleated pants that are recalled by a hat and brown shoes. The plaid jacket in purple tones is more original but does not shock. 

This look is first of all interesting in the materials chosen: corduroy pants and a brushed wool Shetland-style sweater . 

These are raw materials, in a workwear style , perfectly suited to stronger physiques.

Other materials of this type would have their place here: moleskin for the pants, cables on the sweater (Irish sweater type) or tweed on the jacket. 

Of course not in the middle of summer, but as soon as you are in mid-season, winter, it works. 

We can also mention the shoes: Michael model Paraboot . It is a fairly massive pair with its commando sole, its wide shape and its thick platform stitching at the front. These shoes are quite consistent with this look.

This outfit is also successful due to the volumes: the top is rather wide and the bottom too. There is a good continuity of the silhouette, from top to bottom. 

Finally, we can mention two aesthetic details that could be corrected:

1. The sweater that covers the pants curls up at the bottom , revealing a sort of small bulge, which draws the eye towards the stomach. Here, you should pull the sweater down so that it does not curl up or even fold the ribbed edge inwards to hide it.
2. The sleeves of the jacket are too long, they "eat" the wearer's hand. This is probably a jacket that the gentleman has just put on, unaltered. The bottom of the sleeve needs to be altered to make it the right length.

Look 3 - Dark... but not only

This is the same gentleman as in the previous look, in a very different style register. 

I selected this look to tell you about one thing: the use of dark colors when you are corpulent.

This is advice that you have probably already seen or that you may even already apply. 

It works, but you should not go to excess, that is, dress only in dark clothes.

I think Anthony exploits this idea of ​​darkness in an interesting way by pushing the style cursor a little further. 

So you have a well-established base of dark , even black it seems: the hat, the sunglasses, the sweater and the pants. 

But next to it, you also have lighter clothes.

First, a nice beige raincoat. Notice how beige goes with black. Always good to know.

It is also an interesting garment for the silhouette: worn open like this, the gaze is diverted from the bust, the stomach : we will look more at the sides, at the shoulders or the hips.

Then, we note that on his feet, Anthony wears yellow socks and leopard print loafers. 

It's a strong and daring clothing choice, which works but which is not necessarily to be reproduced, of course.

As a substitute, to keep the idea of ​​shoes whose color extends that of the raincoat, I would choose suede shoes in a shade of brown, taupe or fawn in particular.

Things like this:

Buttero

Morjas

Look 4 – Casual with beautiful details

For this fourth look, we're going to look at Ethan Newton. He's the co-founder of the Bryceland's brand.

Her looks are very cool, feel free to subscribe to her Instagram account, which is private, to see more. Otherwise, click on → this link ← that I found with more than 400 of her looks.

Ethan generally dresses a little more tailored but I chose this outfit, resolutely casual and simple in its construction:

• White T-shirt 
• Cream bomber
• Faded blue jeans 
• White converse 

We realize that these are pieces very much anchored in an American universe ( Levi's , Converse ). This feeling is amplified by the accessories: the red bandana and the Fedora hat, the integration of which here gives a somewhat cowboy aesthetic. 

The choice of colours is rather basic: blue, a shade of white and a touch of red.

We can also salute the management of volumes: there is a good balance between the trunk and the legs. 

The jeans are quite loose but they are perfectly appropriate for a more imposing physique like here. You will notice that they are exactly the right length: rolled up, they skim the shoe. This allows the silhouette not to be compressed.

Choosing the right length of pants

Look 5 - The suit, like a boss

I wanted to show a more formal outfit in this video , and this is the one that caught my eye the most. 

Pictured is Drake's alum Benjamin Glynn Philips.

Despite his rather imposing size, this costume suits him very well, in particular:

• Shoulder width 
• Sleeve length
• Leg length
• Jacket bending

There were certainly some adjustments made to achieve this result, particularly in length.

I would like to draw your attention to two elements of the pants: 

1. It is worn quite high on the waist, on the abdominal strap and not below. We come back to the reflection brought to look 1. Here, the belly does not stand out. 
2. The pants are straight along the entire length of the leg . This is a good thing because it brings balance to the silhouette. Benjamin could probably wear pants that are more carrot-shaped, with a tighter bottom leg. But that would make him look like he has small calves compared to the rest of his physique. 

For the rest of the outfit, it can be mentioned that the brown suede derby shoes complement the suit well. Suede leather shoes are quite adequate when you are on formal outfits but not too much, as is the case here with this taupe suit.

Finally, we can of course mention the shirt and tie, very creative. The tie has two different colored stripes (blue on the chest, red on the collar), the tie is yellow and printed. In my opinion, this combination works for two reasons:

1. The shirt remains relatively sober because its base is white. So it goes well with a tie whose base is stronger. It's the same kind of idea when you have a white shirt and a green or burgundy tie. White (basic color) goes in complement to a stronger color (green or burgundy).
2. The patterns are of different scale . The stripe is thin on the shirt, the print is larger on the tie.

Conclusion

If you are rather strong, you need to pay particular attention to the balance of your figure , and more particularly to the relationship between the top and the bottom.

If you have a fairly wide torso or are overweight, for example, you should avoid tight-fitting trousers, even if you can wear them.

For more advice, I invite you to read these articles:

Tips: How to dress when you are a strong or corpulent man?

Where to find plus size clothing? (2XL and up)