Self-Organizing Man

Dressing the Man or How to Be Your Own Dandy

March 1, 2006 – 10:10 am

Jami Ward wrote a great post on male presentation. She offers some great advice. Below is my riff on her piece.

When considering what you will wear as a man (and this suggestion goes to _all_ men) The Ready-To-Wear industry makes cookie cutter clothes that fit only about six guys right off the rack. The rest of us need to have coats taken in, let out, etc.

Even with minor tailoring an Off-The-Rack (OTR) suit or jacket has already been precut, so there isn’t much that can be done to create an ideal fit. To achieve a “perfect” fit one needs to pursue hand-made or bespoke tailoring (the pattern is hand cut and sewn using canvas construction to your exact measurements). Failing that, made-to-measure can be better (precut patterns are cut down to your measurements but usually the fabric is basted together, which means it will degrade in about ten years with heavy wearing). And in a twist fit only to the fashion industry, high-end OTR suits can be just as expensive as hand-tailored suits including the price of the fabric for the hand-tailored suit.

The RTW industry is no friend to women. And it is no friend to men, either. Remember that.

Fashion no more happens for men than for women. We must learn about silhouette, gorge, drape, clothe, pattern, etc. Men don’t come out of the womb knowing how to dress. They learn about fashion over time.

Fashion does for men the same thing it does for women. It hides flaws and enhances assets. I’m assuming this is important to you. If you think wrinkly chinos sagging around your ass with waves of clothe at the ankles stipulates fashion, stop reading right now!

Even with poorly made RTW clothing you can find styles that fit. It takes work. Lots and lots of work. But I believe all good things do take work. And I take my fashion seriously.

Dressing well is not about money, it is about fit. All the money in the world won’t make an ill-fitting suit look good on a rich guy. A $200 suit that fits a man well will make him shine. Remember. Fit. Fit. Fit.

Men suffer all kinds of flaws. Sloping shoulders. One arm longer than the other. The dreaded wide hips. If you don’t believe me about the last one, check out Stacy London and Clinton Kelly’s Dress Your Best: The Complete Guide to Finding the Style That is Right For Your Body. The last guy they dress HAS WIDE HIPS.

To hide your flaws, you need to know what they are, then address them.

Sloping shoulders. You want natural shoulders (_don’t_ go for padded shoulders. You’ll look like a football player). It is the cut of the shoulder NOT THE PADDING, that will compensate for sloping shoulders.

For someone like me with “half-high” shoulders I get a shoulder cut that stops where my shoulder stops.

Short . A higher gorge. The gorge is where the lapel of the jacket meets the neck. Higher gorges, typical of Italian design, makes shorter men look taller. Also consider smaller prints like bird’s eye or pin stripes (versus wide checks or chalk stripes). You can wear three button jackets and double-breasted suits if the proportions are correct.

Tall. A lower gorge. Chalk stripes. See if you can find a jacket that has what’s called a ticket pocket. This one is right above the lower right hand pocket. More pockets break up the vertical lines.

Wide hips. Wear a sack suit or what is sometimes referred to as the Brooks Brothers suit. The suit is called a sack because of its silhouette.

“The silhouette” is the term used by the clothing industry to describe the cut or shape of a suit. Women have long realized that the shape of a garment sets the tone of their appearance, but only recently have men realized that they too have a choice of styles that accomplish the same important task for them.

For this reason, the silhouette should be the primary consideration in the purchase of any suit. The fabric and details, which may add to a suit´s attractiveness, and even the fit should be of secondary concern, since it is the silhouette that actually determines the longevity of the garment. If this statement sounds the least bit dubious, think of the tight- fitting rope-shouldered, wide-lapeled, flared-bottom suits of fifteen years ago. Where are they now? In all likelihood, if one still owns these garments, it´s been some time since they´ve seen the light of day.

Today, there are three distinct silhouettes that have demonstrated their longevity: the sack suit, the European-cut suit, and the updated American-style suit. The first two choices offer distinctly different approaches to dressing: the sack disguises the figure of a man, while the European model leaves little to the imagination. The third style, the updated American-style suit, is almost an amalgam of the other two, hiding the body as well as flattering it. To my mind, it is the one silhouette that looks most comfortable on the American physique: casual, but eminently proper, stylish but without the studied elegance of the European model.

The Sack, or Brooks Brothers Natural-Shoulder, Suit

The sack, or the Brooks Brothers natural-shoulder, suit has been, for almost a century now, the backbone of American clothing. First popularized near the turn of the century, it was a silhouette characterized by a shapeless, nondarted jacket with narrow shoulders (which were soft and unpadded) as well as by flap pockets, a single rear vent, and a three- or four-button front. (via My Tailor)

Now on to pants.

DO NOT, if at all possible, wear pants on your hips. I know this is the RTW trend, but fight it. Wear pants at or slightly below your navel, which is probably wear your natural waist is. Buy pants to fit your hips, if you have them, then have the waist taken in. By wearing pants at your natural waist, they will drape nicely out from your hips down over your thighs. If you want to cover your wider hips, seek a fuller cut pant. Usually “relaxed fit” will get you what you want.

The pant break. The break is very the pant’s fabric “bends” above the shoes. Americans dig a full break. British and Italians do not. I say wear what looks best on you.

Your overriding fashion goal is to wear styles and colors and clothes that work for you!

Now, I know conventional fashion says men dress more conservatively than women. This is because most men have no idea how to dress anymore. Check out Hollywood stills from the 1930s. Men knew how to dress then. In fact, the 1930s is considered the height of men’s fashion.

What does this mean for us gents now? Boldness. Confidence. Fun.

It means we can mix patterns between suits, ties and pocket squares. Wear brown shoes all the time except when we’re attending a wedding or a funeral. Wear ascots and neckerchiefs. Never wear sneakers again, except to exercise. It means we can distinguish ourselves through our clothes rather than hide or look embarassed. Or worse, look like a ridiculous slob.

Care for personal appearance means you care about yourself and your world.

You can distinguish yourself as a man through confidently dressing in patterns that work well for the cloth and color you are wearing. Dressing conservatively, whether early in transition or not, will only really work if you want to dress conservatively. On this point I disagree with Jami.

Any time is a good time to begin to dress they way you want. There are at least 100 different ways to tie a men’s tie. Surely one of them will suit your tastes. As will the dozens of different types of fabrics: wools, flannels, tweeds, linens, cottons, cashmere, vicuna, molehair. Within these fabrics are patterns……

Men, like women, have been sold a bill of goods by the fashion industry. Fight it, if dressing well is what you want to do. Many white men I see today don’t care about their appearance and don’t have any idea how to dress.

For me dressing well is an expression of my soul and a striking counterpoint to an all cultural trend to have men’s fashions go to the dogs. I didn’t struggle and cry and fight for the last ten years so I can wear wrinkly old dockers with beat up asics sneakers.

For me dressing well is about fighting the cultural imperative to give up on myself and my environment, as a man. Does anyone besides me wonder why women are still forced to adhere to cultural imperatives about looking good all the time, but men, who operated under the same imperatives fifty years ago, think wrinkled chinos are a fashion statement?

Why would I fight so hard to have the body I want then not spend time dressing it well?

And I’m not saying dress like you’re on wall street if that is not your style. Check out british dandys, or the way some african american men dress. Punks can be dandys. Goths can be dandys. Feminists can be dandys. I’m going to go out on a limb here and state that for myself, dressing well as an upper middle class white dude is a political act.

Why? I’m fighting for:

• a cultural imperative of style and personal concern for the self;
• well made clothing made by individuals in safe conditions who charge, and receive, a living wage for the apparel arts skills;
• a culture and community where men are not derided for wanting to adorn their bodies in color and pattern;
• a culture of intelligent men, who can take personal responsibility for themselves and their world and care about how other men, old and young, look.

I’m a big believe in the Zen adage that how you do anything is how you do everything. And if I don’t care enough to bother dressing well, what can others rightfully say about other things I do?

Whether you agree with my assessment of my choices, in the end, life is too short not to express your personal style, whaever that might be. Follow your satorial heart to bliss. You’ll be happier and that will show in everything you do.