Yes, No and Maybe Rules of Style

YOUR FASHION BILL OF RIGHTS
Dressing well doesn't mean wearing designer clothes, flashing the bling-bling and being ahead, on top of or being behind the trend. Style is personal. Style is a projection of who you are as a person inside on the outside. Style reflects confidence.

As a man who has fun with fashion and style, here are some basic rules or Yes, No and Maybes:

YES / Basic Do's

1. Have a Good Tailor On Speed Dial: Looking good is all about the fit of your clothes or the fitness of your body. Because if you look good naked and can be shirtless at all times. God speed be nah-ked. For the rest of us who aren't sample sizes, you need a few pins and tucks here and there like a Bravo TV housewife. You don't need to have it so tight that your wool suit fits like a wetsuit, but you shouldn't look like a dancer in a dated MC Hammer video like "You Can't Touch This"...because no one ever will. Find that balance. Don't have an eye for it, ask your tailor.

2. Find Your Color on the Color Wheel: Not every color in the rainbow will look good on you. Orange-browns make me look like diarrhea. It's not pretty and I embrace it because I know sky blues and all shades of purple makeup for it. You need to bust out a Pantone scale and find where you fall and which colors match. I once heard that Calvin Klein used to have a Pantone stick in his desk that he would use to check and see if his assistant made his latte perfectly or not. Find yours!

3. Yes Spend a Little Extra on Accessories: Unless you work in a grocery store where carrying a plastic bag with your belongings inside is the norm, then you might need to carry that laptop, phone, picture of the kids and your sex toys in something that's a little bit more refined. Apply this rule to the accessories you use to finish off your outfit. I cringe every time I see a guy in a nice suit but is sporting a Jansport backpack from freshman year. Ick! Shoes should look like they won't unglue if you step in a puddle and your jewelry shouldn't turn your wrist green. You deserve better.


No's / Don't Do It Save Yourself
1. Gym Shoes with Your Work Clothes: It's a universal no-no for both men or women. This is a unisex rule that's the great equalizer in fashion. It's not the 80's when dress-sneaker shoe hybrids didn't exist. Do you really love your job so much you want to run to the office? Is running through traffic and being hit by a cab driver filled with road rage worth getting to the bus 10 minutes ahead so you can get the front seat worth it? Slow your roll. You look hideous in those white New Balance sneakers with your suit...unless you're going from the office to a marathon. Then it's still NOT okay.

2. Dressing Out of Your Age Range: At some point in your life, you realize you're not in college any more and the backwards baseball cap and hoodie combo looks stupid on a 40 year old body that's 40 lbs heavier than when you rocked the look as a Sig Ep. The same goes for guys who dress like they shopped their dad's closet from the boxy suits and slip on loafers. Clip the brass buttons from those double breast navy blue blazers and find something that was made when you weren't a fetus. You can project the young or polished look you want without looking like a punch line.

3. Clothes Like You Just Don't Care: You know who you are. You say you don't care about style and how other people think of you based on how you dress. You've been rocking the hobo look since the 1980's. Caring about style is gay. But we all know that's a lie. You may get by on torn sweatsuits and shoes that make a skunk smell like a dozen roses, but you don't wear those things to a wedding, an interview or a funeral. You do care at some point. So when you do go to the back of your closet to pull out that nice suit, please reference the Yes section above.

Maybe / Even I Don't Know the Answer
1. Dress for the Season: In the world of global warming and inter latitude travel, does dressing for the season really exist? It certainly doesn't apply for everyone. Living above the Maison Dixie line, there are a few days you wear a tank top in the middle of summer to let your nipples breath and you break out your sleeping bag coat in a freak snowstorm because your nut sac is frozen like a sac of grapes. Wear clothes that keep your body in a comfortable state. I err on the side of looking cool.

2. Being a Trendoid from the Planet Follow the Trend: They come and go like the cold, but sometimes they really work for you. Just don't get attached. You might catch something you didn't want to and will need a doctor to prescribe something for your fashion emergency (i.e. Ed Hardy shirts...burn it off like a wart).

3. Imitation Style: Brad Pitt rocks your world and that's how you take your style cues. Gwyneth Paltrow Brad Pitt was often found on the best dressed list. The Angelina years haven't been as kind. But if that's your touchstone for style then polish that stone to find your way to looking smooth.