Rule 29

Just a rule on mens style today.  We're not just about casual mens style you know, we know our shit about smart mens style as well.  It's like we're slingin' crack-rock, and we got a wicked jump-shot.

29. Just because you have lots of buttons, it doesn’t mean you have to do them all up. Find your pivot point by squeezing your thinnest part of your waist (it’s the bit just above your hip bone). Half an inch down is your pivot point. There should be a button here, do it up. Leave the rest open.

Style Guide: Pattern and Colour

This style guide uses rules on colour and pattern to show you how to dress like a fucking man. The problem with wearing more than one pattern is you can look like bomb damage at a haberdashery store, but being aware of scale will help you look more Don Draper than Don Cherry (go on Google Don Cherry, you don’t know who he is)


Covent Garden 28/01


Rules


40. 2 Patterns. You can “clash” two patterns, but the scale has to be different


13. You’re a 'Differ' if: Your hair is a different colour from your face. You should be wearing contrasting colours; it enhances the colour differences in your face. The contrast will enhance your face. Fuck subtleties, you’re a man, only women and cats know subtle.


19. Create a highlight. Move away from just black, blue and grey clothes. I know, sometimes it’s nice to hold onto what you think is safe; safe is nice, you look into your wardrobe and it’s a sea of nice safe blacks, greys and blues. Fuck that you winey little girl. I’m not suggesting you start buying suits that would scare Jonathan Ross circa 2001, but a bright corner pocket, socks or scarf will make you look like you’ve thought about it, and you’ve got the chops to have a go.

Fucking Shazam!  Not fucking playing games this little ray of sunshine is he?  Two bold patterns are working well together here because of their differing scales of pattern.  If he’d had two patterns which were similar in scale, they’d fight for attention, but here they work well independently. By having colours from the same tones, they have a link. 

Mix in the fact he’s only gone and picked a set of warm colours which makes his skin tones appear warmer, and he’s used a strong contrast in colours which mimic his hair/face contrast, the overall use of pattern and colour is the bollocks.  And lets face it, he’s had a go; he who dares Rodders, he who dares....

Style Guide: Colour and Contrast

This style guide uses rules on colour and contrast to show you how to dress like a fucking man. The problem with wearing jeans, jacket and boaters is that you could end up looking like your dad. But our kid's dodged that bullet.
 


Borough Market 


Rules


15. You’re between a Differ and a Similar. You need to mirror the contrast of your hair colour to your face colour in your clothes. It makes the whole thing look more composed, not just a collection of things.


18. Work with your palette. Unless you’re a black and white minstrel, or you want to look like a French man, you’ll have to start picking out tones in your face to work with: eye colour, ruddiness of your cheeks, hair colour. The big advantage of building a wardrobe based on your palette is that more and more clothes will fit together, and you’ll get more combinations of clothes.


26. Only well fitted clothes look good. Too baggy, you’ll look fat and like you’re trying to hide something, too tight and you’re not going to look buff, just squeezed.

Here is an excellent use of colour.  He’s taken the slight redness in his beard and the blond of his hair and mirrored that in his jumper and his collar (jacket and shirt).  The contrast in colours is medium, which reflects the contrast in his face, to hair colour.  If he’d been wearing bland similar colours his face would have been washed out, similarly, having stark contrasting colours would have over powered his face.  Just to hammer home that everything is subtly considered, the shoelaces complement the pallet.

By keeping the shapes smart, but the clothes relaxed, you’re looking smart, but not stuffy.  The popped collar, and nice jacket pocket detail, shows an attention to detail that your average gob-shite will miss.  

The Moment of Realisation

Look at yourself, you’ve been dressing the same way since you were 13; baggy jeans, printed tee, some trainers and a few hoodies - the uniform of the apathetic teenager.  It’s time my son, to start dressing like a fucking man.  Society really doesn’t take overgrown teenagers very seriously, and now in life, you need to be taken a bit more seriously.  The problem is, you haven’t got a fucking clue.  You’re going to poke around in vain hoping you get lucky, but you know deep down your going to end up looking like a Peter Stringfellow, or worse still, your Dad. 

Unlike girls who have been refining their appearance since they were about 12, gently developing it for the last 18 years and discovering what works for them, you put some clothes on at 13, and stuck with it.  There are no women who dress the same at 18 as they do at 28, why should men?

Fair enough, you incrementally started spending more throughout your twenties, kidding yourself that there was a link between cost and style, but you were always one pay cheque short of the really good stuff.

DLAFM is not a guide to specific pieces, but more of a toolbox to help you understand the mechanics of what looks good on you.  Far from being a definitive guide, DLAFM should help you start thinking critically about how you dress, the effects clothes have on your appearance and how generally not to look like a fucking cock nose.