My twin mantras are to buy beautiful things and pay cheap prices. One of my favourite resources on the internet is the Buying and Selling thread at www.styleforum.net as it accomplishes both.
This great website has everything from Brioni and Turnbull & Asser, to the more modern offerings of Nudie denim and Red Wing boots. Check it out here and see if you can’t get some great deals on things you otherwise couldn’t afford, didn’t know was out there or may not have had access to.
A few years ago, at the height of the dot-com era, some people were sounding the death knell for the tie. It had out-lived its purpose and was overly formal at a time when CEOs were wearing golf shirts to the office. However, tales of the tie’s demise were a tad premature as it has once again stormed back onto the corporate scene. For me, the tie is the part of a wardrobe where you can take some chances (if you want), even in a corporate environment. If you are wearing traditional and neutral colours for your suit and shirt (such as a charcoal suit and a solid white shirt), the sky is effectively the limit when it comes to the tie. If you wish to wear an orange tie with a white shirt and charcoal suit, you will likely look very dapper. In the same way that you likely wouldn’t want to paint your walls bright orange and buy an electric blue couch, it’s better to go neutral with big things (suits and shirts) and have the visual interest come from the accent pieces. So, if you’re a guy who likes a bit of flash, then the mistake is to use your suit and shirt; rather, your canvas should be your tie.
Personally, I tend to wear predominantly blue ties (but that is purely a personal preference). Furthermore, I tend to wear dark, simple ties, as I believe a simple look tends to be a more elegant and simple way to dress. There are a number of distinct issues when it comes to ties and will attempt to cover each in turn: first, there is when a tie should be worn; second, what width your tie should be; finally, how to match the pattern of your tie with your shirt and suit.
Tie widths are another important consideration. There has been a trend, as of late, towards narrower ties. As is generally the case, you don’t want to be on either extreme, with a tie so narrow as to serve as a back-up shoelace, or Michael Irvin wide. I would go slightly narrower than you might have previously (somewhere in the range of 3.5 inches). Most ties currently for sale trend towards being narrow and so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding a tie in this width. The reason why I would encourage you to buy ties in the 3.5 inch range (or less, although slightly wider is fine) stems from the fact that suits now tend to have relatively narrow lapels and thus your tie should be in line with this. I wouldn’t worry about it too much and I myself do not wear a tie that one would call “narrow”, but I certainly don’t wear one that can be described as wide. My favourite ties come from Ralph Lauren Purple Label and Charvet, and both manufacturers create a range of ties that would fit the bill for anyone (and, best of all, are available on Ebay in classic patterns at prices around $50, a savings of around $125).
In terms of when a tie should be worn, I have my own rule. If I’m wearing lace-up shoes, I wear a tie. If I’m wearing loafers, that tends to mean that the occassion is not so formal as to require a tie, and so I often wear an unbuttoned dress shirt under my suit. In my mind, so long as you have a fairly good sense as to when lace-up shoes and loafers are generally the right choice, this rule should serve you quite well. Obviously, your office dress code should play an even larger role in instructing you as to whether a tie is required. Some occasions that always require a tie are weddings (that don’t take place on a beach), funerals, bar/bat mitzfahs (someone please correct me on my spelling) and graduations. Pretty much any other time is something of a judgment call.
Finally, the most important of these issues, at least in my mind, is matching patterns. Between the shirt, suit and tie, you have the possibility for three distinct patterned items of clothing (not including a pocket square, although I always wear a plain white one when I wear one). You could also have no patterns at all (meaning that the shirt, suit and tie are all solid colours). The most traditional and safest approach would be to have one or two patterns at any one time. Having no patterns is a very formal look (not to mention boring) and, surpringly, might not be particularly suitable for the office. To match three distinct patterns is the advanced class and can sometimes look quite good. At worst, it can make you look like a jackass and the primary goal of this site is to prevent you from looking like a jackass (hopefully without having to spend too much money). The easiest possible combination would be a solid suit (say charcoal), a solid white shirt and then a patterned tie. No matter what pattern tie you choose, it stands a good chance of looking good.
However, imagine you were to wear a pinstripe suit. I would suggest that it would be easiest to wear a solid shirt and then a tie with dots or another repetitive, non-striped design. If you want to wear a striped tie, makes sure to make the stripes of the tie different from the pinstripes of the suit, both in terms of spacing and width. You could mix in a striped shirt, but then you would have three distinct patterns of stripes and would have to make sure that each are differing widths and scales. Frankly, that is overly complicated – the amount of time you would spend matching stripe widths could be applied to more worthwhile pursuits, like sleeping in an extra 5 minutes in the morning. Save the striped shirt for a day where you’ll be wearing a solid suit. I would also caution against wearing checked clothing with stripes. This leads to lots of lines going in all different directions and rarely fails to look busy. Again, the foundation of your wardrobe should be solid suits and shirts, particularly at the beginning, so rather than cramming all of your patterned clothing into one, overwhelmingly patterned outfit, spread them out a bit. Furthermore, the most useful tie you can own is one with a subtle pattern, such as small dots. These can be worn with striped suits or shirts, checked suits or shirts and solid suits or shirts. In other words, they take the thinking out of getting dressed at 6:30AM, pre-morning coffee, and allow you to generally avoid looking like a jackass.
In terms of tie colour, you have a few options. First, if you’re wearing neutral shirts and suits, you can pretty much do what you like. Otherwise, there are a few things to consider. First, one option is if you wear shirts with stripes or checks in a given colour, have your tie pick up that colour. Second, always make sure that your tie is darker than your shirt (which, as you may notice, effectively rules out wearing a black dress shirt to work; for further discussions on the subject of black shirts, refer to Corporate Style Part 2). I’m not entirely sure why, but this rule of thumb never fails to make one look more professional. Finally, and this is more a personal belief and not something that I would get up and preach about, but I tend to wear dark coloured ties. As has been discussed previously, darker colours tend to be more conservative and thus more “business-like” in appearance. Furthermore, most guys just look cooler and generally better in darker, richer colours. This is a very cliched reference right now, but one can’t help but notice how well-dressed the stars of AMC’s Mad Men are; note the next time you watch it that they almost all wear dark ties. This is not coincidental.
A couple of years ago, I went to Spain. Besides the incredible weather, great food, beer and wine and spectacularly beautiful women frolicking on the European (read: topless) beaches, one of my favourite discoveries were espadrilles. Now, I’ve never been a big slippers guy; they seem a little too “Hugh Hefner” to wear around. Plus, they’re essentially limited to in-your-house use. There are those times where you want to go out to the store to grab some coffee filters or a six-pack, or, better yet, head down to the beach for the afternoon and you’re not feeling your sneakers, boat shoes, etc. Plus, you’re 50/50 on the appropriateness of sandals for daily use in the city (not to mention the fact that they’re a pain in the ass to walk any sort of distance in). The perfect shoe to fill the gap? The espadrilles, my friend. Available in many different colours, lightweight, as comfortable as slippers, with the perfect balance of laid-back summer style and European flair, they really are top-notch in warm weather. Unfortunately, they do have one arch-nemesis that killed the beloved pair that I brought back from Spain: water. The soles of espadrilles are made from a plant called jute and water causes jute to expand, deforming their soles. Nonetheless, jute is extremely light and breathable and a fantastic natural fibre. Since then, I’ve been looking for a replacement with no joy. Most of the offerings available in Canada have unwanted additions, such as brand names, don’t have jute soles, etc. However, Ropey Soles, a company out of the U.K. sell fantastic examples in a variety of colours. Best of all, they’re cheap; £11.99 cheap. Plus,.they ship across the world (including to Canada for a reasonable £7). Get them before summer is over and look like you just stepped off your yacht in the Med, but really don’t want to make a big deal about it.
Check them out online at www.ropeysoles.com and seriously think about skipping the berets that are sold alongside the espadrilles.
Continuing our discussion of business clothing, the dress shirt is particularly important. Most businessmen wear dress shirts to work; furthermore, most suit-wearers remove their jacket for at least part of the day, thus exposing their shirt for all to see. To that end, it is important to get the dress shirt right.
The key element to any dress shirt is the collar as it is always visible. It sets the tone in terms of the formality of the shirt and also tends to be the first thing on a shirt to wear out. There are several basic collar types for business: the spread collar (with it’s offspring, the cutaway collar) seen on the left, the point collar (middle), the tab collar (not shown) and the button-down collar (on the right). I’ve listed these from most formal to least formal.
Much like Ford and General Motors, there was a time a couple of years back where Brooks Brothers was largely resting on its laurels, selling tent-like suits at Manhattan prices. They wanted you to picture JFK confidently striding across Capitol Hill, when you generally pictured someone’s grandfather wearing an ill-fitting suit he purchased 20 years before. For the most part, unless you were entirely devoid of personality or enjoyment of clothes, I would never have recommended their suits. They were the equivalent of purchasing a Toyota Camry, which is the car you buy if you really don’t like cars all that much: reliable, generally refined but scoring a “0″ in the personality department. However, Brooks has taken a step away from that dismal state of affairs with the hiring of their first Italian CEO, who has seen fit to bring in a slimmer, more updated and tailored look to the Brooks Brothers arsenal in recent years. Chief amongst these additions is the ‘Fitzgerald’ line of from their 1818 collection. The Fitzgerald sports narrower lapels, higher arm-holes, flat-front pants and a trim, more modern fit. Finally a suit that does bring back images of John F. Kennedy and is probably one of the most universally appropriate suits you could ever buy. The Fitzgerald is two-button (as nearly all Brooks Brothers suits tend to be) with a single vent and tailored in Italy (obviously with the CEO’s nationality playing some role). Furthermore, it is available in a wide variety of colours and patterns, including navy, grey, pinstripe and glen-plaid.
However, the biggest reason for buying the Fitzgerald right now is that Brooks Brothers is having their annual summer sale and so the price of the Fitzgeralds have been cut from $900 US to a far more reasonable $499 US. Check them out online at www.brooksbrothers.com or at your local Brooks Brothers location. For Canadians, we can look forward to Brooks’ coming invasion of the Great White North in the fall. As always, if you do buy a suit, be sure to take it to a tailor to get it properly fitted.
Summer is a time for more relaxed footwear choices. One of my favourites right now are desert boots, the perfect shoes to throw on with a pair of jeans or khakis. In fact, I guarantee you that they will be the first pair of shoes you grab when you’re stepping out of the house by the fall. Two of the best available both come from the U.K. Nathan Clark made the original desert boot in 1950 and his namesake shoe company, Clarks, still make some of the best examples today. They offer a wide variety in both leather and suede and in a number of colours and patterns, including those in grey at right.
Another pair of note are made by Loake, the esteemed maker of benchmade shoes in Southern England. Their example is called the Sahara (which can be seen on the left) and go up a level in terms of quality of construction.
Clarks Originals Desert Boots are available online in Canada at Zappos.ca at a retail price of $107 U.S. The Loake Sahara can be purchased online at www.loake.co.uk at a price of £79. Considering how well the Canadian dollar is doing against the British Pound, now is as good a time as any to pick up a pair of these fantastic boots.
Sadly for hipsters everywhere, Brooklyn label Yoko Devereaux is the latest victim of the economic recession. While this is sad for the folks residing in Brooklyn and the East Village, it is fantastic for people looking to score some great t-shirts at bargain basement prices. Once a semi-ridiculous $65US, t-shirts are now on sale for the paltry sum of $5US. Plus, they ship to Canada. Hard to beat that deal. The one catch: like any liquidation sale, when supplies run out, they’re gone for good and, at that price, don’t expect them to last long. Check out www.yokodevereaux.com.
Two things that never go out of style: Beautiful cars going very fast and Steve McQueen. Combine these two things and you get the seminal 1971 movie Le Mans. Shot using real footage from the famous 24-hour race in Le Mans, France, Steve McQueen plays a race-car driver for the Gulf Porsche team. Co-starring in this film is his watch, a Heuer Monaco that is seen throughout the movie and has since become one of the most famous timepieces in the world (visible on his right wrist in the photo below).
I have always loved square watches and this one is both sporty and sophisticated enough for the office (particularly when purchased in black). In honour of the 40th anniversary of the original launch of the Monaco, Tag Heuer has re-issued the original style worn by McQueen (in blue with twin chronographs) while still offering the updated versions that Tag began selling again in the late ’90’s.
Even better, Tag has created a video entitled “The Duel” which features current spokesman, Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton spliced into scenes from Le Mans with Steve McQueen. Despite being an advertisement, it manages to still be worth a watch. The video can be found here.
Watches can be purchased from any Tag Heuer authorized dealer; or, to save a bit of coin, try Amazon or Ebay.
If you haven’t heard of James Perse, you are missing out. The King of laid back California style, James Perse produces some of the softest, most wearable casual clothing available. The t-shirts in particular are made from combed cotton and are cut in a modern way so as to look good on just about anyone. However, the board shorts from the new Malibu collection are even more lust-worthy. You would be hard-pressed to find more authentic surf shorts than from a company whose flagship is located in Malibu, home of The Mavericks, one of the most challenging surf breaks in the world. Cut on the leaner side from soft but durable fine drill cotton, these shorts are conservative but with contrast stitching have just the right amount of laid-back flair. The shorts pictured below are in the ‘Moon’ colour with ‘Abyss’ stitching; 5 other colour combinations are available.
These shorts are available online at www.jamesperse.com, or at a variety of department stores and boutiques. Retail price is $135US.
A fantastic book written by Canadian author and frequent Globe and Mail columnist Russell Smith, Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Dress covers not only the basics of men’s style, but delves a little bit into history to explain why we dress the way we do. Not only is Mr. Smith bang-on with most of his comments and suggestions, he will undoubtedly help any reader of One Guy’s Style to avoid looking like a jackass, one of the foremost missions of this blog. The book is organized into chapters based on articles of clothing (from suits to watches) and breaks down each area in an effort to both provide advice and to give enough information for regular guys like myself and most readers to be able to talk knowledgeably with a salesperson about any type of clothing or men’s accessory. Most importantly, Mr. Smith is helpful in pursuing another of One Guy’s Style’s missions: to dress well without having to spend a small fortune (or, at the very least, to prioritize what to spend money on).
Men’s Style is available at www.amazon.ca at a current price of $14.59. I would also highly recommend Russell Smith’s weekend “Ask Mr. Smith” column in the Globe and Mail which can be read online at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/columnists/russell-smith/.
