The Serious Advice Thread

[gringodaddy]

I have not yet read this thread (read tons in a full year of lurking) so thank you. That being said, I enjoy being unorthodox sometimes.

 

[gringodaddy]

I didn't say you should get rid of the shirt. It just has limited application. It's not a bad shirt, per se.

Unless the square is unusually large, it ought to poof just fine. If the only way it can be worn is folded, it shouldn't be worn.

Ok, last minute reprieve for the shirt

 

[Monkeyface]

I have not yet read this thread (read tons in a full year of lurking) so thank you. That being said, I enjoy being unorthodox sometimes.

Nothing wrong with being unorthodox, as long as you know how to do it right. The recent (and still on-going) 15 page discussion in the no effs given thread shows that this is sadly a hell of a lot more difficult than you'd imagine. I recommend you make some popcorn if you're planning on reading the thread, it's very entertaining, yet educational.

http://www.styleforum.net/t/349126/no-effs-given-correctly

 

[TheFoo]

Dressing well or stylishly does not equate with orthodoxy. However, you are necessarily adopting a number of forms with preconceived meanings and purposes when you wear stuff like this. So, you should put thought into how they come together so that whatever you do, orthodox or not, it does not appear ignorant or pointlessly jarring.

 

[gringodaddy]

Understood. It is clear that I have loads of room for improvement if I wish to be considered well dressed.

 

[gringodaddy]

Friday challenge outfit.

 

[Caustic Man]

Maybe Caustic Man could post a couple of essential guides in the first post? The squarefail one springs to mind as well. However, we shouldn't turn this into just a newbie thread, as more senior members could use some serious advice as well at times. I think leaving good taste out of the title, and making it just about advice might help to prevent some of the aforementioned problems.

Great idea. I will start on that soon. If anyone has any suggestions for what threads to link, let me know.

 

[Syeknom]

Archived Coherent Combinations is essential

Foo's blog post on pattern matching

Squarefail

Manton's white shirt post

I wrote this guide on reddit (scroll down to the comments to read the rest of it) a while back which is in the spirit of this thread, please excuse any arrogance in posting it.

The good taste thread is probably worth including as the discussions contained within are invaluable.

 

[gringodaddy]

Archived Coherent Combinations is essential

Foo's blog post on pattern matching

Squarefail

Manton's white shirt post

I wrote this guide on reddit (scroll down to the comments to read the rest of it) a while back which is in the spirit of this thread, please excuse any arrogance in posting it.

The good taste thread is probably worth including as the discussions contained within are invaluable.

I so square fail.

 

[Monkeyface]

Great idea. I will start on that soon. If anyone has any suggestions for what threads to link, let me know.

http://www.styleforum.net/t/310176/squarefail-or-the-most-common-reason-why-you-look-like-hell
http://www.styleforum.net/t/309772/how-to-wear-a-white-shirt

 

[FraudulentTom]

This is bollocks, Tom. At least make the effort to put together a full outfit. Giving this * would be too generous. The others may have decided to play the "coddle the new guy" game but I'm not. From me you get a zero. Back to the drawing board, and forget ever wearing a tie with no jacket again.

I need not be coddled, but it would nonetheless be useful to me to receive opinions on fit / color / patterns on the elements I do have. Feel free to give me zero or negative stars or whatever.

Tom, glad to have you post. I'd give this a *. It's really just not a complete outfit without the jacket, and I'm not wild about either the shirt or the tie. Solid shirts, especially light blue, are a good canvas to work with. A tie with less of a loud stripe would be good too. Check out some of the pictures in the Sam and David Hober Appreciation Thread for some inspiration on what a beautiful but subtle tie can do for a look. Unless you need to wear a tie to work, I'd default to a business casual look until you have some jackets.
I think this is a bit harsh. Yes, the whole tie with no jacket thing is not a great look (though I don't think not wearing a jacket suggests no effort is put into the outfit, a lot of people who don't know better do think about their outfits and put in effort but just don't wear a jacket), but this could have been way worse. Shoes and belt could have not matched, and I've seen far uglier shirt and tie combinations (see the Craig Sager thread).

Thanks for the feedback. The Hober grenadines look very nice. I wanted to start with a dark red / burgundy one, but last I looked it was out of stock.

Some context:

I work in a company / industry where people generally wear something between business casual and casual casual clothes. I spend the vast majority of my day sitting at a desk. I've recently been trying to improve my overall look, but I feel like I'm walking a fine line between being the guy at the office who is nicely dressed and being the weird guy who is oddly overdressed.

If this thread is only for tie / jacket / PS outfits, that's fine. I'll come back after I've acquired more staple elements, on the rare days that I dress to that level. There's really not much middle ground that I've seen on this forum; SW&D has lots of jeans and tshirts, and CM has lots of well dressed people in sober 'complete outfits.'

 

[Syeknom]

If you're hoping to upgrade from shirt/trousers to something a bit dressier, a jacket makes more sense than throwing a tie at it. Even better if the jacket is unstructured and has a bit of a casual vibe to it.

If determined to avoid a jacket, it's possible to get away with jacketless ties quite well if you keep the ties very casual and relaxed - square ended knits for example. A small tie bar helps to keep flappage at bay. Make sure the tie coherent with the outfit. Works better with a button-down shirt than a full dress shirt in my opinion.

 

[gringodaddy]

@ Tom: I don't spend anytime on the the thread, but perhaps MC Casual is more in keeping with your dress code, etc?

 

[PiCcolocV]

I am going to assume the advice I would have gotten would be to trade the loafers for suede chukkas and call it a day.

 

[Monkeyface]

I am going to assume the advice I would have gotten would be to trade the loafers for suede chukkas and call it a day.

Sorry, totally slipped my mind. You're outfit looks great, a conservative blazer with a patterned light blue shirt and white linen PS always work together. A pet peeve of mine is people wearing scarves indoors, but I'm assuming you only did that for the picture? The only thing I was wondering about were the shoes, but that was because I couldn't see them clearly in your pictures. Something a little more casual would've been better indeed, perhaps suede loafers instead? But yeah, chukkas would be great too. For men's casual it's certainly a **** outfit. Let's try a tie next time.