How to wear a suit for men:
First, some basics-
A suit is a modern form of formal wear. There are a huge amount of variations in design, level of formality, and ways to wear a suit. In its most basic form, a suit is a matching jacket and trousers made from the same material. This material can be made from many natural fibers, most often wool, however cotton and linen suits also exist.
My opinion: Everyone should own a suit. You never know when the occasion will call for it, and last second scrambling will have you looking like crap. You can dress up, dress down, and tailor a good suit to any occasion.
Modern suits come in a few basic varieties:
Two-piece: Consists of a matching jacket and trousers or slacks. Typically when one thinks of wearing a suit to work, or church, or any other semi-formal occasion, this is what springs to mind. Typically worn with a collared shirt and tie, and considered the least formal.
Three-piece: An increased step in formality, adds a matching vest to the above set.
Jackets themselves also come in two basic varieties-
Single-breasted: A single breasted jacket is again, the least formal and standard form of jacket. It uses a single row of buttons, placed low near the waistline. Modern fashion dictates 2-3 buttons are present.
Double-breasted: A jacket with two vertical rows of buttons, with only the outer buttons functional. Often seen as more formal, or worn by older gentlemen. Increasingly uncommon.
Jackets can have some variations within these types, typically in the type of sleeves, lapel, and cut in the tail, known as a vent. There are typically 4 buttons on the sleeve that are non-functional. Lapels can come in a variety of cuts, with notched being the most common. There are also peaked lapels, considered more formal (think tuxedo).
A cut in the back of a jacket is a vent, and facilitates reaching into your pockets and sitting down.
Trousers have less variation, and tend to have changed as fashion changes through the decade. Most variation is seen in whether the trousers have pleats or not. Typically most trousers will have two pleats in the front, giving a better hang off the waist and making sitting more comfortable. Non pleated is a more trendy choice, giving a smoother and slimmer appearance.
Trousers may have a cuff at the bottom, though this is an informal option.
They also are made to take either a belt or suspenders, with belts being far more common. If they're made for suspenders, the buttons to attach them will be inside the waistband.
So what color do I choose?
The basics are: Black, grey, and navy blue. There are also brown, olive and tan.
Patterns such as pinstripes are also available. Your standard suit is going to be a 3 button navy blue single breasted suit. A common thread between all of these is that they are fairly neutral colors. This is not where you make your impression, or impact. You don’t want to be this guy:
You’d much rather be this guy:
Black suits are considered more formal, but this is slowly declining. I still wouldn't recommend a solid black suit as your only one. At most, something with a slight pinstripe.
Color comes out in your accessories: A bold tie, or even a patterned shirt.
Shirts:
This section could be its own huge article, however I won’t get that far into it. Most dress shirts will be long sleeved, fully buttoned, and collared. They can be of any color, but most will be a light blue or white. Other pastels are seen such as soft greens. The cuffs can close with buttons (common, less formal, known as barrel cuffs) or cuff links (less common, more formal, known as French cuffs). The collar can be spread, point, or button-down. Spread is wider and lays against the chest, point stands up and is smaller. Button down pins the ends of the collar points down against the shirt with small buttons. These shirts are not traditionally worn with suits. There are shirts made with offset color collars, usually white. These are more formal however typically associated with business. Ideally a shirt should be long enough to easily tuck in. Cotton is an excellent material, synthetics tend not to breathe and rumple up easily. Linen shirts wrinkle extremely easily, though can be worn in the summer. Buying a shirt can be far from simple; your best bet is to be measured for your neck and arm length, which gives you the two numbers shirts are usually sized in, 16 34, for instance. Once you have a good idea what size to look for, you can try sizes near your measured size for fit and comfort. Shirts are also often classified as “regular” and “athletic” cuts, or variations on these. Regular is a wider, squarer cut, while athletic is tapered and rids the shirt of excess material at the sides. I prefer these.
Shirts should be ironed, and if necessary, starched.
Ties:
Ties are always darker than the shirt. While the tie and shirt shouldn’t be the same exact color, the tie should contain some color in the pattern of the shirt so as to provide a match that leads into the shirt cleanly. Again, the standard is a light, very pale blue shirt, likely with pinstripes or checks, and a darker navy blue tie.
Don’t get a clip on. Don’t do it. They look like clip-ons. Learn how to tie a tie! It’s not too difficult, and while there are a lot of methods to do so, there are a few basic ones:
The Half-Windsor: Gives a smaller, slimmer knot that is more comfortable and less formal.
And the Full Windsor: Gives a very full, very triangular knot that dresses up a shirt.
http://buypaisleyties.info/how-to-tie-a-tie/
Set up the length of the tie for the point to end up around your navel, or belt line. Tuck the slim end in the label on the back of the tie, or use a tie tack/bar. The slim end should not extend past the wider end once tied.
Belts:
Belts are relatively simple. Wear one, even if your trousers stay up without it. I’m not going to get into suspenders as they’re not common in the US and unlikely to be used by someone reading this. Belts and shoes should match, not precisely but the same color, i.e. brown belt/shoes. They should be made of leather. The buckle should be simple and be silver or gold in color, preferably matching other jewelry such as a watch or rings.
Shoes:
Shoes are always of the “dress” variety, such as Oxfords, or slip-ons. In a somewhat backwards way, a simpler shoe is considered more formal, and those with more decoration less so. Most shoes are going to be black or brown. Black is worn with black or grey suits, and brown with navy and any other color of suit. The brown is typically of a darker shade. If you're not sure, a good choice is a pair of Oxfords.
Other accessories:
Pocket watches, handkerchiefs, and watch chains can all be worn with a suit to increase it’s formality. For the watch, you need a pocket-style watch and a chain to attach it to a vest. The watch chain is threaded through a button hole and the watch is placed in the left pocket.
A handkerchief or “pocket square” can be worn in the chest pocket but aren’t very common and typically seen as a wedding or other formal occasion accessory.
Socks:
Socks typically should match the trouser to minimize attention to the leg. They can also be darker or simply black. Don’t wear white socks unless you happen to be wearing a white suit.Wearing the suit:
Never button the bottom button. It just isn’t done. Make sure your shirt collar stays inside your jacket, however the sleeves may protrude slightly from the cuffs. Keep your shoes polished, and buff out any scuffs.
I don’t have a suit. Where do I start?
My suggestion is to have one suit in your inventory, for the occasional wedding, interview, funeral, or any other occasion that might pop up. It should ideally be a relatively neutral color, navy blue or gray. Have a shirt or two ready to go, white or light blue. Find a nice dark blue silk tie, and branch out from there.
Where do I go?
There are quite a few places you can go to find a premade suit. Tailor-made (known as bespoke suits) can be prohibitively expensive unless you happen to find yourself overseas where the craft is still common. These pre-made suits will still need to be tailored to fit you well. So find a place like Men’s Warehouse, and ask to be measured. The staff can assist you in making alterations once you find a suit to your liking. You don’t have to spend a fortune on a suit that you won’t be wearing every day. Higher quality suits typically have greater durability, which you probably don’t need in something you’ll wear infrequently. Look for something that fits you well, gives you a good silhouette, and puts forward the impression that you know how to dress in a day in age where this tradition is slowly becoming forgotten by the common man.
More info:
http://www.throughtherye.com/flusser/index_current.html
http://savillian.com/category/beginners-guide-to-suits/[/QUOTE]
Posts
Coordinating Colors and Prints
Part of what makes coordinating an outfit tricky is knowing what colors look good together. When you throw in prints, hideous outfits are a possibility. But it shouldn’t be too intimidating, let’s start with a a very basic overview of color theory.
This is a color wheel. As you can see, the ‘warm’ and ‘cool’ colors have been clearly divided. This is the first important note. Some people look better in warm colors and some people look better in warm depending on your skin tone. There isn’t anything stopping you from wearing a warm color if you are cool toned but it is a good place to start. Your skin tone is either warm (yellow undertones), or cool (blue undertones) or neutral. If you aren’t sure, cycle through some colored outfits and see what colors suit you best. If you have gold or silver, ask yourself which suits you best (gold compliments warm skin tones and silver compliments cool tones). Check in natural lighting, since fluorescent lights cast bluish or green light and incandescent cast yellow light. Alternately, go over to a makeup counter in a department store and ask one of the makeup consultants. They are trained to know this. You now have an idea of what colors will suit you.
Pair warm colors with neutrals (more on those later) or other warm colors. Pair cool colors with other cool colors or neutrals. It isn’t a rule, but again, a good place to start. If you don’t know anything else about color theory this is already starting to sound suspect. You might have heard of complimentary colors (colors directly across from one another in the color wheel) being paired together, like red and green, or blue and orange. You are probably thinking of carmine red and forest green and quite possibly you think that sounds awful. No worries!
To prevent your colors from looking too busy, try to make it so that your various colors aren’t all the same value or saturation. Value is how light or dark a color is, and saturation how bright and pure a color is. The first image illustrates the range of values for red.
In this second crappy image you see the same value of blue at two different saturation levels. The blue on the left is very saturated, but the blue on the right looks very dull and grey; this blue is less saturated. Never the less, they are both the same value of blue.
There are a few basic color-coordination schemes to further help you. Pairing similar colors means pairing colors that are right alongside one another on the wheel (red and yellow or red and orange for instance). Complimentary colors are colors that are right across from one another on the color wheel. Contrasting colors have at least two colors ‘in between’ them on the color wheel. Red and blue for instance. For the fashion fledging, choosing one dominant color so that the other colors may act as accents, is a good rule of thumb.
In general however, colors that are too similar in value and saturation should not be worn in too equal proportion to one another. You can wear your bright yellow and bright blue but wear one color in smaller amounts relative to the other.
Neutrals are colors that pair with all other colors and compliment all skin toned and include black, white, cream/off-white, grey, brown, beige and navy. Neutrals are thus excellent colors for foundation pieces that you intend to wear in a variety of ways. Note that navy is really just a dark blue but the fashion powers that be decided it is neutral. That is why jeans go with everything. Aside from black, white and navy however, neutral colors aren’t completely neutral.
Cream, or off-white, or ivory, is just a warm white. That is, it is a white with a pale color tint, usually warm, usually slightly yellow. For the most part, it pairs best with other warm colors.
Grey can be slightly cooler or warmer in tint if not completely neutral. If you are cool-toned in skin color, wear cool greys; if warm-toned, wear warmer greys. Match warm greys to warm colors (or other neutrals), and cool greys to cool colors or other neutral colors. Note that grey also has a much wider value range than black, white, ivory, beige, or brown.
Brown can be a very tricky neutral to wear because it has such a wide value range and because it can be warm or cool. Here is an example:
Brown traditionally does not pair with black, grey, or navy. If pairing with other browns, rair with other browns of the same warmth or coolness.
Beige is essentially is a pale brown but is often classified as its own neutral. Wear a shade of beige that best compliments your skin tone.
ON PRINTS
Prints look great but they are tricky business. There are a few simple tricks to wearing them properly however:
1. DO NOT WEAR HEAD TO TOE PRINT. If wearing a print dress, the dress should either not go past the knee, or if longer, feature a small print that isn’t terribly busy or brightly colored.
2. AVOID VERY LARGE PRINTS. It is just too difficult to make work outside of accessories.
3. WEAR ONLY ONE KIND OF PRINT. Seriously, do not wear an African print blouse with a floral print scarf or skirt. It looks stupid. So don’t do it.
4. WEAR ONLY ONE PRINT PIECE AT A TIME. Pair prints with solid colors, or if you absolutely MUST wear another print, make sure the other print is small and subdued, and preferably within the same color family
5. PULL COLORS FROM THE PRINT. Prints make matching accessories easy. If your print has dabs of blue and purple on the hem, wearing similar blues and purples make nice accents.
6. FORGET PAISLEY. It is a remnant of the 90’s that is best left in the past.
Or maybe more (un)realistically.
dudebutt is a go
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Not enough showing of dudebutts
Shoes are probably my favorite part of dressing.
Nothin' like wearing a new pair of fly kicks.
This is me IRL.
can't wait to get the Vogue issue with her on the cover
so stoked that the single Born This Way comes out on my birthday
speaking of Vogue, is that a good fashion magazine? i don't know
What spring does with the cherry trees.
swagga
im the guy vomiting behind you (i looked at your face)
to CRWTH I gotcha back son
If I become rich I would like this.
But more realistically it will be this.
But the second is still surprisingly expensive.
Satans..... hints..... I'm a mo bro!
Jeans: How tight is too tight?
What spring does with the cherry trees.
decisions
You should be able to see the vein on your penis.
Satans..... hints..... I'm a mo bro!
google and see if you can get pics/details from someone who took the plunge + posted about it?
swag
I didn't think it would be that expensive, then I looked at the price and was like, gosh.
Satans..... hints..... I'm a mo bro!
you mad she was suckin my diiiiiiiiiiick
Satans..... hints..... I'm a mo bro!
I just know how to take its picture
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Satans..... hints..... I'm a mo bro!
Sheri Baldwin Photography | Facebook | Twitter | Etsy Shop