I’m not talking about something like 12 mistakes men make
when dressing. When women write these things they get caught up in the minutiae
that women may understand, but complaints like “too many fabrics” and “length
of t-shirt” are a little fine for many of us to really absorb (unless you’re
wearing a belly-t-shirt, dude — that’s just wrong).
No, when an average kind of guy writes a piece like this it
turns out more like Asylum’s Top 8 Men’s Fashion Mistakes to Avoid, by Brad
Adam, who for the most part nails it:
Worrying too much
about what your buddies will think. This is usually an excuse for dressing down
rather than dressing up. Just worry about looking good and let your buddies catch
up, which they’ll do sometime around the third girl who flirts with you.
Not spending where it counts. Find some really nice basic pieces, and spend most of your fashion dollars there. You can wear an awesome jacket with a $8 t-shirt and look great, but the reverse is almost never true. I do differ from Brad here: if you don’t wear a watch in the first place, don’t start just for fashion. But if you’re wearing a plastic digital impulse buy from the drug store, then yeah, upgrade.
Wearing a dark
dress shirt with a suit. This is close to cutting it fine, but dark-on-dark is
advanced fashion and even some celebrities do it wrong.
Wearing dirty
clothes. You know that “dot” of dried chili sauce on the pocket that you can
“barely see”? Everyone sees it, they’re just too polite to mention it. And Brad
didn’t mention the smell factor: even a clean-looking shirt shouldn’t be worn
in public if you had to run 10 blocks to the bus last time you wore it.
Wearing clothes
that are too large. At best, you’ll look 20 years out of date. At worst, your
friends will ask when you’re due.
Mistaking
expensive clothes for good-looking clothes. The Ed Hardy t-shirt era ended when
Jon Gosselin started showing up in tabloids wearing them. Instead, find
something cool at BustedTees, or better yet, a nice-fitting solid colored
t-shirt and save yourself money and your friends nausea.
Trying to be too
fashion-forward. You know what the new thing is? Skirts for men. That ought to
keep you from straying far.
Not dressing to
the occasion. Again, find a look that works for you, but also remember to adapt
to the situation. Jeans to a funeral are always wrong, even if they’re black
jeans.