Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi everyone,
Do you have a sense of style and clear expression of your identity and tastes in your clothing? I really struggle to form a clear style and I end up feeling scruffy instead of purposefully put together. I've been looking at capsule wardrobes to see if I can fix this and find a bit of fashion sense. Curious if anyone else struggles with this? It doesn't help that I have to go into shops and feel everything, try the fit etc and can't just shop online like a lot of people do these days.
This has stemmed from me wanting to make a good impression in my new job, which has a bit more of a formal dress code than my last one.
If you have to be very 'corporate' this was my guide (written in 2012 but probably still fairly valid) for formal 'corporate battle dress'. It was just 'safe' for me to have a guide to stick to, rather than trust my judgement. This assumes some element of tailoring (not necessarily made-to-measure but at least finished-to-fit by the tailor). Hope it helps someone.
Dark blue, grey or dark grey. NEVER Royal Blue (for some reason that's boy-racer/chav).
Plain block colour, not patterned, pin stripe or check.
Pure wool and pretty much no other material other than crease-proof cotton for lightweight summer suits.
Two front buttons, not three (clown suits have three, apparently).
Slit sleeves (not mock slits) with four buttons on the sleeve (three indicates a cheap suit).
Single or double rear vents, but deep ones (again, short vents indicate cheap suits).
Never have a brightly coloured silk lining (chavs do that); always subdued.
Straight cut trousers (NEVER drain-pipes), should sit on the shoes with a single, light, barely-there fold at the bottom/front of the shoe. Well-tailored around the backside and not baggy in the thighs. The trousers should be cut slightly longer at the back of the foot than the front so they sit a few millimetres lower at the heel.
No turn-ups. Trousers which crease at the crutch or knees are badly tailored.
No waistcoat / vest.
Never wear braces, always a leather belt, made from a single piece of leather (not strips of leather stitched together with card in the middle).
Ask the tailor to discretely sew-up the side pockets to make sure you never put anything in them (ruins the hang of a suit).
Shirt - light blue or white. Never, ever, patterned. For a couple of decades pink was considered racy but acceptable; you still see it, but it's too risque to be safe. Crisp stand-up collar with slide-out collar stays (use metal ones, not plastic). Double cuffs and cuff links. No breast pocket. Tailored shirts are always better unless you have a fuller figure. Don't do anything vulgar like have a button-down(!); button-downs are OK for weekends, but not for the office.
Silk tie; can be coloured but not too bright. Never wear a hanky in the breast pocket.
Socks - black or blue, to match the suit; coloured socks are fine if you're confident and know what you're doing (I wouldn’t go there).
Shoes can be traditional Brogues, Oxfords or Chelsea boots. They must be black, and leather, with leather soles. Traditional slip-on Moccasins with tassels are fine but they mustn't have pointed toes or patterns – very traditional Moccasin styling.
Overcoat - wool, single breast or a mac. Brands are (for some reason) OK on coats, if you can run to the outrageous cost of something like a Burbery (around £2.5K). A formal silk scarf and black soft leather gloves with no pattern, or (worse) bits of protruding fur around the wrist etc.
Obviously, I wrote this partly with my tongue firmly in my cheek. It's all completely stupid, and shallow, and it's an impenetrable code for the un-initiated. It’s a uniform, and it's ludicrously expensive.
However, despite all that, for some jobs, in very formal environments, this guide will help you blend in, if that's what you want.
If you blend in, it’s like wearing tribal war paint, or a uniform – you’re signalling that you ‘belong’. People are more likely to focus on what you say and do, rather than be distracted by what you're wearing (because what you're wearing seems discordant to them, and signals that you aren't part of the tribe).
If you understand the dress code and you’re confident then you can safely stretch the boundaries, and get away with it, but I never did and always stuck to the guide.
I took early retirement from all that garbage and for the last decade have barely worn a suit, but I’m told this hasn’t actually changed much.
I enjoyed reading this. I could picture the exact type of man that you are describing!
Ha ha! Probably a bit too much irony for this forum, but very much based on truths which some men hold close to their hearts!!!!