King of Spain at the final day of Wimbledon. This looks great.
Very rare to see this level of tailoring nowadays, even on the wealthy. So let's talk about some of the reasons why it's great. 🧵
King Felipe consistently looks great, and it seems that all of his suits are cut by the same tailor.
Some basic points:
1. Collar always hugs the neck 2. No pulling anywhere. Things hang cleanly 3. Lapels end about halfway from collar to shoulder bone (nice proportion)
His coat here also ends about halfway from the collar to the floor, which is again a very classic and flattering proportion. His sleeves hang very cleanly. His trousers are well-proportioned for his coat.
This contrasts with many stars nowadays, who wear short, tight coats. The sleeves grip their arms, which means they never hang cleanly. When the sleeves grip your arms like this, they are prone to riding up on you.
Coats are often too short. On many men, this gives the the impression of wide hips
King Felipe's trousers are also well-proportioned for his coat. The coat's lines flow into the trousers, making the outfit a coherent whole.
A lot of guys nowadays insist on wearing very slim trousers. But when you don't have a very slim upper-body, you end up creating two separate awkward blocks for the top and bottom halves of your outfit. You look like a popsicle stick.
Slightly fuller trousers also means the fabric hangs cleanly. King Felipe seems to prefer a single break on his trousers (I think either a single break or "no break" is fine, so long as the material at least grazes your shoes). Look at how clean the trouser hangs in second pic
Compare that with the recent NATO summit. With the exception of Biden, all of these trousers are too long, and more than some are too slim to hang cleanly even when the wearers are standing still. The fabric clings to the back of their calves.
King Felipe's shoulder line is also just slightly extended, the chest area a little fuller. There's a bit of "roundness" in the upper half of his jacket, which gives the illusion of a more athletic figure underneath.
Many men nowadays wear very slim coats that do little more than reveal the actual shape of the body underneath. Or they wear a size too small.
A small detour: while no one in real life will likely recognize this, the curvature you see in this lapel roll is a sign of very fine tailoring. Typically requires hand pad stitching and hand ironing to create this "springy" roll where the lapel folds over.
A lot of tailoring you see nowadays is quite flat in comparison. Does not have the same three dimensional shaping.
There's also something called "quarters," which refers to coat's front edge below the buttoning point. Here we see the King of Spain with the Bulgarian President. The King's quarters sweep away, creating a more dynamic line. President's quarters fall almost straight down.
Bulgarian President's coat is also shorter and has narrower lapels. The trousers are a touch too slim for the coat. King's lapels are more classically proportioned, coat is longer, quarters open, and the trousers well cut for the coat. The effect is better.
The King's shirt collar is also long enough to reach underneath his lapels. This creates a smooth transition from his shirt to jacket, allowing the eye to move upwards and focus on the wearer. Many men nowadays wear small shirt collars that end up creating a mess under their chin
This is almost impossible to get nowadays unless you go bespoke. But the gorge—the technical tailoring term for the seam that connects a coat's collar to its lapel—is positioned in such a way that lapel's notch sits even with the shirt collar points. Very classic.
Finally, the King wears a four-in-hand. The four-in-hand (or the double four-in-hand) is the only knot you should wear. It is small, tasteful, and doesn't create a meatball sized knot underneath your chin. The asymmetry gives a sense of ease.
Very well done.
One more thing. These principles work for any body type: short, tall, large, slim. One of the great things about tailoring is what once you figure out some of these basic principles, you can apply them to your own dress: collar hugs neck, things hang cleanly, flowing lines, etc.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Check out the fit of these two dress shirts. What do you notice? 🧵
To me, aside from the tightness in the sleeves, the most noticeable thing is the position of these cuffs. So here's something easy to check for when buying dress shirts.
When shopping for a dress shirt, you should try to find a place that has them sized according to your neck and sleeves. If you don't know your size, just look up guides online (you need a measuring tape).
I've done a few threads on how to dress slutty as a man, but here's another. Note, by slutty, I don't mean gaining sexual attraction from your desired gender. But rather, getting attention from menswear nerds involved in menswear discourse. 🧵
The first and most obvs is the adoption of a mesh shirt. These will make you look like a delicious Asian pear.
A mesh shirt—either made with a coat front or in a pullover style—can be worn on its own with shorts or breezy trousers and espadrilles. Think: Côte d'Azur. If you're shy, you can it layered over a t-shirt or a ribbed tank top.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "you have to know the rules before you break them?" What does that mean? Why would you have to know the rules if they're going to be broken anyway? Let's talk about it. 🧵
In his book Status & Culture, @wdavidmarx talks about how our pursuit of status drives culture. While it's not necessarily about clothes, it explains a lot about why we wear what we wear.
As David notes, we wear clothes to both signal our belonging to a group and our individuality within a group. And the best dressers often do something in an unexpected way. This requires knowing a little bit about the established dress practices within a group.
I should note there's a lot of body shaming on Twitter; this thread is not meant to do that. Rather, it's intended to do the opposite: how anyone can look good, regardless of body type, if they pay attention to a few things regarding fit, silhouette, and tailoring tricks
Here's how Vance dressed before his MAGA makeover. Notice a few things: the narrowness of the shoulders, the short jacket, the low rise pants, and the slim tapered legs. He does not have a muscular figure. Kind of typical office worker build and attire.
— Tie and square should never look like they came in a matching set. This looks contrived.
— Except for white, solid silks are almost always bad. They make you look like a magician. Or in this case, like you've nicked a pair of women's underwear
Instead, it should look like you've plucked something from a dresser drawer and thrown it into your pocket (but not your wife's underwear drawer). It should look pleasing, but not overly coordinated. This gives the impression of effortlessness, even if you've put in effort.
This is nothing personal to Ryan Reynolds. but he consistently wears his pants too tight, so his photos are illustrative.
Here's something easy you can check for when buying pants. 🧵
Broadly speaking, there are two types of pant pockets: ones where you put your hands in from the top (as you'd find on jeans) and ones where you'd put your hands in from the side (such as you'd find on wool trousers and most chinos). This discussion is only for the second type
If you're buying pants with side entry pockets, try them on, stand naturally, and look to see if your pockets flare out like this.