Most people would not describe Trump as someone who wears slim-fit clothes. But here, we can see his trousers are quite slim in relationship to his body. You can tell because the hem barely covers the opening of his shoes.
If you're a heavier man who wears a suit with slim-fit trousers, you end up breaking the top and bottom halves into distinct blocks. Notice how much the jacket hangs over the trousers. There's a lot of empty space between the jacket's front edge and his pants.
It's a mistake to think that wearing slim-fit clothes makes you look slimmer. Or that everyone has to conform to some trend. A better approach is to dress for your body type. Look at the relationship between Jackie Gleason's jacket and pants.
The wider trousers here are not the most fashionable, but they are the most flattering (for him). By minimizing the jacket's overhang and reducing the empty space between its front edge and the trousers, you get a streamlined silhouette from top to bottom.
We see the same effect here on France’s President Hollande and Japan’s Emperor Akihito. Hollande's trousers are too slim for his jacket. As a result, he looks like an egg on sticks. Compare his silhouette to Akihito, where the jacket and pants flow and form a harmonious whole.
Such advice is not limited to men with heavier figures. Daniel Craig often wears suits that also don't flow. The top and bottom halves often form distinct blocks. This is partly because his trousers are too slim and his jackets are too short.
When you see beautifully dressed men, consider how the top and bottom halves form a silhouette. They don't always need to flow (in some casual styles, breaking up these parts can be intentional and part of an aesthetic). But in tailoring, it's often best when there is flow.
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But first, let's play a game. Here are two men wearing gray tailored jackets with blue pants. Which outfit looks better to you? Ignore physical attributes of the people underneath and focus on the outfits. Then reply with your answer.
If you said the right looks better, then we have the same taste. In this case, we can again go back to history to understand our views.
As I've said before, our notions in traditional men's tailoring largely derive from Britain, where suits and sport coats were invented.
If you're looking for fabrics that you can wear in the summer, it's useful to consider three things: weight, weave, and fiber. If you only pay attention to one of these dimensions (say, linen), you will miss the bigger picture.
If you're shopping for shirts, then some of the better summer materials include linen, seersucker, madras, and very lightweight, open weave cottons. In the photo below, you can see a swatch of voile, which is a featherweight 2/3oz cotton that's so open, it's almost sheer.
You can see here why most men don't wear it. Without a jacket, the material can almost be indecent (although it's more forgiving in non-white colors like light blue). For this reason, some tailors double up the front, like you see on the right, but this limits the breathability.
As a general matter, my advice isn't really "go to this store" or "buy this brand." Rather, I encourage people to think about clothes in a certain way.
My advice isn't really about brands or stores because everyone has unique fit challenges they have to solve. Perhaps you have forward pitched shoulders or a barrel chest. Or maybe you have big thighs and a prominent seat. No single suit will work for everyone.
When shopping for a suit, it helps to know how they're made. Suit jackets and sport coats are unique in that they're made from layers of haircloth, canvas, and padding, which are shaped through darts, pad stitching, and ironwork. This is how you get the 3D shape.
A lot of attention is paid to craft traditions in Western Europe and North America, such as handsewn Hermes leather goods and bespoke Savile Row suits. But the uneven focus leads some to believe that things made outside of these places are low quality.
This is not true. 🧵
When I was on a menswear forum, there was a guy whose style I greatly admired. Like others on the forum, Niyi Okuboyejo loved men's tailoring. He had a technical understanding of how a jacket should hang from the shoulders. He also knew how to put things together in a classic way
At the same time, he also knew how to do things in his own voice and style, but in a way that looked good and not haphazard. Sometimes this was about adding a funky tie; other times, it was playing with materials and silhouette. All of these are still suits and sport coats!
I think "fun socks" should be used judiciously, as a lot of what's worn today feels more childish than whimsical. IMO, most men should avoid them entirely.
But if you insist on wearing them, here are some suggestions on how to make them look less bad. 🧵
Any time this topic comes up, people invariably bring up George HW Bush, who was known to wear fun socks later in life. While I wasn't a fan of those socks, I agree that Bush was well-dressed. I also think when you reach a certain age, you have license to wear whatever you want
There are a few reasons why most outfits look bad with these sorts of socks. First, most men are not at that senior age where these socks become charming.
Second, most of these socks look like something you acquire by sending in a proof-of-purchase from a cereal box.
Most people think of black tie as the most formal kind of menswear, but technically speaking, it's semi-formal evening attire. Historically, men wore this kind of outfit to dinner or evening shows, such as going to the opera or ballet. Or celebrations such as NYE parties.
White tie is true formalwear. It differs from black tie primarily in how it requires a long tailcoat (black tie originated when men cut the tails off their coats to create a more casual garment for dinner). Also requires a white waistcoat, white tie, and wing collar.