How to dress well: 5 fashion tips for men

If we’re being real for a minute, men’s fashion has come a long way in the past couple of decades. The average guy knows a lot more about how to dress than used to be the case, but there’s still a lot of room for improvement. Too often, guys try to dress nicely without really understanding the fundamentals. We’re going to fix that by presenting fashion in the form of five easy concepts.

How to get the right fit with 4 easy fashion tips

Over time, the general styles and fashions change. That has certainly impacted sizes and what was considered a good fit. Have you ever seen raw video footage from the 90s? Everything was oversized and baggy. It was a weird time.

Today, a good fit is what it’s all about, even if it skews oversized. You want your clothes to be comfortable without being baggy enough to leave folds. Within that idea, you can summarize clothing fits into three styles: slim, relaxed, and loose.

A slim fit is designed to show off your form through the clothes. For the most part, you want athletic and/or casual wear to adhere to a slim fit. Naturally, you want this fit when you have a form to show off. For some body types, clothes designed for a slim fit will actually wear more like a relaxed fit, which is fine.

Relaxed is the standard fit. It should feel comfortable and allow you to move around. But, it never drapes. The relaxed fit is ideal for most non-formal settings. Working at an office, dates and just hanging out are all times when you can wear clothes designed for a relaxed fit. It’s also important for layering — but we’ll get into that a little later.

The loose fit is the informal style that is all about comfort (with a few exceptions). Your loose fit does not shape or reveal any of your physical form. Generally, loose clothing is designed to go over the top of something else. You can have loose sweaters or jackets for outerwear. Basically, it’s the fitting style that you use for practical reasons.

You’ll notice that none of these fits mention anything about baggy clothing.

Seasonal dressing tips

Even if your clothes fit perfectly, there’s a lot more to style, and a lot of it is seasonal. Naturally, you’re going to want to dress to the air temperature. You don’t need lots of layers and heavy jackets in the summer. But, there are trends outside of how warm your clothes are.

Let’s start with winter. You need more clothing when it’s cold outside. Obviously. Winter styles trend in a formal direction. You don’t need a monkey suit to go to the grocery store, but throughout the winter, you’ll wear stuff that is more subdued and less flashy. Colors are a bit duller in the winter, too.

As the weather warms into spring, the formal, uptight styles of winter start to fade. You can add gradual elements of casual to the look. Spring is still often layered, so you get to be a little more creative. You can start to leave the muted tones of winter and put more color into the outfit. Casual jackets, like jean jackets, work great. Also, you can wear more chinos and leave your t-shirts visible under the outer layer.

Summer is easily the most casual time of year. It’s when you go to the beach, spend time outdoors, and do all of the fun stuff. When you aren’t at work or in a formal setting, shorts and sandals are widely acceptable. So are tennis shoes. As for colors, feel free to wear bright, bold and loud colors. Summer is the time for fun, and your clothing can reflect that. Don't forget to keep up your manscaping routine during the warmer months either!

As you move to autumn, you see the gradual trend in the other direction. Before colors go from bright summer fashion to muted winter, they will pass through a lot of oranges, earth tones and pastels along the way. You slowly add layers too, and as the need for warmer clothing rolls in, the outfits naturally become a little more solemn.

Layer your look

Ok. Your clothes fit well, and you have the right style for each time of year. Let’s elevate your sense of fashion by talking about layering. Layering works throughout the year, but it’s definitely easier to think about in cool and cold weather. In general, you want to follow a couple of rules to master layering.

The first rule is about color. Darker colors go to the outside. You’ll see some exceptions to this, but that usually depends on how loud or intricate different patterns are. When in doubt, wear lighter on the inside and darker on the outside.

The second — and arguably most important — rule is that every layer should look good on its own. If your outer layer is a jacket, the jacket should look good fully buttoned or zipped. The layer below should look great if you take the jacket off. You get the idea.

The third rule is to try to keep things to three visible layers (or less). If you need more layers to stay warm, that’s fine, but only make three layers visible. Additionally, the innermost layer should be the least visible.

Grooming matters, too

At this point, you can dress yourself quite well, but dressing well is meaningless if you look like a sasquatch in a suit (although that would be really fun to see).

You have to groom to complete the look. A properly maintained haircut is essential, and you want to make sure you're trimming your beard and keeping your facial hair in check as well.

Even though a lot of styles hide most of your body hair, manscaping said body hair helps a lot. Grooming your body can make you feel more comfortable and confident, which leads to you wearing your clothes a lot better.

This is the real key to the whole thing. You’ve seen guys pull off outrageous outfits before. It gets back to you wearing the clothes instead of letting them wear you. All of that boils down to confidence, and good grooming helps a ton with feeling great.

Finish with perfect accessories

Lastly, you need to think about accessories. This can include watches, belts, earrings, rings, ties, cufflinks, and anything else you wear that isn’t technically clothing.

For men, accessorizing is pretty easy. Keep it simple and understated. The accessories are finishing touches, not primary focal points. Leave your Flavor Flav clock at home and stick with a nice watch. If you keep this idea in mind, you’ll be fine.