- Joined
- Aug 29, 2013
- Messages
- 4,390
- Reaction score
- 4,641
My best advice would be to find a (or several) styles/looks your interested in and then work backwards from there about what to get and where you should shop. If you're going to go a trad/ivy route advice and shopping locations are going to be very different then if you wan to go a workwear route, a modern look, or a 'sleeze' 70s look.
Smaller scale advice:
- avoid going too trim or too full cut, find the medium ground and something that flatters you. For a long time I thought bigger was better cause it hides flaws but it also makes you look like a sail. Too skinny can do the opposite
- figure out how color combos work and play into that
- find a 'focal' piece to center an outfit around and build out from there (i.e. 'I want to wear this cool field jacket, how can I style this into 2-3 different distinctive outfits')
- focus on silhouette and how it looks rather than perseverating on quality or the best 'value'
- don't be afraid to thrift stuff, its a low cost way to try something out that might not stick
- Derek Guy (a former poster here, now active on Twitter) has often written about how 'clothing is a language' and learning how things work with each other to make a coherent outfit that conveys a message
This is all such fantastic advice. Also: look at different outfits (here, Instagram, lookbooks, blogs) and try a lot of things on. Many or even most of them will not resonate with you -- that's fine. But try to be explicit about why you like (or don't like) a given outfit or item of clothing. The more clearly you can articulate that, the better. It's all about developing your own eye and aesthetic preferences.
Sometimes people post here asking "I bought this [insert item of clothing] but I don't know what to wear it with, help!" My advice is never buy clothing without a clear idea of how you will integrate it into your wardrobe. Don't buy things just because the price was really good.
Also, people often post questions like "what is the best pair of khakis?" Asking that question means, again, that you haven't thought about what style and silhouette you're going for.