• Hi, I am the owner and main administrator of Styleforum. If you find the forum useful and fun, please help support it by buying through the posted links on the forum. Our main, very popular sales thread, where the latest and best sales are listed, are posted HERE

    Purchases made through some of our links earns a commission for the forum and allows us to do the work of maintaining and improving it. Finally, thanks for being a part of this community. We realize that there are many choices today on the internet, and we have all of you to thank for making Styleforum the foremost destination for discussions of menswear.
  • This site contains affiliate links for which Styleforum may be compensated.
  • We would like to welcome House of Huntington as an official Affiliate Vendor. Shop past season Drake's, Nigel Cabourn, Private White V.C. and other menswear luxury brands at exceptional prices below retail. Please visit the Houise of Huntington thread and welcome them to the forum.

  • STYLE. COMMUNITY. GREAT CLOTHING.

    Bored of counting likes on social networks? At Styleforum, you’ll find rousing discussions that go beyond strings of emojis.

    Click Here to join Styleforum's thousands of style enthusiasts today!

    Styleforum is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Most useful thing you've learned on StyleForum?

bjornb17

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
758
Reaction score
23
When i came here a year ago or so, I was a complete noob, so there are many great things I have learned.

However, the most important thing I learned is that khakis are not dress pants. I was always afraid to buy wool dress pants because I thought I had to dry clean them after every wear. Now that I learned how to properly care for wool dress pants, and where to find ones that fit me well at decent prices, it changed everything for me.

I went from wearing bland black or khaki dockers to having a nice collection of wool dress pants in many different colors. It opened up so many options for coordinating with different shirts, shoes, and belts and overall a much better look. The drape and comfort are so much better too.

So, what is the best thing each of you learned here?
 

patrickBOOTH

Stylish Dinosaur
Dubiously Honored
Joined
Oct 16, 2006
Messages
38,393
Reaction score
13,643
Shoes can make or break an outfit.

Stick with your own style, just refine it.

Lesser quantity quality always outweighs and outlasts a lot of mediocre garbage.
 

bjornb17

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 10, 2010
Messages
758
Reaction score
23
Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH
Lesser quantity quality always outweighs and outlasts a lot of mediocre garbage.

So true - I learned this the hard way. When i first got interested in dressing well, I literally bought like 20 shirts off of ebay, mostly pretty inexpensive and kind of trendy with bold stripes. I soon learned the error of my ways and resold them again. Once I got over the slight sticker shock of good clothing and shoes, I realised that the benefits far outweigh the expense. You can't put a price on feeling comfortable and looking good.
 

L'Incandescent

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Mar 10, 2010
Messages
16,270
Reaction score
7,539
This is such a truism that I hesitate to say it, but it's true: FIT, FIT, FIT. I can go and buy a $2000 Brioni sport coat off the rack from Neiman Marcus. If it does not fit, it will look worse that a mid-market SC that does fit. Unfortunately, fit is the hardest part to get right. It's easy to just gravitate to the respected brands, but a lot harder to get them to fit in a way that brings out their full potential.
 

acridsheep

Distinguished Member
Joined
Nov 18, 2010
Messages
2,175
Reaction score
2,242
Originally Posted by L'Incandescent
This is such a truism that I hesitate to say it, but it's true: FIT, FIT, FIT. I can go and buy a $2000 Brioni sport coat off the rack from Neiman Marcus. If it does not fit, it will look worse that a mid-market SC that does fit. Unfortunately, fit is the hardest part to get right. It's easy to just gravitate to the respected brands, but a lot harder to get them to fit in a way that brings out their full potential.

+1000000000000

Most of the stuff I thought fit me well was way too big.
 

ter1413

Stylish Dinosaur
Joined
Dec 3, 2009
Messages
22,101
Reaction score
6,033
Don't eat the yellow snow!
Also..a good tailor(alterations) is as important as a good doctor!
 

Grey

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
Messages
80
Reaction score
0
I've only been on here like a week.

So far, the most useful thing I've learned is that there's some cat up in Westminster MD (Elio) who apparently makes fantastic MTM stuff, and I'd never heard of him or English American at all before logging on here.

I'd heard of a few of the operations that deal with him (i.e. Tom James), but I didn't know the factory itself was so close to me and that you could just go straight there.

Seems like there are a lot of DC people on here. Needs regional sub-boards.
 

TRINI

Distinguished Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2006
Messages
9,006
Reaction score
658
Fit is everything.
 

uNiCoRnPriNcEsSx

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2010
Messages
840
Reaction score
284
Originally Posted by designprofessor
1.There's always more to learn historically.

2. Spend wisely if you're going to spend -and you're going to spend.

3. Balance oppulence / restraint.


yea...buy once cry once.
 

The Louche

Distinguished Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2008
Messages
1,213
Reaction score
10
Originally Posted by patrickBOOTH
Shoes can make or break an outfit.

Stick with your own style, just refine it.

Lesser quantity quality always outweighs and outlasts a lot of mediocre garbage.


All great points. And penny-wise, pound-foolish for sure.

Originally Posted by L'Incandescent
This is such a truism that I hesitate to say it, but it's true: FIT, FIT, FIT. I can go and buy a $2000 Brioni sport coat off the rack from Neiman Marcus. If it does not fit, it will look worse that a mid-market SC that does fit. Unfortunately, fit is the hardest part to get right. It's easy to just gravitate to the respected brands, but a lot harder to get them to fit in a way that brings out their full potential.

Totally. More specifically, I learned what the "professional" standard for a good fit was. I've always been concerned with fit, I just didn't know many of the historical finer points prior to SF (and AAAC before SF, and the books of which both made me aware).
 

DerekS

Guyliner
Joined
Sep 17, 2010
Messages
8,338
Reaction score
4,743
the proper way to eat spaghetti.
teacha.gif
 

cromulated

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
150
Reaction score
2
brand awareness: knowing what's out there beyond the usual mall luxury/other readily available options
 

Featured Sponsor

How important is full vs half canvas to you for heavier sport jackets?

  • Definitely full canvas only

    Votes: 55 35.5%
  • Half canvas is fine

    Votes: 60 38.7%
  • Really don't care

    Votes: 17 11.0%
  • Depends on fabric

    Votes: 27 17.4%
  • Depends on price

    Votes: 28 18.1%

Forum statistics

Threads
505,174
Messages
10,579,196
Members
223,888
Latest member
LisaAtkinsu
Top