Men's Black Shirts - A Man's Guide To The Black Shirt - Wearing Black Shirt Style Tips
Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, we're going to be talking about black shirts.
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All right.
This is the question that came in, "I think there's one thing missing from the basic shirts,
a black one.
I think black shirts always look very good and they have a little bit more 'sex' in them
than light colored shirts."
Well, it's a good point.
To some extent, I would have to say they nailed it there because black does symbolize -- I
mean, colors have symbols.
Brown symbolizes trust and is a very earth color.
White symbolizes cleanliness and there's a reason why doctors wear white jackets.
Now, black, what do we think of when we see black?
We think of mystery.
We think of the bad guy.
We think of rebellion.
We think of the guy wearing the black leather jacket.
There are certain things that come to mind.
And it being a little bit more sexy on the right person, yeah, I can see that.
So let's go ahead and we'll talk about the black shirt and I'll talk about when I think
it's appropriate, and how you should wear it.
The first rule with a black shirt is you need to have the complexion for it.
I've seen many men -- any man can wear a black shirt, but only men with dark hair and anywhere
from medium to darker colored skin are really going to pull it off.
I'll talk in part two about other men who wear it and what they wear it for even though
it doesn’t complement them the best, but it's going to be the dark-haired, dark-skinned
man who can wear the color black the best.
The reason is it's not going to have a stark of a contrast and it's just really not going
to overpower his natural colors.
So even me, I have dark brown hair.
Actually, I haven't been in the sun too much.
We've just started spring here in Wisconsin, but even with a good tan, I'm going to say
black is a color that is -- I can pull it off okay, but if I had black hair and the
same colored skin, I would be able to kill it because I would be mimicking the color
in my hair and in my shirt here, and I would be in a sense framing the face properly, and
that's the whole purpose of clothing, especially clothing with a color here, is you want it
to frame your face because that's where you want people focused at when they're communicating
with you.
Now, let's say you have light colored hair and light colored skin, "When can I wear black?
Can I even wear black?"
Yes, you can when you want to isolate the face.
One of the most famous examples is Steve Jobs and his black turtleneck.
Think about that.
He's up on a big stage.
They're zooming in on him and he doesn’t want any other focus except at on his face,
his expressions as he was selling his products, as he was making a point, as he was trying
to inspire.
That was one of the reasoning.
You see a lot of men who do have lighter features trying to pull off a black shirt of something
dark, and the whole idea, especially with a dark background, is it's going to, boom,
all of a sudden, we're going to zero in on the face.
Another good example, if you've ever been to a Blue Man Show in Vegas, those guys are
very good about isolating a blue face and they do it with the color black because black,
as you artists know and anyone that deals with light, black just sucks up and absorbs
all light and just doesn’t reflect it back.
Let's talk about colored versus uncolored black shirts.
Either way, it's going to send very similar signals, but a color black shirt is always
going to be less formal than a white or a light colored dress shirt.
So if you're wearing it with your suit, if you're wearing it with a sports jacket, it
is going to be less formal than a lighter colored jacket, even if it's solid.
Now, if you're wearing it without a collar, it could actually still look pretty good especially
if it's a solid black.
I've pulled this off.
The key with wearing it though with any type of jacket is I think there should be a contrast
or you should be wearing something black.
Some guys like the black on black look and a guy pulled it off amazingly.
I mean, just look at vintage photos or even up until his unfortunate death, Johnny Cash,
the man in black.
He was a great example of a man that pulled this off.
And again, he was going for a look -- I mean, here's a guy that played in Folsom Prison
and he's -- actually I can't remember exactly where he did it.
I know he did the Folsom Prison.
I'm not even going to try to BS you guys.
I don't know exactly what prisons he played at, but it's one of those ones that -- this
is the kind of guy that is going into prisons and playing for a pretty rough crowd, having
a great time, but wanting to send a little bit of a message that he is a rebel, that
he is outside.
I think he even talked about in Nashville at the time a lot of people were wearing lighter
colors.
Here's a guy that shows up in just dark colors.
He's really trying to be a rebel.
He's trying to create a bit of mystery and he did a great job pulling it off.
I've seen this overdone though a lot of times.
A lot of guys were trying to send -- I don't know really if they know what signal they're
trying to send when they wear all black, so be aware though, the all-black look.
If you've got a very light-colored face, it's just going to make your head really stand
out, so you want to be careful with that look.
I don't recommend it for most of you.
You need to be a little bit more style advanced.
If you're going to try to introduce a black shirt, I think you should go for something
that is matching it with something that's clearly not black.
What do I mean by that?
I mean don't try to match it with a navy suit because it's close enough that some people
may wonder, "Well, does he know that they're different colors?"
Instead, go for a light tan.
Go for something that -- let's say you can wear it with a Houndstooth jacket, a sports
jacket that is white and black.
So clearly you can see that this does not match exactly, but there's enough of a contrast.
And if you're going in the same color scheme, you could mix it with greys, so black shirt
with grey trousers or grey jacket.
That is better than trying to go with anything in the navy.
You can go with charcoal and that's an okay look, but I like it whenever the grey is lighter
because again, we're going to see a little bit of the contrast between the fabrics.
Again, to get it too close and it's not exactly close, that's when it starts to look bad.
All right, so I've given you quite a bit on black.
I would say touching on collarless black shirts, I didn’t get into that too much.
I think if it's made from fine-woven cotton, it can have a wool cotton mix.
You can go with a few blends wearing that underneath.
I've even got a synthetic, which is a performance shirt made by JUZD Streetwear.
I'll link to them down below.
My friend, Sharky -- sorry about butchering the name, Sharky -- but they make some really
nice clothing that I've worn in the clubs when I was down South by Southwest and I don't
really get too many options to wear here in Wisconsin, but I think something like that
you can pull off, especially when it's solid or if it's got a little bit of color introduced
on the side.
I'll also link to the video as well in which I wear that exact shirt which I'm talking
about.
That was my little bit about black shirts.
I hope it helps.
That is it, guys.
I'll see you in the next video.
Bye-bye.