Working Man Casual Style Tips - How Men Dress Professionally for Work - Blue Collar Mens
Fashion
Hi.
I'm Antonio Centeno, the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today I'm going to be talking about style for the young man who works with his hands.
This is in response to a question I received from an Ag student.
And heís wondering how can he dress with style when heís going into a profession in
which heís going to be working with his hands getting dirty and really dress shoes, dress
slacks, suits arenít something that heís going to be wearing very often at all.
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This is the question I received.
ìAntonio, first off, I want to thank you for this website.
I only discovered it a day ago and Iím already eating it up and trying to discover wearing
ñ how to wear and dress better.
Iím in a bit of a dilemma.
Iím a sophomore at college in Ag school and Iím majoring in landscape contract and management.
I constantly wear the same basic t-shirt, plain black and white and with a random company
on it with ñ or a random brand with jeans and Converse shoes.
I want to develop a style better for my age, but at the same time useful for my environment
in my area of study.
I want something that I can wear around campus to class when I hang out with friends.
However, I do not know where to start.
A lot of the information you have on this website doesnít really pertain to me in my
current situation.
Can you give me some options?î
This gentleman, heís exactly right.
Most of what I talk about is going to be stuff with jacket, with dress shirts, dress shoes,
a little bit more formal.
But for ñ probably a majority of men out there, especially in the United States, this
isnít daily wear.
Itís something maybe they could, you know, I would like to see more men wear.
But realistically, it was a small percentage of men.
So let me talk about and let me highlight.
Below here, thereís going to be a link to an article I did over at the article list
talking about blue color style.
Thereís a lot more information in that article and I highly advice you go check it out.
But I will tell you is to focus on ñ I think the same things you focus on with this type
of clothing, you should focus on with the type of clothing that even though it would
be work clothing or clothing that you would expect to get a little bit more dirty, still
you want to focus on fit, fabric and style and youíre going to hear me if youíve watched
my vides, I like to talk about these three things.
And so, the fit.
Whatever youíre going to wear, make sure it fits you properly.
Just because itís work clothing, just because itís clothing that youíre going to get,
you know, dirty and youíre going to ruff up, it should still fit you.
And thereís a big reason for this because if itís work clothing and if it fits you
properly, youíre actually going to be able to move this here.
So, if you look at older pictures ñ and I really look at history, look at our grandfathers,
our great grandfathers.
Look at the man that built the skyscrapers.
I mean, these were men, you know, high above New York City on the sky line, you know, with
I-beams.
You know, look at the way they were dressed, overall, they were wearing clothing that looked
pretty sharp with trim and it fit them closely because when a clothing fit you right, itís
almost like a jacket.
And so, the same principles apply that if I make this arm sky too big, it actually is
going to restrict my arm.
But because this arm sky is higher up, I can actually move my arm around.
The same applies to work clothing.
So youíre going to want to make sure your work clothing fits you properly so you have
good freedom of movement, and itís just going to look better as well, especially if you
take care of your body.
If youíre young man, youíre probably in the best shape youíre ever going to be in
your entire life, you know.
You want to look ñ you know, make sure the clothing fits you.
Itís just going to look better.
Okay.
So just like when weíre talking about fit, letís talk about fabric.
So this really actually ñ instead of fabric, I could switch out and put in quality.
You want to be looking at pieces of clothing, but youíre going to get a lot of mileage
at it.
Oftentimes, when we go and we get work clothing, we think ñ let me get something thatís disposal
because Iím going to be tearing it up.
Well, you know, if youíre maybe in welding ñ or actually welding is not a great example
because you want a clothing that can, you know, resist sparks and extreme heat.
But if youíre in something, letís say painting.
You know, you probably ñ I can understand if youíre a painter that you want to wear
a clothing that after enough wears that youíve got paint on it that you can throw it away.
Understood.
But for most of the professions, you could actually go with a piece of ñ you know, go
with a quality work shirts, something that fits you well and youíre going to get a lot
of wear out of it and it protects you better.
Just because youíre going to be working outside doesnít mean you need to be wearing some
old ruddy t-shirt.
Thatís probably the biggest mistake I see men who are working outside.
They wear this older ruddy t-shirts which one doesnít even really protect you.
You should be looking at a quality work shirt, something that has a color on it.
But Iíve seen work shirts that actually only button up to the mid-chest area and then they
donít button up so that the buttons donít get caught.
But in anywhere, I would go look at western store, thereís a lot of really good looking
quality western shirt or ñ not western shirt, some of them do look western, theyíve got
the whole western pockets.
You donít have to go that route.
I understand if you, you know, thatís not your style.
But a lot of this other work shirts, very plain, very simple, but theyíre made from
rugged materials.
Theyíre actually breathable.
And these are going to protect your forearms.
Theyíre going to protect your neck better.
And if you get, you know, I donít know if youíre up something sharp on the work area,
you know, itís going to actually prevent that sharp object from cutting your body.
Yes, it may tear the shirt, but thatís a lot better than tearing up your skin.
And a flimsy t-shirt is not going to protect you.
So I talked about fit.
Weíve talked about fabric and quality.
And the last thing would be style.
So, style is always going to be second when it comes to work clothing, first function
than style.
But style can be a close second and where you may want to add a bit of, you know, style
to your wardrobe is consider a hat.
Now, you may be saying, you know ñ well, most people just wear baseball caps.
But does that baseball cap doing actually a good job protecting you from the sun?
You know, thereís a reason, if you look at older foreman, especially ñ actually this
kind of hits close to home because my grandfather came over from Mexico and he worked on a ñ
he picks strawberries, all that stuff, and he worked his way up to foreman.
And Iíve seen pictures of him wearing a straw hat.
And he wore the hat not because it was stylish, although I thought it was, but really because
it was very functional.
Here was a man out in Southern California, you know, outside for 14, 16 hours a day,
he had to wear a hat that protected his head because in ensure that, you know, he ñ it
took care of him.
And so, look for clothing which is maybe ñ itís going to make me stand out.
Itís not going to ñ youíre not going to conform it to everyone else.
Everyone else go with baseball cap because theyíre easy to find, because everyone else
is wearing them.
But in my opinion, theyíre not very functional when it comes to a long day of being outside.
In addition, consider a good bag of chattel, something that you can carry around your equipment
in.
You know, so a chattel, you know, think about Indiana Jones, he had that, you know ñ and
saddleback leather makes some great chattel.
Iím a big fan of that company.
And these are, you know, theyíve got 100-year guarantee.
So, you know, thatís something, yes, youíre going to spend a pretty penny on.
Maybe you can afford it as a student, but once you, you know, ask for a gift, you know,
put it in the request to the parents or whatever, or the wife.
But once you get a bag like this, youíre going to find that itís going to look better
overtime.
And just having that accessory with you versus everyone else carrying their stuff around
in cheap backpacks, youíre going to have a bag which 20 years from now is going to
look better than when you first got it.
And so, little things like that are going to add to your style.
Pay attention to your footwear, last but not the least.
Go with a quality pair of work boots.
Red Wings, great boots.
They will really take care of you.
And if you take care of those boots, theyíre going to last, you know, ten to twenty years.
You can get those things already sold.
So, by quality boots, by quality accessories ñ and youíre going to have to build this
stuff up.
Youíre not going to be able to afford to do all of this at once.
But overtime, youíre going to find that youíre going to have pieces that have history, that
have character, and thatís how youíre going to build your style.
So, I hope this was useful.
If it was, make sure to like it and visit me over at Real Men Real Style.
Iíve got a free 47-page eBook, which I think youíll enjoy.
And I will try to talk a little bit more about rugged style if you guys seem to like it.
Take care.