5 Tips To Avoid Being Overdressed - Stop Overdressing For Any Situation - Men's Style Video
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Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno.
I'm the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be tackling the question of how not to be overdressed.
I get this question quite a bit.
A lot of people write in, "Antonio, I love your stuff, great content.
I'm learning a lot.
However, most of what you talk about seems to be pretty formal.
You talk about suits.
You talk about sports jackets.
You talk about wearing a tie.
I don’t dress this way.
In fact, no one around me does.
How can I look better?
How can I dress more professional?
At the same time, I don’t want to be overdressed."
Okay, fair question.
It makes a lot of sense.
Today, I'm going to be giving you five tips, so let's go ahead, jump right into it.
Notice how I didn’t ask you to subscribe, or did I?
Tip number one, gentlemen, is this really a problem?
Now, a lot of times -- and I've seen this not just in style, but just across the board,
we oftentimes imagine problems that don’t really exist.
So my question to you is really, is this going to be the problem that you think is going
to be?
A gentleman just wrote me the other day who's talking about how he lives in a rural area
and he doesn’t really -- no one's ever going to see him dressing sharp, so why should he
do it, maybe just going up to his school.
I thought it was funny because this really describes my situation.
I live in a town of just over a thousand people.
The only time people really see me dressed up is when I meet with my son's teacher, my
daughter's teacher.
I'm out spending time with my kids at the parks around town.
Now, I'm not wearing a sports jacket all the time, but I do pay attention to the details.
However, it's not really a problem.
No one's ever asked me whenever I go to the school, whenever I go shopping and I'm actually
wearing a sports jacket, perhaps wearing a tie, no one has ever asked me, "Hey, you need
to dress down."
It really comes down to -- and we'll get to point number two -- there's a confidence problem.
And so, number two, I think you need to have confidence to be the best dressed man in the
room.
Oftentimes, if you actually care about how you present yourself and you're in a profession
that requires you to dress a bit up in a situation in which you're going to be -- let's say you're
a lawyer in a small town.
You're a business consultant in a medium size town.
Well, for your profession, dressing a bit higher makes a lot of sense.
You want to do this because really when it comes down to it, you're almost always on
the clock.
You could run into a client and you need to have the confidence, I think, to dress sharp.
You have the confidence because you understand what your "why" is.
Now, we just had a repairman out at my house to fix my washing machine.
Did I expect to see him in a suit?
No.
It wouldn't have made sense.
In fact, for what he had to do to get down under the washer and change out the pump -- we
had an issue.
We had a pillow get torn apart and ended up jamming the pump -- but in any case, for him
to do what he needed to do, he didn’t want to actually wear really nice.
Now, I would say nice clothing, luxury clothing made from wool, but what he did have is a
cotton work shirt on.
He did have actually a company uniform.
He had work pants.
He had work boots that would protect him, and so he's able to get down.
The clothing is dark; it makes sense.
He knew what his "why" was.
He was dressed for the occasion.
So understand if you don’t want to be overdressed, again, is it really a problem?
Have the confidence to dress sharp if you know what your "why" is and if the situation
requires it.
Number three, let's know the situation.
So getting back, I talked about the repairman, but look at the situation.
Look at the environment.
Have a little bit of information.
If you're going into a job interview -- okay, we'll go ahead -- I just was talking to a
gentleman about this.
If you're going to go to a manufacturing plant and you check out what they're wearing, well,
if they've got a uniform that everyone seems to wear cotton, nylon, or pullover overalls
or something like that, that's not how you're going to dress for the interview, but if you
know that's what you're applying for, that's what you're normally going to be wearing,
then I'm not saying that you need to wear a suit to that interview because you understand
the situation.
You realize this is a blue collar job.
However, I want to show I pay attention to the details, that I care about the small things
because oftentimes, those jobs, that is very important.
I mean, you can have on-the-job injuries.
If someone doesn’t really care about those details, if they're not watching things, that
could lead to an injury.
So what you want to do is think about your appearance.
What do people look like when they're getting off of work, when they're going into work
outside that uniform, and how can I take it up one notch?
So perhaps you want to wear a very well-fitted, but simple white dress shirt; skip the tie.
Go with a dark pair of dress slacks.
Have a nice pair of shoes that are shined.
Now, again, you're not having to throw in a full suit here, but you already stepped
above most of the guys that are going in to, let's say, work in a pair of maybe a polo
with khakis, so that is a step above.
You're going to look great.
The clothing fits you and yeah, you're able to make it happen.
So again, know the situation, know the environment.
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Number four, wear flexible outfits.
If you really feel that you're going to be showing up to events -- I had one gentleman.
He was actually a pastor.
He would go out and he would work -- his church was out kind of in the country, but he would
work with a number of execs as well, so he was transitioning between a big city and small
town churches out in the country, so he would actually wear clothing that would allow him
to dress up and to dress down.
The great thing about sports jacket, you can take it off.
Great thing about a necktie, you can take it off, so it is something that you can dress
up, you can dress down for the situation.
Don’t be afraid to change either if you feel that the situation warrants it and you
want to send the right message.
Number five, and I talked about this very quickly, but I want to focus in on it, focus
on the fit of your clothing.
You're going to have two guys -- and we saw this in the military all the time -- two guys
wearing the same exact uniform.
However, one uniform fits the gentleman.
It actually is scored away.
It's cleaned up, it's ironed, it's pressed, so pay attention to those small details.
First, focus on the fit, then make sure anything that you're wearing, you're wearing the best
quality that you can afford, and then focus on the little style details, making sure that
you're not wearing anything that's dated, anything that isn't going to work.
That's it, gentlemen.
I would have to say let's go to point number two, and I really want to hark on this.
It's okay to be the best dressed man in the room.
Have the confidence, know who you are, know what you stand for, and you're not going to
have a problem.
All right, guys, take care.
See you in the next video.
Bye-bye.
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