7 Tips on How to Dress Warm When Wearing Formal Clothing Stay Warm While Dressing Sharp
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Hi!
I'm Antonio Centeno.
I'm the founder of Real Men Real Style.
Today, I'm going to be giving you seven tips on how to dress warm when you're wearing formal
wear, when you're basically wearing a suit, when you are wearing nice clothing.
Let's say you're up in Winnipeg, Canada or you're over in Toronto.
You're in New York City.
It is cold.
In fact, the gentleman who sent me the question, he's up in Canada.
He's saying, "Antonio, it's 20 below zero here and it's cold, and I've got to wear a
suit.
I've got to look nice.
How can I dress warmer?"
so I'm going to give him seven tips on how he can do this.
Some of these you guys may have already heard of and I've put out infographics, but I know
some of those infographics haven't necessarily addressed how to dress warm when you've got
to dress sharp.
Point number one is going to be invest in a heavy and long jacket.
You may have to have an overcoat custom-made, but this is going to be your key defense,
that heavy jacket.
Now, most overcoats out there, they're made for I guess people down in Florida or something,
but you want one that is made from a heavyweight fabric, that is lined with a windproof material,
and you want it so that it buttons up all the way that it flaps up or it basically has
the neck protectors on the side that is longer.
It should go beyond your knees because that is going to be a big one.
A lot of guys, they cut it short.
Maybe they go with a pea coat.
Pea coats are cool, but the problem with the pea coat is they're not very long, the same
thing with a lot of other types of jackets out there, is that they don’t cover your
backside.
They don’t cover your thighs.
If you can get a long jacket which goes well past your knee, this is going to pay dividends
because when you're out there standing on the corner and you're able to bundle this
thing up, it's going to protect your legs and do a great job at that, and this is a
really big tip.
I know a lot of you guys are wondering, "Where can I get a jacket like this?"
Over at the article at Real Men Real Style, I'm going to link to a couple of places, but
in my experience for a lot of guys, they maybe want to have something custom-made, but I
will try to link to some vendors who can supply you with one.
Okay, so point number two is the part that the jacket doesn’t cover, and that is first
off, your feet.
Invest in a pair of winter boots.
What do I mean by winter boots?
There's a wide range out there.
I'm talking a pair of zip-up boots that have an insulation on the inside, and you should
tell they're insulated.
I've worked with a company over in Berlin called Shoepassion and I really like some
of their insulated boots.
There are other companies out there that will use different materials.
The other thing to look for in a pair of insulated boots is that they're a bit higher up off
the ground, so this may be a small difference.
We're talking in some cases about a quarter of an inch, but that quarter of an inch to
half an inch can make a big difference in the sense of distancing you and insulating
you from the very cold ground.
Anyone that's had to stay at the bus stop for half an hour, for 25 minutes in cold weather
can really appreciate this because otherwise, that cold is going to start to seep up and
you want to make sure that you are properly insulated from this.
So point number three, you want to protect your head, you want to protect your neck,
and you want to protect your hands.
Now, there are going to be some very basic watch caps out there.
If you're going to go with the watch cap, make sure it's thicker, that it's knitted,
that you may even consider having a thinner one that you wear underneath and then a thicker
one on top.
I'm a big fan of the full ushanka and really covering and protecting yourself, being able
to protect your ears, and having something that at this point and when it's that cold,
believe me, it's not going to really detract too much.
There are some other stylish hats and I'll link to a few other options in the article,
but guys, this is where it's okay to be mixing a little bit of casual with the formal jacket.
Now, the other thing -- and this is where you can keep it actually very sharp and really
bring it together -- is going for a nice scarf.
Now, I'll link you to my infographic.
I give you 11 ways to tie a scarf, but going with a nice, long, cashmere scarf that you're
able to wrap around that's going to really help and protect your neck as well.
Last thing about the hands, now a lot of the formal gloves out there, they're not going
to go very far up.
I'm a big fan of making sure you find a pair of longer gloves that do a good job of covering
the wrists.
I'll try to link you to a few vendors at the article as well.
After that, let's go ahead and go to point number four, which are thermals.
There's a wide variety of thermals out there.
You want to make sure you go with something that fits you a bit closer to the body.
With casual wear, you can go with a looser fit because usually the clothing in general
is looser, but with formal clothing, with suits, you need something that's not going
to just make the suit look a bit odd because you're trying to scrunch it in underneath.
For that, I'm going to recommend a lot of athletic wear.
If you go into an athletic store, a lot of those bit of clothing that fits really close
to your body, there are certain things like Polartec Power Stretch out of Malden Mills.
I'm a big fan of what they do.
There's a company called Canyon that makes it and I'll link over to some of their products.
If you get those and you get them to fit closer to your body, that is going to be an awesome
insulation layer.
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Point number five, let's now focus in on the core.
What I mean by the core, this is going to be your upper body and your torso and your
midsection area or basically in your ground or your crotch area.
Some small little things you can do, wear two pairs of underwear.
Wear a pair of boxer briefs maybe with a pair of briefs underneath instead of wearing boxers.
Instead of wearing just one undershirt, how about you wear two to even three undershirts?
Now, you may be saying, "In the office, I'm going to be incredibly hot."
Well, the great thing about just focusing on the core is that you can walk into a bathroom,
take your shirt off, and strip off one of the layers, maybe even two of the layers.
I know the double underwear theme may not be for everybody, but I'm talking about for
guys that -- yeah, you know what I'm talking about.
It's really cold and you don’t want to get frostbite anywhere, so focus in on the core.
It really is going to keep you a bit warm, and this is important when you can't go with
a lot of long thermal underwear because I know the long johns for a lot of guys, it's
just too much especially when you're in a warm office.
Point number six is going to be your suits and your shirts, maybe go with a winter weight.
What do I mean by that?
Actually, you can buy suits, you can buy shirts that are going to be a little bit heavier.
That's actually wearing one of your heavy duty shirts, one of your suits, maybe going
with flannels, going with tweets.
By simply bulking up that -- maybe your trousers, instead of going with the lightweight, why
don’t you actually invest in some gray flannel trousers?
By doing that, if you're going to just simply bulk up that layer and mix with everything
else we're talking about, you're really going to be able to better retain the heat.
The last and by far not least, you want to be paying attention to the various types of
fabrics that you're purchasing.
Understand the cotton.
Cotton is very cheap.
Cotton can be found all over the world, but cotton does not insulate heat as well as wool
and a number of synthetic materials which are specifically designed to do that, and
I'm talking more about the thermal underwear, so make sure you've got the right fabrics.
In addition, make sure you've got the right weaves.
There are some weaves out there which are going to allow air to move through very easily.
You want to be going with twill weaves on your shirts that are going to better retain
the heat and not allow air to move as easily between.
Okay, guys, those are my seven tips.
Hopefully you enjoy them.
I'll see you in the next video.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
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