#1 Rule To Look Your Best [0:00:00]
So, the question is what’s the important thing a man has to have to be stylish?
Now, a lot of you guys out there especially those of you that have watched my channel
for years are going to say fit.
And that's a really good answer because you can go out there and spend thousands of dollars
on an expensive suit, you can go out there and spend hundreds of dollars on a really
nice shirt or sweater, but guess what?
If it doesn't fit you, it's not going to look good.
In fact, in my style pyramid - fit, function, and fabric, I always say if you've got to
choose one, if you're going to spend your money in one place, make sure that you nail
the fit.
All that being said, fit is actually not the most important thing a man has to have to
have timeless style.
So, what's the style element that the guy has to have to look his best that's even more
important than fit?
Well, gentlemen, the answer is in today's video.
[Music] Now, could the most important thing be those
other parts of the style pyramid - fabric and function?
I don't talk about them as much as fit, but they are really important.
Think of like legs on a stool, that they're not there, the whole thing is going to fall
over.
Whenever I talk about the function, I'm talking about you wearing the right clothing for the
right situation.
Example, you've been volunteering for that nonprofit for over a decade and guess what?
They decided to recognize you in downtown Chicago.
Or maybe you work for the company that is going to give out this recognition and, again,
you've got an event they're trying to create an ambiance and on the invitation there is
a dress code.
Suit and tie required.
Understand that's not optional, you need to wear the functional clothing for that particular
event because they're trying to create an ambiance.
And by fabric, I mean construction, I mean build quality.
And this applies to boots, this applies to your suit, this applies to your shirt, this
applies to your watch.
You want to understand the mechanics, what goes into from the parts from the pieces to
the materials to the way things are sewn together.
And the best advice I can give you is go into a finer men’s wear store, go into a high-end
shoe store, go into a nice watch store and look at all the different options.
Because when you see a $10,000 watch or you see a $2,000 suit, $100 pair of boots versus
a $500 boots, what you want to notice is what are the differences.
Pay attention to the construction, you start to have things that enter your lexicon like
Goodyear-welted construction, Blake stitched construction, glued construction.
Now, each of these serve a purpose.
I don't want Blake stitch on my running shoes.
I'm going to go with glued shoes, it's going to keep the price down.
But, they can't be re-soled and you know that, hey, if you're going to buy quality you know
what to look for from the way that the stitches are holding the garment together to simply
the way that the seams are put together and folded.
You don't have, you know, any loose threads on the inside of the garment.
And the reason this matters is not only because you want to make sure you get what you pay
for, but if you see something on sale and you're not sure, you go look at the stitching,
you look at the construction, you realize, hey, this is a $1,000 sports jacket that is
on sale for some reason for 300 bucks.
It fits me it looks good and you snatch up that deal.
And that's what I love to see, you guys being able to dress your best for less.
That being said, none of those are the most important thing when it comes to you being
your best dressed self.
They're important, but not the most important.
What is the most important?
Let’s go to the next point.
Now, I know some of you guys are thinking it's got to be dressing for your body type,
right?
And you probably know there are five general body types out there.
You've got the thin guy, you've got the rounder thicker guy, you've got the pear-shaped guy,
you've got the really fit muscular guy that spends a lot of time in the gym, and then,
you've just got the average build.
Now, dressing for your body type is incredibly important because there are certain garments
that are going to work with certain body types.
Even the really muscular guy has items that don't look good on them.
If you wear a jacket, a sports jacket or a suit jacket that is too structured in the
shoulders that's too much roping there on the end, all of a sudden it can, yeah, make
it look like a linebacker, make it look like a cartoon character.
Versus the guy with the wide hips, he wants to wear garments that actually structure the
shoulders.
Draw more attention to his upper body because his lower body he wants to minimize that pear
shape.
And that’s skinny guy, he loves long sleeve shirts because guess what?
On a hot day, he just simply rolls up those sleeves and it looks so much better than a
short sleeve shirt that has too much excess material around the bicep area.
The rounder heavy guy, he wants to even out his proportions.
So, he's looking at tropical weight wool trousers during the summer.
During the winter, he's going to go ahead and throw on a little bit longer jackets.
He's going to make sure items that look great on him, nothing's going to make him look skinny.
But, he understands that, hey, I want to go more for a monochromatic look, so the eyes
can go up and down versus going, you know, with a white shirt with dark trousers, it's
going to keep our attention on the midsection.
Well, as you can tell very important stuff to note and I definitely put this in the top
10 when it comes to men's style, but it is not the most important.
Well, then it's got to be the science of style, right, Antonio?
This is what you talk about.
You talk about fit, you talk about proportions, you talk about color and the way that people
react to them.
It's true, the science of style, very important.
In fact, I've loved over the last decade how I can bring my background.
So, in undergrad, I studied biology, psychology, origins of behavior.
I studied evolutionary biology.
This was my thing.
And so, to be able to talk about this from a style perspective and look back at thousands
of years, hundreds of thousands of years with animals, simply the way that we've interacted
the way that people when they see a particular color, they're more likely to trust, they're
more likely to be sexually attractive to the color red.
Powerful. [0:05:09]
And, let's talk about the rule of thirds and the golden ratio.
If you've ever studied photography, if you've studied art, if you've studied geometry and
you know your history with da Vinci, I mean, these guys were talking about how they noticed
these patterns again and again and it transcended different, you know, areas where they were
studying.
And we see this in men's style when you're putting an outfit together, all of a sudden,
if you nail these particular items, all of a sudden you can make that outfit look better.
In fact, that's how a lot of men's style has evolved to get the proportions right to make
a man look more masculine because whenever you put on that jacket whether it be a leather
jacket whether it be a suit jacket or a sports jacket, all of a sudden it's going to make
your hands look a little bit larger.
It's going to build up the shoulders.
It's going to slim up your waist, build up your chest.
All of these right here, makes you look better.
All that being said, the science of style is really important to know.
I love talking about it, but it's not the most important thing when it comes to men's
style.
Well, if it's not the science of color, it just must be the use of color and patterns
and texture to be able to make an outfit pop, right?
I mean, you're looking at this right here.
I've got a nice napped weave on this jacket.
I've got a nice little pattern to it.
Right there, that little bit of white in the pockets grabs your attention.
The blue monochromatic look, whenever I stand up, it's going to make me look taller and
leaner.
That is what we're talking about here.
And, guys, if you understand this, this is a great way to be able to stand out from the
crowd because so many guys, I get it, they want to keep it simple, they wear the same
thing maybe again and again, but you can change it up.
You can simply by bringing in different textures and leather mixed in with maybe a little bit
of a flannel shirt, throw on, you know, a pair of jeans with the denim right there.
You've got all blue, but you've got three different textures.
You can make them work.
Maybe bring in just a pop of color.
It's a little bit cooler.
Maybe you're wearing a jacket, so throw a bright colored scarf on there with a little
bit of pattern, all of a sudden, everyone's drawn to that, it's drawn to your chest area.
You understand how to use color and pattern and texture to your advantage to really just
make an outfit pop.
Guys, incredibly important.
Probably top fifteen for me, but definitely not number one.
What about dressing your age?
I mean, if you're in your 20s, you probably have a particular set of style rules and guidelines
you need to follow than if you're in your 60s somewhat because if you're in your 60s,
if you're in your 50s, if you're in your 40s, people are looking up to you.
You most likely are in a position of leadership, whether you like it or not.
Maybe you're a father, maybe you're the head of a company that you had started just out
of your garage.
Now, you've got 50 people that are showing up and their livelihoods depend on you, guess
what?
You need to dress the part as a leader.
It may be a blue collar factory-type of company, but still there is an expectation that you
are guiding the ship.
You may get your hands dirty and so, you want to wear something that's pretty practical
at the same time, you got to go in there and sell future investors on why you deserve that
money, so that you can expand the operation.
If you're in your 20s, I do think a younger guy you're in your teens maybe even early
30s, you can experiment a lot more.
Society is pretty forgiving on what you can try.
And this is a time for you to go out there and to try all different types of looks, to
find your unique style.
So, as you can tell, dressing your age, something important to understand, but not the most
important.
What about the four Is?
Inspiration, imitation, innovation, and Improvement.
Really important.
I love this guideline because you should be out there looking for inspiration.
That's why I love, you know, just subscribing to maybe Esquire or GQ.
Go into, you know, just go through those magazines or go to Pinterest, go over to Instagram,
find somebody who you love their look.
Subscribe to it and be inspired.
Then, actually try to imitate some of the looks that you absolutely love.
Here's the thing, you're not -- no one's going to say, oh, wow, you're dressing like, you
know, Ryan Gosling or George Clooney or Idris Elba or whoever, you know, maybe a famous
instagrammer that you follow.
No one's going to say that you have stolen their look.
They're just going to say that you look good.
Next up, you're going to innovate.
And this means when it starts to you realize, hey, you know what?
I like what they did here, but it would look so much better if I switched out that orange
for a red or if I change that dark blue for a lighter blue.
And all of a sudden, you start to innovate, you start to make it yours.
And that is that last part, you are improving yourself by simply going through the motions.
Now, that's a great framework and I will create a full-on chart and probably a video for that
one as well.
But, it's not the most important thing.
Now, gents, if you're enjoying today's video, do me a favor and smash the like button.
Seriously, when you engage with these videos, the YouTube gods come down and say, “Antonio,
we will help more men find this video because it's a good one.”
And, by the way, down in the description of today's video, I'm going to link over to a
number of YouTube videos that go into detail about each of the points I'm talking about.
So, what's left?
Well, obviously perhaps the most important one, education.
And, gentlemen, it doesn't stop at my channel.
Go check out Raphael over the Gentleman's Gazette.
Kirby Allison is another great Channel.
My friends, Hugo and Sonya Jacomet.
You've got Alex Costa, Jose Zuniga, Tim Dessaint, and of course one of my best friends, Aaron
Marino over at Alpha M. But, honestly, the best information is still
in the stacks.
I'm talking about the books.
Yes, they’re still out there.
[0:09:56] So, Alan Flusser's Dressing the Man, still
one of the best out there.
We've got Bernhard Roetzel’s Gentleman.
And the modern classic is Douglas Hand’s The Laws of Style.
I absolutely love this book.
And if you want inspiration, check out the various books from Josh Sims.
This one, Men of Style is awesome.
That being said if you’re a James Bond fan, if you want to do a deep dive into his outfits
and all the sartorial details that went into them, check out this right here from Tailors
with Love, an evolution of menswear through the Bond films by Peter Brooker and my friend,
Matt Spaiser.
Seriously, I was on the phone the other with Matt and he put his heart and soul into this
book, it’s an amazing read.
All that being said, gentlemen, it is close, but still not the most important thing when
it comes to men’s style.
Well, maybe the most important thing in men’s style is following the rules, not making stupid
style mistakes like wearing square toed shoes or not matching your leathers or buttoning
that bottom button on a suit.
Because if you make these mistakes, obviously, you are a style rookie, right?
Now, gents, not making style mistakes, that is an important part to dressing well.
And those rules are put out there, so that beginners when they’re getting started they
don’t embarrass themselves.
That being said, it is not the most important thing.
And, I know, you’ve been waiting for it.
So, what is the most important thing that every guy has to have if he wants to dress
well, if he wants to have timeless style?
The answer, gentlemen, it’s actually quite simple, you need to give a damn.
You need to know what your why is.
You need to know what you stand for to become the man you know yourself to be.
I talk about this a lot on my channel, but understand that this is just an outfit, this
is just clothing, it doesn’t matter what.
What matters is you and your core values, what you stand for, what you want to achieve
in life.
And, clothing is a tool to achieve that success, to achieve that goal.
And you need to know what that is because you’re going to spend a lot of time, a lot
of money, a lot of effort putting your best foot forward.
But, what’s more important is that you can use it as a tool to accomplish your mission.
And it may be something simple that simply you think you deserve this.
You know, you’ve worked hard, you’re a single guy out there just simply trying to
be your best self to make yourself and your family proud.
Well, great.
You know, wear the clothing that sends the message you want to send.
And maybe you’re a family man, you want to represent your family.
Every time you walk out that door, you understand that, hey, your kids and your daughters are
looking up to you.
Your wife is proud, you know she may not always say it.
You guys may occasionally argue, but you’ve been together for – through a lot over the
last twenty years and you want her whenever like her friends say, you know what?
Your husband is always the best-dressed guy, you – you want to get – her to have that
feeling.
Whatever dream you may have, I want you to leverage that and that is your why to simply
put your best foot forward and to send the message you want to send.
All right, gents.
So now, it’s your turn.
I want to hear from you in the comments below what is your why, what is your inspiration.
I’ve got at least a couple of dozens beautiful challenge coins here I would love to send
your way.
Just simply let me know down in the comments what is your inspiration, what is your why,
why do you give a damn.
Guys, I want to hear from you down below in the comments.
And the best answers over the next few months I’m going to be sending out these challenge
coins, so, guys, maybe share this with a man that needs this inspiration.
Guys, I appreciate you, I appreciate everything we created here at Real Men Real Style.
And I will see you in the next video, which next video could very much be this one right
here, which is a mystery video.
I’m not going to reveal what it is.
I will say it is a good one, it will be related to this video.
So, click it find out and, yeah, enjoy.
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