How to Dress Taller - 10 Tips for Short Men
Hi.
I'm Antonio Centeno, and today Iím going to be talking about ten tips on dressing taller.
This is a video that supports my article over the Art of Manliness, which you can go to
the article right here.
And if youíre interested in reading or watching more video about ñ oh, when it comes to dressing
tips, then just go visit me over at realmenrealstyle.com or at Tailored Suit.
All right.
So letís jump right into the ten tips.
Important thing you need to remember, whenever youíre wanting to dress taller is to keep
it streamline.
So you always want peopleís eyes to be easily go ñ to easily go up and down.
You donít want people getting stuck on a particular piece of clothing or to look like
a square of box or of, you know, for any type of horizontal lines in any of your clothing.
So thatís the fundamental role is you want to create a streamline look.
So the first one is monochromatic, and what I do mean by this?
I mean, going with one solid color scheme, it doesnít have to be a suit, what it needs
to be is you donít want to catch your body in half.
So donít choose a shirt, letís say a white shirt with a dark pair of pants.
All that does is draw attention to the contrast area, which is going to be right at your waist
line and it cut you in half.
It creates this horizontal line going right across.
Thatís not what you want.
You want to create vertical lines going up and down.
You want to create that streamline look.
Now, you donít have to match them exactly.
Iím not ñ if youíre wearing denim pants, you donët have to wear a denim shirt.
But you do need to try to minimize the contrast a bit.
So, if youíre going to go with a lighter shirt, consider a lighter pair of kakis.
Again, they donít have to both be white.
In fact, I probably wouldnít look great for a lot of complexions.
But just think monochromatic, think about having less contrast so the eyes can go up
and down and, you know ñ the best thing in my opinion for a slimming effect is the suit,
just the lines and everything.
But, you know, again, thatís probably not going to be for every situation if youíre
wearing a shirt and a shirt ñ I donít know, a sport shirt, then make sure that, you know
theyíre similar in terms of ñ I mean, if youíre wearing murderous shirts, youíre
not going to find a shirt thatís, you know, you donít want to wear a murderous.
But what you do want to do is make sure that, ìOkay, this has a lot of color in it.
Iím going to perhaps go with a shirt that has a little bit of color in it as well so
that the eyes can go up and down.î
All right.
Vertical patterns, number two.
So, this one, Iím sure youíve heard before, you want to go with lines.
And what the lines do to go up and down is they basically provide a path, a road for
the eyes to go up and down on.
This creates the illusion of added height.
I mean, if you take a picture of a man, one of them with, you know, wearing stripe suit,
the other guy look ñ simply wearing a chuck suit or something thatís got lines going
across, optically, the guy with the lines going up and down, the vertical lines, theyíre
going to make him look taller.
And this applies across anything.
So, if youíre going to be putting on a pair of trousers, get rid of the cuff.
You donít want that horizontal line there at the bottom.
If youíre going to be wearing a jacket, avoid ticket pockets.
In fact, you know, tuck in your pockets and try to go with the jotted look.
You just want things ñ again, weíre getting back to streamline.
You want to make sure youíve got as many vertical lines, as many vertical patterns
going up and down and minimize the horizontal.
All right.
Close fit.
Probably one of the most important points Iíll talk about, most men in the United States
wear their clothing one to two sizes too large.
What this does is this makes short men look boxy and short and stout men are shorten and
kind of big men look even bigger, but it doesnít make them look taller.
You want to go with a very close fit, something that whenever you put your arms down, that
weíre going to be able to see a little bit of space between the arms and your torso if
youíre built like that.
You donít ever want something that you put it on and it makes you look boxy because thatís
just going to make you look shorter.
In addition, you want to make sure your trousers or your pants ever fits you well that the
inseam goes as high as you can get it.
Most of the times youíre going to ñ especially if itís off the rack pair of trousers, dress
trousers, dress slacks, something like that.
What youíre going to find is the crouch is going to hang low.
You want to eliminate that.
Think about ñ you want to go for a jean fit because the longer your legs look, the taller
you are going to look.
In addition, your jacket, you want to make sure thatís cut right.
Not only does it fit you tight in the torso, but itís going to be ñ you want it a bit
short, you want to show a little bit of your backend on that.
You know what I mean?
And what that does is it makes you look more proportional, it makes you look taller and
youíre going ñ again, for a tight silhouette.
And that is going to give the illusion of height as well, all a box frame does it just
ñ it makes you look stocky and it makes you look shorter.
Smaller proportions.
Now, this is something that is harder to get with off the rack.
But you can adjust a few things.
What you want is you donít want really wide lapels on your jackets.
You donít want to wear a thigh thatís really wide.
You want to wear things that are proportional to your body.
Why does a short man look short?
Why does a tall man look tall?
The reason they do is because their head in proportion to their body, human heads pretty
much, they say, even though a man whoís five foot two versus a man whoís seven foot two,
their head is actually going to be pretty similar in size.
But you think about it, youíve got a two feet window there in which their limbs are
a lot taller.
So, tall men look like giants because their head, in proportion to their body, is smaller,
while short men look short simply because their head in proportion to their body looks
bigger.
So understanding that, you want to pay attention to other proportions.
Thereís not much you can do about the size of your head, although there are a few things
with the jacket and everything.
But what you want to look at, it makes your ñ if you have big feet and youíre short,
wear shoes that are more delicate.
Donít wear big thing, you know, big ñ one with huge soles, big rubber, you know ñ you
just donít want to make things which make any part of your body look bigger and the
same thing on the clothing.
A lot of clothing is going to be made to fit tons of men.
And so, theyíre going to make the lapels the same size.
You want smaller lapels, you want smaller pockets.
All of this stuff, you want it just a bit small.
You want thinner thighs.
And what this is going to do, its small percentages.
But this is going to make you look more proportional and itís going to give the illusion, you
know, not to wear clothes that they realize, ìWow, heís only five foot five.
Heís only five foot four.î
Okay.
You want to draw attention to the tall.
So this is number five.
Attention grabbers up on top.
And what do I mean by attention grabbers?
Pocket square, a little pin in the, you know, here in the boot, near the hole.
Perhaps youíre going to ñ if youíre wearing a ñ you know, a hat or something.
In any case, be careful on how so, you know, you donít want it ñ Iíve heard ñ there
are different arguments.
Some people say they actually do make you look shorter, other people say they make you
look taller.
I say you need to be comfortable in the hat.
And if youíre storing the hat, then go ahead and pull it off.
But if youíre not, donít wear a hat just because you want to make ñ just because you
wanted it to make you look taller.
Itís going to look unnatural.
You need to be comfortable in the hat and confidence and comfort.
And that will always make you look a little bit taller.
But attention grabbers, again, this is just keeping the attention up on.
You donít want people to, you know, be focused on your feet, to be focused on your lower
body.
You want them always to be ñ at the end of the day, you want to be looking in your eyes.
You want to be having a meaningful conversation because once you start getting that, your
physical size, all of that kind of goes out the window.
So, again, keep your attention grabbers up there on top and that can keep the eyes or
get their eyes right into your eyes as soon as possible and then you can make ñ begin
effective communication.
All right.
The right clothing, now I oftentimes suggest things like a man needs to wear a jacket.
A man should avoid shorts, short sleeve shirts.
A short man should avoid, what else, he should wear his trousers as natural waist.
And when I give these suggestions, sometimes people are like, ìWell, I donít wear anything
like that.
Can you give some other tips?î Well, you know, thatís kind of like you go in to a
doctor and ask them how you can, you know, lose weight or getting, you know, get in better
shape.
And he says rest and exercise and youíre like, ìWell, I donít want to do that.
I just want to take a pill.î Well, itís the same thing.
There is clothing that thereís nothing anyone can do about.
Itís just going to make you look bad.
Now, I understand that there are, you know, reasons that you have to wear that clothing
sometimes.
But oftentimes we donít wear the clothing that looks best on us because weíre lazy.
So, if thatís the case, you really need to reevaluate this.
You donít have to wear shorts all the time.
There are thing called linen trousers, and these are more comfortable than shorts in
many cases.
And linen trousers, any type of trouser that, again, creates a more streamline look and
doesnít have us draw attention to your legs is going to make you look taller versus shorts.
You know, I realize that you may not be used to wearing a sports jacket.
But understand by wearing a sports jacket, you add a little bit of extra height to the
shoulders.
You build out the shoulders.
And when you build out the shoulders, you appear taller.
So these little things, they will make you look taller, but you have to wear them.
So thatís the right clothing.
Again, you need to wear the right clothing to make it work.
And now Iíll move on to actually physically adding height.
So what do I mean by actually physically adding height?
I mean, youíre actually wearing shoes that have a bit of heel.
And donít overdo this.
Itís really easy.
There are certain types of footwear out there which are designed for shorter men.
Avoid those.
But look at shoes which do have a heel.
Dress shoes are great.
They usually have about half an inch to three quarters an inch for the heel on there.
Western boots are great.
Weíre talking about an inch to an inch and a half.
I have a, you know, just a regular pair of Lucchese.
Great boots.
And theyíve got an inch ñ a good inch and a quarter heel.
I love it because it knocks me up, you know, to five foot ten.
Iím naturally ñ just under five foot nine.
Iíd like to say Iím five foot nine.
But itís one of those things that you feel the difference and it looks natural and it
works.
Avoid the extreme heels.
Theyíre going to just ñ theyíre just going to look bad.
Especially on the front of the foot, you can usually tell if on the sole, if it starts
to go more than half an inch, three quarters of an inch.
Youíre getting into extremes there.
Be careful.
Donít go down that route.
It just looks ñ it looks too planned and it just doesnít look right.
Okay.
Number eight.
Shop internationally.
Here in the United States, the average man is big.
And so, the clothing is made for the average man, and these are bigger men.
You want to ñ if youíre a small man, look to countries like Japan, Italy, Spain.
These countries have on average smaller men.
And so, the clothing is built from these smaller men.
Japan, especially.
Shorter men that go over there, especially when it comes to dress clothing, they find
that it is just a paradise when it comes to being, you know, walking to a store and be
able to try something on and it fits you right.
Now, the problem is a lot of the best stores do not have an English variant.
You can use Google translate but that only works to a certain extent.
And there are a couple of companies out there which are brokers and they will go actually
shop it for you.
Ideally though, you want to travel to these countries.
And what makes it worth it?
Well, if youíre going to spend a couple of thousand dollars on your wardrobe and you
know this is why youíre going over, then, you know, look for a cheap fair and fly over
there.
Get a great international experience and come back looking million dollars with a clothing
that actually fits you.
All right.
Shopping in the young menís department.
A lot of guys donít like to do this.
They feel itís like a really knock to their pride, but you will find some great deals
there.
And the best thing ñ yeah, there are going to be deals.
In the sense of the clothing, is a lot of times less expensive in the young menís department.
The thing that you have to watch for is that clothing in the young menís department is
often going to be a bit more fashion forward or the clothing is, how I can say ñ itís
built for a young man in terms of his stands and his torso, the built of the ñ basically,
the stomach is smaller than his chest.
A lot of times once we get into our 30s and 40s and 50s are we start to stoop over a bit
more, our stomach expand a bit, and thatís when it becomes much harder to shop in this
department because the clothing isnít made for that ñ at that point you raise.
So itís not made for that body type.
The final thing Iíll mention is going customized.
The custom clothier, I can tell you that about 20 percent of my clients are hard to fit.
Well, actually, theyíre small men.
Probably close to 50 percent of my clients are hard to fit men.
But about 20 percent are small men.
And these are men who just simply donít have the time, they donít have the inclination
or they want to come to me as an expert and they want me to build clothing which has everything
which we just said about.
So thatís, you know, itís usually a bit more pricy.
But when it comes to value, custom is hard to beat.
And if youíve never tried it, I would highly advice looking custom.
In addition, there are specialty shops.
So, there are stores out there which specialize in short men.
And these are great shops as well.
The clothing is going to be a little bit more expensive.
Youíre not going to see as many sales.
Again, because they target this very tight demographic.
They have to, you know, theyíre going to be limited also in their location.
Theyíre going to be pretty much on the east coast, west coast, youíre not going to ñ
thatís pretty much where youíre going to find them.
Theyíre very limited, but ñ yeah, I know some of them do travel and hope it links to
some ñ in the article.
All right.
This is Antonio Centeno.
Hope youíve enjoyed the video and make sure you go check out the article over at the Art
of Manliness.
Thank you.