DRESS SUCCESS: DRESS RIGHT

How to wear the right suit the right way

How you wear your clothes is almost as important as what you wear!

THE MATERIAL

One way to appear cool is to avoid heavy fabrics. Double-knit fabrics have the immense advantage of holding their shape, and are particularly good for travel.

SUIT

Make sure your suit is simple, single breasted and either dark blue (the darker the better) or dark gray. The cloth should not have any fancy textured pattern. It is also important to avoid contrasting stitching or piping, pockets with buttons on them and lapels so wide that they come to the shoulders. It’s not how costly it is; but how fit it is!

The left lapel of your suit should have a buttonhole. It is correct, it is traditional, and it belongs there. There should be at least three (3) buttons on the sleeve cuffs of a suit and if possible four (4). Ideally the buttons should be real – that is, you should be able to button and unbutton them – but to get this small correct touch, you have to go to a tailor!

Another thing to beware of in having a jacket altered is the collar at the neck. It is vital that the collar be raised high enough so that it’s close to the back of the neck, rather than hanging away from it.

Blazers should be dark blue, single breasted, with plain gold buttons. They should never, never have a badge on the right breast, and should always be worn with dark gray trousers (Black). If you are in the kind of business where you can get away with a sport jacket from time to time, pick a very lightweight tweed in a subdued and small check. Suede patches on the sleeves are ridiculous on the new jacket, except you’ve owned it for about ten years!

TROUSER

Trousers are almost always worn too short. Nothing looks worse than a man whose ankles show when he’s standing up. You must insist that the trousers be long enough to “break” gently over the shoes. Whether they have cuffs or not doesn’t matter, though in fact cuffs make the trousers hang better by adding a bit of weight to the bottoms. Beware of trousers that are too long or baggy at the bottoms.

SHIRT

A simple white shirt looks better than anything else when worn with a suit. Men look best in plain shirts, and most successful people either wear white or blue shirts. One basic rule: short sleeves are out!  A man who doesn’t have a good inch of shirt cuff showing when he’s wearing his suit jacket looks naked!

It is also a mistake to put anything in your shirt pocket (if there is one). Shirt pockets are purely decorative, and a row of bell-point pen and pencils clipped in one merely makes you look like a filing clerk!

CUFF LINKS

If you are going to wear cuff links, they should be as simple and inconspicuous as possible. It doesn’t matter how much they cost, they shouldn’t draw attention to themselves. Plain gold ones are probably the best.

TIES

Never buy a tie that is very thin or very wide! As to colour and pattern, the less conspicuous and flashy, the better. Subdued stripes, checks, polka dots, and paisley patterns are fine. But no tie should ever look as if you are wearing a neon sign on your chest.

HANDKERCHIEFS AND SO FORTH

The pocket of your jacket should contain handkerchief and nothing else. It should be plain white linen, or just possibly a muted silk paisley square, which should never match the tie! Very little of the handkerchief should be visible. It should be unfolded and slightly crushed, rather than arranged in neat little triangle or folded straight.

Under no circumstances carry pencils, pens, or glasses in clip cases in your jacket pocket.

SUSPENDERS AND BELTS

Many successful people wear suspenders instead of a belt, but never wear suspenders and a belt! Heavy tooled belts with fancy buckles are fine on cowboys, and look great with blue jeans, but serve no purpose when worn with business suit!

SHOES

There’s no point in dressing carefully if you wear heavy soled shoes that makes your feet look like King Kong’s. One of the purposes of shoes is to indicate that the wearer doesn’t need to plod through the muck and rain like ordinary people. Any well-made neat light shoe is fine, so long as it’s well shined and not run-down at the heels.

On the whole, black shoes are more useful for the success look than brown ones. Avoid shoes with very pointed toes or heavy square toes; they should look as much like your foot as possible. High heels are definitely out, and have no place in the success look.

SOCKS

Apart from showing several inches of ankle by having your trouser hung at half mast, few things look worse than short socks, or socks that fall down in rolls around your ankles.

FOR WOMEN

By and large, women can wear what they want to, within obvious limits; but the women who get ahead take great care to dress unobtrusively and conservatively. Avoid very bright colours, “fussy” clothes very tight pants suit, skirt so short they make you look like a high school cheer leader, plunging necklines and blue jeans. The extremes of high-fashion makeup and hairstyling are usually a mistake. Long fingernails make you look like you are incapable of performing any real work, so nail fixing should not give that idea at all.

CONCLUSION

In general, successful women and men avoid extremes of dress. What you have to do is to project the appearance of someone who is never affected by the elements, and always manages to appear fresh, energetic, and ready for anything.

 

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