Men’s fashion is broad, and it can take you a while to master it. However, you don’t have to master men’s fashion to look great. All you have to do is find your personal style.
Personal style in fashion is how a person expresses themselves through aesthetics such as choice of clothing, hairstyle, shoes, and other accessories. It doesn’t have to be trendy but authentic to a person’s sense of self. Your style reflects that:
- You have done a significant amount of work on finding yourself
- You’re comfortable with who you’re
- You aren’t afraid of showing the world who you’re through fashion
So how do you find this personal style? This article has put together ten tips to help you find and develop your style as a man. Keep reading to learn more:
- Look Through Your Closet
The easiest way to find out your style is by looking at what you’re already wearing. Identify your best outfits in the closet and find out why you feel good in them. Also, consider how you would like the world to see you and evaluate if those clothes are accurately expressing yourself to the world.
By picking out what is common about all your best outfits, you better understand how you wish to express yourself through fashion. For example, if most of your outfits are a combination of jeans and t-shirts, your style could be casual.
- Research And Learn About Style
As mentioned before, being trendy isn’t enough to show your flair. Therefore, as you establish your style, you have to understand the fundamentals of men’s styling. For example, you may have to learn about
- Pairing foot ware with outfits
- Personal grooming tips
- Tailoring and how to buy the best suits
- Fragrances and how they complement your style
- Watches or cigars, and other accessories that boost your whole ensemble
You can find resources on men’s styling platforms, such as bespokeunit.com, among others
- Buy The Basic Items
Researching men’s styling will help you identify some basic clothing that any man’s wardrobe shouldn’t lack. They include
- Button Dows
- V-necks shirts
- Chinos
- Denim
- Sneakers
- Cardigans
- Brogues to mention but a few
Buy these items in the main colors first. As you learn to evaluate your personal style, you can begin to play around with other colors and patterns.
- Look For Inspiration
When looking for style inspiration, a good place to start is looking in the media. Are there celebrities whose style you admire? Take your time to study it. Do the two of you have something in common? Perhaps the same body type. That can be a good place to borrow cues on how to dress up. Additionally, if you can, go a step further and find out who their stylist is and their inspiration.
However, looking for inspiration shouldn’t be about copying the entire style. Your style has to be unique to you, so you want to borrow elements of inspiration that can help you express your style better.
You can find some styling content on celebrities’ Instagram pages, Tumblr, Pinterest, and several fashion blogs.
- Create A Mood Board
While looking for inspiration, make sure you save the images. Later, you can go through the images while creating a digital mood board for styling inspiration.
A mood board helps bring a clearer picture of what your styling would look like. Additionally, with photos on the board, you can’t forget your inspiration, and it’s easier to refer to the mood board than scroll through your gallery.
As your mood board comes alive, you’ll begin to notice there’s a pattern of styling you like. Experts recommend that you write down the pattern, noting down how the colours and other accessories have been paired. You can also note down other colour pallets, textures, and materials you would want to experiment with.
Writing down what your style feels like helps you define it. So that in the future it’s easy for you to describe your personal style in very few words.
- Choose An Age-Appropriate Styling
Everyone wants to look young, and the easiest way to bring out your youthfulness is through your dressing. However, when your style doesn’t match your age, it may look off, like you’re trying hard too much.
Therefore, let it not be too extreme as you try to remain youthful. Someone should be able to tell your age group through your style.
- Pick Out A Signature Item
Every man that is considered a stylist has a signature item in his closet. It could be a scarf or watch or any other clothing that stands out. A signature item should be something that you can easily incorporate into your day-to-day outfits.
- Your Style Should Reflect Your Lifestyle
As you define your style, you have to consider your lifestyle. For example, if you have a white-collar job, you may have to tone down any rugged clothing and assimilate official wear.
However, if your style isn’t official clothing, you can always find ways to dress officially without being constrained by your job requirements. For example, you can play with colours with your tie, socks, and watch straps.
This allows you to bring out your casual personal flair while still considering your lifestyle.
- Consider Your Body Type
Your body type significantly contributes to how stylish you’ll look. You might have the right clothing, footwear, and accessories, but it won’t work out if you use them on the wrong body type.
Take time to study your body type and then dress to highlight your best features. Here’re some basic guidelines you can consider:
- Consider wearing a deconstructed jacket if you have broad shoulders
- If you have large calves consider wearing pleated trousers
- A double-breasted jacket helps to add some bulk for tall, lean men
- Go For Comfort
Once you’ve figured out all the pieces of clothing that make up your style, try them while looking into a mirror. Evaluate how they feel, if they bring out what you intended, or if there’s something that needs to be changed
To know if you have hacked into your personal style, at the very least, you should feel very comfortable while remaining fashionable. This is also a good time to switch up what doesn’t feel right. Not everything has to work. Therefore, be open to letting go of what doesn’t help you express yourself,
Wrapping It Up
These ten tips will guide you if you’ve been wondering where to start with your man styling. Keep this guide handy at all times to help you in your journey to finding your personal style. All the best as you start the fashion ensemble that you deserve.