Tais Elyse Designer. Stylist. Shopper

I decided to write for this blog partially because I was fascinated by how perspective on men’s fashion can be so small and limited at times. The saying goes that there are no rules when it comes to fashion. But most men (and by “most men” I mean men outside of the fashion industry) are intolerant of many styles or trends, especially anything that could possibly be perceived as extravagant and/or effeminate. Examples?

Jewelry is still a questionable accessory that spawns obsessive “how to wear” tutorials or debates in men’s magazines.  The term murse is still met with derision laced with a bit of anxiety, as if a man in need of a handsome bag for his papers, iPad, or other miscellanies normally jammed into pockets is a preposterous notion. Open toe platform shoes, even from a designer known for “re-inventing the wardrobe for men without scaring them,” have yet to gain traction in men’s fashion. The list could go on and on. And if you listened to such a list, you might also start wondering if American mainstream men’s fashion will ever depart from the dominant, safe utilitarian aesthetic and move towards a more open, experimental state.  

So for my last post on this blog, I wanted to address this issue of the lack of boldness in many men’s wardrobes. It has been a challenge to think of ways to style men that achieved a balance between anomalous and acceptable because many men are hesitant to venture into unfamiliar sartorial territory, whether due to personal tastes or external agents pressuring them to dress a certain way. But if it is the latter that is forcing you to second guess your choice to wear a floral shirt, a necklace, or simply a tie to your lackadaisically-dressed office, then your response should be a flip off. Because even for men, there really are no rules in fashion. Sure, my previous blog posts are riddled with rules on how to wear something:  the sleeves of a short-sleeve shirt should be fitted; or you should be wearing slim fit anything all the time. But I am not saying that you absolutely should not wear baggy clothes. If you are going for the slouchy look, then by all means wear slouchy clothes. Instead of rules, there should be an awareness of what you want your clothes to say about you or at least, what your clothes are saying about you.

Although it is common for Bay Area professional workplaces to have their employees dress in business casual, it doesn’t mean you should also adhere to a lax dress code. Why not go beyond what is expected of you in your office dress as well as in your work? Take a cue from the gentleman in the photograph above and pair your casual denim with a smart blazer. He manages to avoid looking haphazardly mismatched by going for a monochromatic look. He eschews faded denim in favor of uniformly dark jeans and then tops it off with a dark blazer. Even more importantly, both his jeans and blazer are flawlessly tailored, giving him a continuously slim, clean silhouette. His winning combination of black jeans and dark gray blazer strikes a perfect balance between professional and relaxed. He looks suave and sharp, but his outfit isn’t a matching suit and tie ensemble; it is just informal enough to ensure that he won’t look completely out of place in a business casual office. The best part about this look is that it is extremely versatile. It looks office appropriate just as much as bar-ready when happy hour rolls around. Cheers!

Do you want to know how to find jeans with a good fit? Do you want to know more about which cuts, washes, and brands are appropriate for business casual sleek? Come to the Men’s Style Labon Sunday, March 20th!

Last Friday night was windy, rainy, and freezing. But inside the Cotton Mills Studio? It was HOT - from the steam that emanated from many women listening to the men preach and rant about women’s fashion at the event, “10 Things Guy Need to Know about Fashion, but Women Will Never Tell.” Although the event was meant to give men styling tips, both men and women had the chance to speak their minds on the opposite sex’s fashion choices. And the men definitely had a thing or twenty to tell the ladies on how to dress.  

But first, let’s start with the ladies’ side. Their comments were of the “men are slobs” persuasion. The women powwowed about men who neglect to clean their fingernails; men who believe that they are the sex god from an Axe or Old Spice commercial and use their deodorant like it is their cologne; and men who sport chest hair resembling a “Brillo Pad”- the short, wiry hairs that sprout up after shaving (and apparently, have killed many a woman’s mood). 

Meanwhile, men seemed to reinforce the truism that they constantly have sex on their brain. On the floor, they took a united stand in guiding women on how to dress like the objects of their booty calls: wear sexy undergarments; wear sexy boots; dress in tight clothes; show more leg than bosom, or alternatively, show off your “best assets.” 

But the event left me wondering whether this was really the mainstream opinion among guys. Do men want their women oozing sex appeal any place, any time, as if they are juicy, medium-rare steaks? Are there any other ways to arouse a man’s interest without dressing like Blake Lively? (Or in other words, is my main dude, who gripes only about cropped dress pants on women, abnormal?)   

In order to gain some perspective on this question, I peeped at the note cards left behind by the guests at the end of the night. The fashion prescriptions written down but not voiced at the event ranged from the nitpicky “don’t wear painted eyebrows” and “avoid pointed shoes,” which were deemed “witch-like and intimidating,” to the bizarre and fetishistic, “wear welding masks.” On a basic level, these comments were subjective expressions of individual preferences and objections, making clear that it is nearly impossible for one person to satisfy everybody else’s standards of desirability. 

But on another level, the comments intimate that there should be a balance between dressing for one’s self and dressing to present one’s self to others. Clothes contain ideas about the kind of person the wearer might be. People think of women shod in pointed pumps not so much as unfashionable and unstylish but as severe, formidable, and yes, maybe even intimidating. 

So dress the way you want to dress, but also dress the way you want to be perceived. To quote one of the guests, “Dress with a purpose and anticipate how you will be treated according to the way you are dressed.”   

As a woman writing for a blog that instructs men how to get their fash on, it has not escaped our attention that whenever the fellas in our lives kibitz about our sartorial choices, we tend to feign deafness. But we can’t deny that at times, we can be downright delusional when it comes to thinking about what looks good on us. We often give into the hype surrounding trends that invade each season’s fashion scene. A case in point: we still cringe at the thought of having donned low-rise jeans and our whale tail all throughout the early 2000s.    

So maybe we should take a cue from ourselves and try something new too – listen to men’s take on women’s clothing. And we are eagerly looking forward to doing just that at our upcoming event on February 18th. In the meantime, we are betting that the gentlemen at the event will be crying foul over these recent trends:   

Jumpsuits. These body-hugging one-pieces elicited this (male) opinion: “It’s like I’m vomiting from my eyes.”  Source:  Nitrolicious

OR 
  
Geriatric-Inspired Swimwear. Nothing kills a man’s unbridled lust for your half-naked body at the beach quite like covering your lady bits with granny panties.
Source: Style.com

So gentlemen, have we anticipated your turn-offs? Or did we neglect to mention an even more hideous trend guaranteed to condemn women to celibacy? Come and tell us at the styling event this Friday!    

Would you be willing to change one thing you usually wear...for one day.....to GET the girl?

Think about it....battling in wars, composing symphonies, jumping off really tall buildings, buying Ford Pintos ...do you really think guys did this just because they actually LIKED it? My hypothesis is ...get this....that Guys did crazy stuff for women! Revelation.

Try wearing green instead of blue on Wednesday...or maybe a vest instead of a blazer....of course you could instead, write a sonnet or software or something... 

I don't know....I'm just saying....

Com'on - read this most funny excerpt on how men do so much for women, in "Scientific Fundamentalist" by Satoshi Kanazawa. I suggest doing something less taxing like wearing suspenders instead of a belt or a Goorin cap instead of your usual beanie. That's probably easier than learning to ride a unicycle for example. 

{"paint portraits and cathedral ceilings, make scientific discoveries, play in rock bands, and write new computer software, in order to impress women so that they will agree to have sex with them.  There would be no civilization, no art, no literature, no music, no Beatles, no Microsoft, if sex and mating were a male choice.  Men have built (and destroyed) civilizations in order to impress women so that they might say yes.  Women are the reason men do everything. [Noooooo - Say its not so!]
Once again, my personal hero Bill Maher captures the essence of female choice perfectly, when he quips:  “For a man to walk into a bar and have his choice of any woman he wants, he would have to be the ruler of the world.  For a woman to have the same power over men, she’d have to do her hair.”  In other words, any reasonably attractive young woman exercises as much power as does the (male) ruler of the world."}
Pic Source: nottiehottie.over-blog.com