my buddy's (lack of) style

[chase]

so here's the situation, i've got a roommate who i'll call "style challenged." i'm not talking ratty t-shirts and jeans. we're in college thats not a big deal. i'm talking ripped up cargo pants from the 90's that look like flood pants and striped dress shirts that we're made for his brother who is 3 inches taller and much stockier. And thats all he wears. doesn't own a pair of jeans or nothin. he is in great shape (run's half marathons) and looks like he is literally swimming in these clothes. i wouldn't even think about saying anything except that when we hit parties i will pretty consistantly get people (mostly girls) asking me what the heck he's wearing/giggle and point when he's not looking etc.


There was an article on dappered a while back that talked about 5 rules of style, and number 5 was something like, don't be that douche in the well tailored suit who looks down on people that have different styles (something like that). i don't want to be a "that guy" who gives unsolicited fashion advice, but this guy's a pretty bad case. what do you all think? should i say somethin or just let him eventually figure it out (or not) on his own??

[ChrisW]

You are not looking down on the guy, you see that his poor dress sense is impacting the way people see him. If he knew that girls were laughing at him for the way he dressed, he would change that pretty quickly. The question is not if you should say something, but how you say it.

One idea is to enlist the help of a girl, all she really needs to say is "you have a good body from all that exercise, you should wear shirt and jeans that fit tighter to show it off" These things coming from a girl have a huge effect. Hopefully you can then step in and start pointing him in the right direction.


The bottom line is it seems like this guy's clothes are preventing him from getting laid. If you are really his friend it is your duty to help him out.


At one time I had a really bad haircut, my friends joined together and staged an intervention. They shaved my head to remove the awful do, and everyone agreed that it was a huge improvement. I didn't realize just how bad my haircut was, just like your buddy doesn't realize the disservice his wardrobe is doing him.


Good luck, in the end he will thank you for it.

[Davelli0331]

<blockquote>

One idea is to enlist the help of a girl, all she really needs to say is "you have a good body from all that exercise, you should wear shirt and jeans that fit tighter to show it off" These things coming from a girl have a huge effect. Hopefully you can then step in and start pointing him in the right direction.</blockquote>


+bajillion. Having someone of the female variety tell you that would look better a certain way will have much more of an impact.

[chase]

update: recruited a girl i used to date from down the hall, and she got the job done! apparently they got talkin about his lack of play with the ladies, and she worked style into it and basically suggested he dress more like me. not sure about the details but long story short he asked me for help upgrading his wardrobe. So that's all good news.


now the next dilemma, He's got about 200 bucks he can spend, so i'm thinkin we'll dig through the thrift stores first and then go from there.


after taking inventory He has


6 pairs cargo pants

4 pairs cargo shorts (not great but eh they're fine)

9 poorly fitting dress shirts. yes. nine. and they are all gigantic.

plenty of semi-decent t-shirts from all the running stuff he does so he doesn't need t-shirts


My thoughts

needs like 3 or 4 pairs of jeans

1 pair of chinos

white fitted dress shirt and maybe 1 or 2 other dress shirts and a casual button down


ideally a decent blazer too, but that seems like a stretch even if we can find 1 or 2 pairs of jeans in the two big thrift stores in town. I like the blazers tho cuz we are in college so most of the guys don't or can't rock a blazer. makes you stand out in a crowd in a way that the guy in the ed hardy shirt doesn't. but then a nice well fitted blazer is a big chunk of his budget.. what do you guys think?

[ChrisW]

first of all, congratulations! you have done your buddy a huge favour.


Now on to puchases. I think he probably only needs two pairs of jeans, one really dark pair which can be dressed up, and a slightly lighter pair to wear casually. A pair of chinos is a great idea, and I would maybe throw in a chambray shirt if you can.


At this point a blazer is optional. see how comfortable he is wearing one, and what you can find for a reasonable price.

Bear in mind that he might not want to change from super casual to dressed up all in one go. Help him find his personal style, and be honest about what looks good on him.


Again, good on you for helping your buddy out!

[vincent]

Hi Chase,

it's very nice of you to do that. If everybody are doing what are you doing, i suppose in a few years we'll see way more well-dressed young man in college.

So how's the progress on helping out your buddy? just curious

[zerostyle]

With $200 you're pretty limited. There's absolutely no reason to start with 4 pairs of jeans.


If you're going new, I'd try something like:

- 2 pairs of Levi's 514 or 501 for ~ $30 = $60

- 4-5 button down shirts from jcrew factory, uniqlo, or h&m around $25 each = $125ish


You're basically out of money now, and he still needs:

- shoes (maybe just get a cheap pair of $20-$30 canvas shoes like chucks or something from LE canvas?)

- belt - just find the cheapest brown belt you can

- blazer - only way he can afford this is from a thrift unless you can convince him to spend $50-$100 on something from like macy's on sale or H&M/uniqlo

[greg_s]

I think it is sometimes hard to move from having little style to getting right into wearing well-fitted, stylish clothes full time. It seems to be a process.


I would generally agree with what people are saying. 1 or 2 pairs of dark, well-fitted jeans. If only 1 pair, maybe a decent pair of chinos.


I would lean more toward 2-3 properly fitting dress shirts depending on. That way you could work in a polo or 2 (those Target ones) for cheap.


With $200, try Target and H&M (if you have one) for decent quality at the right price. For now, skip the blazer. Maybe one of Target's merino v-necks when they have them again.


In my opinion, blazers are further along in the process. A dark blue or grey merino v-neck will nearly always work.

[chase]

This was a while back so i'm a little sketchy on the specifics but we found 4 pairs of jeans and a good casual button down that actually fit at the local thrift stores and he bought some of those target polo shirts and 2 decent (fitted) dress shirts. Came in underbudget, which was good because i had completely forgotten about shoes! He was one of those running shoes every day guys. Ended up with a pair of cheap canvas sneakers which worked just fine. It took him a little while to warm up to just that, so a blazer would DEFINATELY have been too much too soon. But yeah i'd say it went pretty well. thanks for the tip about bringing a girl into it, that was a huge help!