# 40 year old male...dress me

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-year-old-male-dress-me/635526>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 22, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-year-old-male-dress-me/635526 "2012-09-22T20:01:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-year-old-male-dress-me/635526/21 "2012-09-23T04:19:17Z")

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> [@digs](#):
>
> My wife’s a respiratory therapist, and she’s saving a lot of money on clothes. She wears her mom jeans and changes into scrubs as soon as she gets to work. Her department got to vote on wearing their own clothes or scrubs, and they voted not to spend money on “business casual” fashions.
> 
> I work around a lot of RT students, and I can assure you that they don’t care about their clothes (well, except for those girls that are a we-were-almost-cheerleaders-back-in-high-school clique). But everyone ignores them.
> 
> ALL the other students are wearing jeans, t-shirts, sweats. Maybe your stint in corporate America has got you expecting that everyone’s going to be judging you… they’re too busy with their own lives.

Yeah the RTs here wear scrubs, too. These aren’t going to be work clothes.

I’m not concerned about people judging me, just looking for some quality duds to wear in my off-time.

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**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-year-old-male-dress-me/635526/22 "2012-09-23T18:48:26Z")

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Oh, yeah, my fiance is 40 (41 this week!) and does have the Dad Jeans problem. He has to be arm-twisted into darker jeans and just does not get the problem.

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**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2012, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/40-year-old-male-dress-me/635526/23 "2012-09-23T19:00:57Z")

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If you want to be stylish, just avoid any pants (khakis are worst about this for some reason) with pleats in them. Just don’t do it. If your waist and hips are not conducive to well-fitting pants, then buy pants that fit your hips, and take them to a tailor to have them fitted to your waist as well. Pleated pants are horrid on everyone.

I would also avoid colors that can be described as “bright” or “primary” - instead look for jewel-tones or earth tones of whatever colors you prefer.

Whatever you end up wearing, you need to find out how to store it properly when it’s not on you, and how to keep it clean and properly kept-up - does it need pressing? Does it need to be starched? Does it need underlayers to make it look good?

Find that out BEFORE you buy the clothes, and don’t bother buying anything that requires steps you aren’t willing to go through. There’s nothing worse (ok, pleats are worse, but other than that) than having nice clothes that are wrinkled or have shrunk in an improper wash, or been faded out unevenly from sunlight damage or aren’t being worn properly. All of that just has this terrible effect of “I have money but no style or mirrors, and no one loves me enough to tell me I’m screwing up the execution.”

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