Same here, but it’s Carrhart tees and jeans. I honestly don’t give a shit what anybody thinks, and attend concerts, symphony and restaurants with an equal level of slobularity.
Do they whisper things like “J Crew must be doing a catalogue shoot on this river”?
Followup question: has J Crew in fact filmed any catalogs on those rivers?
I should draw a distinction between dressing well and dressing appropriately. Dressing appropriately for your job or social function is essential. Dressing well is a matter of personal preference. Personally, I like to dress well because I like things in my life to be atheistically pleasing in general.
I dress well up to my financial ability. That means I won’t pay more or less than $200-$300 for suits. I look for things on sale and make sure they fit well, which I think somewhat makes up for the low price.
For men, it’s pretty easy to dress well because the bar is not set that high. I like the idea of gaining an advantage in an area that requires minimal effort.
Formal wear especially is dead simple because it evolves a limited amount of colors and clothing. Suits (pants and jacket) should be charcoal, grey, and maybe dark blue. Shirts should be light blue, light gray, and white. Ties should be a darker shade than the shirt or a color that contrasts well with the shirt. If you are not sure about patterns, stick with solid colors. Shoes are either black or brown, and the belt should match the shoes. Brown shoes only work with blue or grey suites. That’s most of what you need to know about colors and articles of clothing for formal wear.
Sizing is not that hard to figure out. Here is a guide. If you are new to formal wear, then I would get a second opinion about whether something fits well. If you can’t get a second opinion, you can always take a photo and post it on Reddit’s Malefashionadvice.
I left out clothing fabric. For suits, ties, shoes, and belts I don’t worry about fabric and focus more on the clothing line. Fabric matters more for shirts, which you can read about here.
What’s left is to figure out how much to spend and where to shop. Since I have no money, I can’t tell you where to buy expensive stuff. For my frugal brothers, here is a [guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/frugalmalefashion/comments/1lza4c/frugal_faq_guide_v01/\).
Sorry for the digression. My point was that male fashion takes only about a few hours of reading and trying on clothes to decipher and I think it’s worth the effort.
How I dress is almost entirely related to what and where I find myself. Polo shirt or “Hawaiian” shirt for everyday wear both around home and at casual affairs. Suit for weddings and funerals, and full on dinner jacket with cummerbund, studs, and cufflinks when performing.
And in summer I may wander around in a pair of boxer briefs and an old button front shirt if I can get away with it…I do put on shorts for meals if my wife is home.
Basically, I’m retired and will avoid ties and suits when I can, but yield to convention when needed.
It matters to me how I dress. First impressions are important in my line of work. The customer is only going to see me for a few minutes and make a judgement on the business. Part of that will include me and how I dress. Many of the women at work are younger than I and dress in what I feel is an odd and inappropriate manner for work. Business casual is fine but showing major cleavage and plumbers crack is not a good image for the business. I wish I could do a good impression of Mammy in Gone With The Wind and shout - “Miss Scarlet you ain’t allowed to show your bosom 'till 6 o’clock!” The manager has no backbone and does not speak up.
So I go about dressed as a middle aged woman with a bit of hippie flair. That is my costume and I’m sticking to it.
Heh. These are small rivers/streams locally. The Kiskiminetas River, Conemaugh River, Buffalo Creek, Loyalhana Creek, and the like. The whispers are either, “WTF?” or “Look at those assholes”.