Dressing Like an Adult

Don't sweat it. Since I was sixteen about a billion years ago my wardrobe almost exclusively consists of jeans, tshirts, v neck sweaters, leather jackets, army boots and Chuck Taylors. Add some cargo pants and buttoned down shirts for variety and you could say I'm even fashionable every four or five years.

Naw..you just start wearing more expensive jeans. Cause you know, that's classy.

I'm 26 and I wear a button up shirt (sleeves rolled up) and tie when I'm teaching, but the rest of the time I'm usually still in jeans and/or cargo pants and t-shirt. Last night I went out to dinner with some co-workers and a former professor of mine was wearing a t-shirt tucked into cacki shorts. TUCKED IN!

DO NOT WANT!!!

Don't you have a girlfriend/sister? Jesus, just let them pick out your clothes. 's How I do. One of them's always around, and bitches know bout dat shit man.

No. This is the way to ruin via pastel.

At 22, I really wouldn't worry about looking like the guy who won't grow up.

Unless you wear Star Wars t-shirts.

And rainbow colored caps with propellers on them.

Don´t sweat it. In most jobs grown-up clothes choose you.

Patrick Ripoll, I am...42, and I hate to...Dress up. I did it when I was working at...Simon and Schuster, but they...paid me to dress up. I still get in...HUGE, arguments with my...sister, father, mother, etc, on dressing up. I only dress up for special occasions, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Graduations, Weddings etc. Once, as a teen, my mom, step-father and sister were disallowed from entering a church in...Italy, since I refused to wear anything other than a t-shirt, shorts, sneakers etc, and their dress code precludes this type of dress.

I generally wear a Polo shirt, with jeans (Levis only), and either sneakers (with socks) or moccasins (sockless)! The only t-shirts I wear are...Miami Dolphin shirts. I never owned any Star Wars, Superhero, etc t-shirts. Sunday, during football season I wear a football jersey as well.

Oh man, now I have to change.

Just make sure your stuff is form-fitting, honestly. No baggy shit, no sweatpants, no tie-dye, flip-flops, etc. Jeans (DARK, not mom jeans, make sure you get a few good pairs, try to avoid boot cut) are generally good, nice slacks are fine, make sure your belt matches your shoes if you're tucking your shirt in (and even if you aren't, really). Also, NEVER WEAR WHITE SOCKS UNLESS THEY ARE THE SMALL ANKLE SOCKS FOR THE GYM. Jesus christ I can't stress how awful it is to see a dude in slacks and dress shoes looking like Michael Jackson. He could pull it off. Every other male in the universe can't. The same goes for those stupid white tennis shoes that a lot of white guys inexplicably wear.

All style really amounts to is common sense, most of the time.

Well, you'd look like a stylin' dude without any effort! I don't see the downside.

Patrick, don't sweat it. Wear what you want when you want. The only time you should care is when you get a job that requires you to wear a certain type of clothes. And jeans will never go out of style.

Btw if you ever wear that little rainbow cap with a propeller, please also dot your cheeks with red marker.

I'll stop wearing low boot cut jeans when you pry them from my cold naked legs. What do you wear? Straight leg? You look like a damn square!

Always own a couple of good suits for appropriate occasions, and avoid dressing like Dane Cook.

I have the opposite problem, since I was about fifteen I've been a pretty militant long sleeve shirt, smart trousers, kind of guy. I wear t-shirts very occasionally, but I feel more comfortable the smarter I dress. I'm actually WAY more comofortable in a three piece suit than I am in jeans and a t-shirt. I wouldn't worry too much about dressing like an adult, outside of the office I don't see many people who don't do the jeans/t-shirt thing.

There's nothing quite as liberating as some linen pants with no underwear. It's like being allowed to attend dressy events in your pajamas.

Tuck his shirt in? What is he, THE KING OF SIAM?!

Yeah, low-cut straight leg. Some people can pull off boot-cut, but most guys wearing them look like they're headed to a fucking love-in.

Also, NEVER WEAR A FEDORA.

The advice in here is pretty sound, all it really takes is being aware of your surroundings. If i'm out and about town on the weekend I usually have on a good fitting pair of jeans (like Jake said avoid super baggy shit and I personally don't care for skinny nut-huggers or even plain straight jeans... I usually go for "relaxed fit" or "loose fit" but try them on to be sure they aren't baggy) and a short sleeved shirt. Polo or t-shirt, but the t-shirts I wear are usually nice looking... not some shit I got for free somewhere.

For a night on the town it's almost always a form-fitting button-down shirt, dark jeans, and dark shoes.

At work I wear polo-style shirts ( or anything with a collar really, we wear badges so I need to have something for my lanyard to wrap around) and khaki style pants or jeans if it's Friday.

Jake's advice about shoes and socks is spot-on.

ETA: I fuck with boot-cut sometimes, the pair i bought from Guess fit well. Just have to try them on to make sure they fit right. ALWAYS TRY ON JEANS BEFORE YOU BUY THEM. Doesn't matter if you know your size, different designers fit differently.

Ha! Ha! Glorious.

Man, I love my Fedora. It, along with my collection of HIGH-LARIOUS coloured ties, is how I define my personality.

You're worrying about this at 22? Worry when you're 30 at the earliest. I'm 36. I wear almost nothing other than solid colored T-shirts with shorts (April-November) or jeans (the rest of the time). But then I:

A)live in Austin where a tank top, shorts and flip-flops is acceptable attire at nearly any restaurant or business in town, and

B)am a stay-at-home dad, so I basically never have a reason to dress up.

I don't know how you people who have to dress up all the time do it. Or afford it.

Also re: Jake's comment about form-fitting: this only applies if you're a normal sized human. If you're a freak of nature like me (6'7" 250 lbs), sometimes the only way to get shirts long enough to actually rest on/below your waist is to buy shirts that are too big for your shoulders. Nobody makes the size I really need: large extra tall. So I end up with extra large tall and the shoulders/sleeves not sitting right and the shirt being too loose and floppy around my torso. But basically everything looks goofy on me with my height anyway. It's a lose-lose. Thank god I'm married already.

Being tall and thin must be a pain. I'm lucky because I'm 6 foot 7, but I'm broadly built so that most XXL stuff is form fitting and long enough. The worst thing is sleeves, having your sleeve suddenly slip halfway down your forearm because you're a freak of nature with massive arms is never fun.

well you missed all the great grown up department store sales over memorial day weekend. It's where and when to go when I need more work clothes.

Wear whatever your employment requires you to wear, but do your own thing otherwise. Go with the flow and wear whatever makes you comfortable AND confident and you'll do fine. You're 22, so you really don't have to worry about being 'age appropriate' yet...let your style evolve as you age.

My wife's sister works in the Fashion industry and gave me the best piece of advice ever about clothes.

The way to look good is to find a style that suits you. It actually does not matter what that style is, be it Suit and Tie or TShirt and jeans, and trust me your girl friend will know what that is.

Me, it's ussualy dress pants, shirt and tie during the day for my job. Then gym shorts, and a T for the gym... those are my two style I wear most often.

As far as my casual stuff goes, like what I will wear to a BBQ. I ussualy go to Macy's a couple times year, and just grab a few Lucky shirts off the rack, match that with some decent jeans, or shorts. done.

Well, I gotta disagree, to an extent. I'm cursed/blessed with wide shoulders so all the regular button-downs that fit me look like I'm wearing a parachute, so I get them taken in on the sides. A little pricey after a while, sure, but the difference in appearance is worth it.

I'm 26 and for the most part I wear khaki's and a polo shirt at work with the occasional button up mixed in if we have company coming. But my work is pretty loose on attire so I can get away with the occasional t-shirt and jeans day. Outside of the office I usually wear jeans or cargo shorts with a polo shirt or t-shirt and a hoodie.

Phil is so right on the free ballin in cotton pants point it's not even funny.

Never wear jorts.

This is great advice but especially once you go dressier. I crack up when I see dudes show up for job interviews looking like an 8 year old in their older brother's church clothes. "I can fit inside this" does not equal "this fits."

Hugh Laurie in House.

Phil's right about dressier - ill-fitting items show the most in suits. I've lost about 25 pounds over the past four months, and I tried on an old suit jacket yesterday for a big upcoming meeting. Absolutely looks like shit. I dunno what I'm going to do, but it's not going to involve that suit unless I take it to a tailor.

I used to be king of the t-shirts. Now I hardly ever wear them except for going to the gym or if I'm just bumming around the house. I've turned into king of the polo.

Yep. I dressed exclusively in white tees and cargo pants until she started buying my clothes. I looked in the mirror, liked how I looked, and now only dress 'the old way' when it's a sub-casual level event.

Still ain't gonna gel my hair into a faux-hawk though. That's crossing the line.

As for my girlfriend, she dyed her hair purple, green, blue until one day a woman asked her why. 'It doesn't go with your eyes or your skin color, so why?' My girlfriend agreed and now has her hair dark brown in a cute bob.

So I guess we're ready to file taxes!

Same here. I've also found that I've gotten rid of most of my old, ratty looking t-shirts and replaced them with a ton of Tommy Bahama t-shirts.

Polos are cool if you want to look like someone's dad. Generally avoid them unless they're somehow styled differently (buttonless collar, shallow neckline, whatever).

Also, if you post on the internet regularly and have facial hair, 75-80% of the time you should get rid of it. There are obvious exceptions, but thanks to the popularity of the hipster lumberjack look, the hipster mustache, and the geek neckbeard look, facial hair's getting pretty egregious.

Varies. Big tent-like polos are shit, but that fitted Daniel Craig shit from England is good.



(Watch for Jake's and my bitchy fashion podcast, "Bespoke Too Soon!" coming this fall)

I'm no paragon of style. I usually wear a t-shirt or shirt with a collar and jeans. I do have 3 really nice suits for when I need to look dapper.

If you are Daniel Craig you can wear whatever you want. But yeah, fitted is good (shoulda listed that in the exceptions), but with all due respect to Richard and Judas I don't think they're wearing those kind.

I'm an inch taller than you and roughly the same weight, and the only thing I can say is that Goodwill has been, well, good to me on the shirt front.

Pants, on the other hand....ugh. I wear a 40x38. I've yet to see those exact dimensions in a store that didn't want 70 bulls and my first comely daughter of age in exchange. Old Navy's been good for this online, but ordering from them been bad luck across the board.

Shoes are worse, since I wear a 17.

In summary, my choices are limited. But keeping it simple has never done me wrong in terms of personality, and despite a tipping overbalance since needing a ton of dress shirts for work and gettiong rid of a lot of my more stylish stuff as I lost weight/put on muscle, my nerd shirts remain unquestioned at 28.

I have nerd shirts too, but they're mostly relegated to around the house stuff. Most of the dudes wearing them should probably do the same, unless you're one of the few who can actually pull that off in public. Otherwise, leave the Keyboard Cat/Wolf Howling At Moon ironic shit in your Pile Of Shame along with your skidmarked undies.

And if you're interested in purchasing that exact ensemble you can get it at Dunhill for the low low price of £1,000 or so!

Daniel Craig's ball sweat not included.

Most of mine are fitted. I have a bad habit of snagging really loose clothing on things, so I pretty much HAVE to go with fitted stuff.

I think this thread's makin' me catty and possibly gay y'all