A Brief History

The original chinos came from China and were copied from the khaki pants worn by British soldiers in the late 19th century. The Chinese reworked these pants using stiff cotton that would allow the legs to breathe while protecting them from the sun.

Generally made from a weave of 100% cotton twill, chinos are sometimes referred to as “khakis” – although this is actually a sand-like colour and technically refers to just one particular type of chino.

While pleated, billowy chinos are an unfortunate by-product of the mid-90s-business-casual craze, most modern styles of chino are flat-faced, slim and come in a huge range of colours. As with jeans, it’s best to only ever wear light coloured chinos during the day, whereas dark coloured chinos can be worn any time.

DID YOU KNOW… Khaki is a colour – not  a style. There are many variations, but it pretty much looks like this:

In hot weather: slim chinos go well with a simple classic white t-shirt and a pair of sneakers. For a more formal look: wear a light coloured dress shoe (pictured: white suede bucks) and a classic light dress shirt. No socks and rolled sleeves keep the outfit relaxed yet the formality of each piece make it business appripriate. In hot or mild weather: pair with a singlet and open shirt, with a clean pair of sneakers and no socks. When it gets cold: the khaki chino isn’t only suitable for summer – during winter, pair it with a dark jacket, some thick socks and sturdy boots.

You can hire us to teach you all of this stuff, and more! Every day, we take guys just like you shopping in Melbourne and Sydney. We can teach you about fit, colour and design – and help you craft a personal style that is uniquely your own. Click here to read about our services or simply reply to this email to speak to us! Other articles you might enjoy: How Men’s Style Changed from the 50s to the 90s We collected 40 years of alumni photos from an engineering school, as a simple way of showing how men’s style has developed. STYLE CHEAT SHEET: Dressing Up A cheat sheet is all about preparation. If you only had two pages to fill with enough rules and formulas to weasel your way out of any situation, what would you write? In this article, James shares his top tips for dressing up.

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Question: Do you need a belt to hold up your pants?

Yes No

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The humble peacoat. Most labels have produced a variation and most men have owned at least one in their lifetime. The style is characterised by its thick, rough wool construction, double breast, large lapels and relatively short length.

The peacoat was originally a Dutch style coat – “pijjekker”, meaning a coarse wool jacket – which was shortened by British sailors in the 1700s to, simply, “P-Coat”. It quickly became the go-to overcoat for sailors; the padded wool kept the body warm while the cropped length allowing free-ranging movement.

As one would expect from its sea-faring roots, the traditional colour for peacoats is navy, while men of higher rank had coats with brass buttons.

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The simplest colour theory for men says that we should wear clothes that match the natural colours that appear in our complexion. What this means is: If you have hair that is darker than your skin colour (like 99% of men in the world), you should match that natural level of contrast in the clothes that you wear.

As with any outfit that a man wears, we want attention to be drawn to our faces. If attention is drawn to our clothes, then we’re doing something wrong – the clothes are wearing us.

Doing it right

See below; we have three different skin/hair combinations that roughly match most men’s natural tones. The outfits that they wear have a similar level of contrast (dark surrounding light).

In all three examples, the contrast-matching brings attention directly to the man’s face. You can test this – close your eyes, then open them and stare directly at the three men. Your eyes should naturally notice the face first.

Doing it wrong

Comparatively, notice the difference when we reverse the natural contrast, and wear light colours surrounding dark colours.

As above, close your eyes and open them to stare directly at this image. You’ll likely find your eyes being naturally drawn to the men’s shirts first, rather than their faces.

This is one of the simplest ways to ensure that your outfits help rather than hinder, and will also assist in matching wardrobe pieces together.

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As with the Military Tuck, the Gig Line (also known as the “Action Line”) comes from the men of the ever-neat-and-tidy armed forces. It refers to a vertical harmony between your shirt placket, belt buckle and the seam of your pant fly

There isn’t really much explanation necessary here, except to note that 99% of men don’t pay attention to their gig line, and constantly look sloppy as a result. Share this knowledge with them. Once you know about it, you’ll start to notice it everywhere.

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“The Military Tuck” has many variations, used by servicemen to give their standard-fit uniforms a clean, fitted finish. Purists who read this will have an obvious question at the back of their mind – “Why not just have the shirt altered by a tailor?” There are many reasons why a man would choose to tuck over altering; time, expense, hassle. While a tailored shirt will sit perfectly on the body, this 30-second tucking technique gets the job done just as well.

The Method

As shown below, with this method our goal is to take the excess fabric from the front and back of the shirt and hide it in the side-seams.

Steps:

1. Unbutton pants and place the base of your shirt neatly downward. Your shirt should not be scrunched into your pants as they’ll easily come untucked.
2. Pinch the shirt at the side-seams and pull tight to collect the excess fabric.
3. Fold this excess fabric backwards. You want both back and front of your shirt to sit flush against your body; no bunching (you haven’t pinched enough fabric) nor pulling (you’ve pinched too much fabric).
4. Button your pants up, tightly securing the folds against your body.
5. Adjust if necessary to neaten the shirt.

It helps to think of this method as placing your pants over your shirt, rather than tucking your shirt into your pants. Obviously, this technique only works for shirts that mostly fit, and just have some excess fabric in the body. If the shirt is a size (or more) too large, this method won’t work and it will need to be altered by a tailor to make it fit correctly.

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I feel like I dress cool. Can you confirm this or make me feel like a worthless human being by judging me by subjective standards?

- from DeadSeaGulls on Reddit

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I feel like most men’s clothing tends to either be very casual (t-shirt and jeans) or very formal (suit/slacks/tie), is there any advice you can give to men trying to find something more in the middle of the spectrum?

- from Itsbeenemotional on Reddit

I get what you mean, but you’re looking at it in the wrong way my friend!

Jeans are casual, sure. But there are formal jeans and informal jeans. A slim, dark pair of jeans can be far more formal than a pair of dress pants – you’ve just gotta wear them in the right way.

In men’s fashion, think of formality as a gradient. On one end you have the tuxedo and tailcoat – the two most formal men’s outfits. On the other hand, you have nakedness. If a particular item of clothing brings your outfit closer to the tailcoat (which is black, dark, plain, crisp, sleek) then it is formal. If it brings it away from the tailcoat (light, bright, colourful, embellished, complicated) then it is less formal.

There are many, many, many jackets that would suit your needs – look for sport coats and blazers (google the distinction between these two styles) that have lighter colours. Greys, charcoals, patterns – that sort of thing. Doesn’t have to be bold or garish, just things which give the garment more depth and texture. Dark, slim, plain jeans are your friend, as are dress shoes, dark sneakers, work boots and so on.

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Have no idea where to start. For, let’s say, someone just entering the job force with limited funds (Lets say $1500), what would you recommend? Let’s assume this person needs to wear a suit 2 times a week, business casual the rest of the time.For same person, what do you recommend for casual wear? Ever post on Styleforum?

- from Uncleoce on Reddit

Great questions. To start with, the prices I give are in AU$. Consider that here, cost of living is much higher so clothes/everything is more expensive than in the US (but we get higher wages so it evens out).

Entering the Workforce

If you ever need to buy a suit, it’s always best to get one that has a quality/fit/style that will last for years. Every man is different, with a different body type and different needs. But almost everybody will look great in a deep charcoal or deep navy suit.

I’m not well-versed with US labels, but here’s what you need to look for when buying a basic first suit:

• Regardless of how much it costs, a suit is worth nothing if it doesn’t fit you. The shoulder is the most important fit area when buying a suit off the rack – the shoulder seam needs to fit right on the joint between your arm and shoulder, and the sleeves should flow nicely down your arms without bunching or being too tight. The waist will almost always need to be taken in by a tailor, and the pants should be slim rather than billowy. If you need a belt to hold up your pants, your pants don’t fit.
• Suits with a floating canvass last far longer than fused suits. A floating canvas means that a layer of canvas is sewn in between the outer and inner layers of fabric in the suit. In cheaper suits, this canvas is glued in (called “fusing”), which tends to wear poorly over time.
• If you’re overweight, you need a suit with a structured shoulder and a slim waist that helps to broaden your silhouette. If you’re athletic, you need less padding in the shoulder and a suit that drapes your body without overly-accentuating it.
• Shoes are one of the most important parts of a suit. The width of the toe should harmonise with the width of your trousers; if you have very slim trousers, you need slim shoes; if you have more relaxed trousers, you need wider shoes.
• Dress shoes should give a flattering shape to the foot. Round, contoured and slim is flattering. Fat, boxy, straight-lined or square-toed is not flattering.

If you had $1500 to spend, I’d roughly suggest:

• $800 on the suit
• $300 on shoes - [1] /r/malefashionadvice would kill me for not suggesting a nice pair of brown Allen Edmonds brogues, which are incredibly versatile, can be worn with a suit or with jeans, and will last for many years.
• $150 on some 3 basic dress shirts. Lands End seems popular and cheap although I can’t vouch for them as they’re not available in Australia. But get a light blue one, a white one and a nice patterny one.
• $50-$100 on a basic pair of chinos. I like Dr Denim’s chinos as they’re well-fitted yet nice and relaxed, although they can be a little pricey.
• $200-$300 on a casual blazer/sport coat. 2-button, no garish features, just something well-fitted and versatile.

With a wardrobe like that you’ll be well-equipped for just about any situation, good basic wardrobe to get you started. As I said, unsure of how much suits cost in the USA, so you may find that a nice off-the-rack suit + tailoring could come in at less than $800, giving you more cash to spend on shirts/ties/pocket squares/whatever you like.

Casual Wear for the Young Business Man

As above, you can easily put together some great outfits that can be worn at work/to cafes/while partaking in an undercover drug sting. Chinos + dress shirt + blazer + dress shoes are the most common option go sans blazer in hot weather, add a scarf and thicker fabrics for colder weather.

It sounds very limiting, but with basic items like that you can make thousands of different outfits by playing with different colours, fabrics and patterns.

Style Forum

I read from time to time, but never made an account. Same with Sufu, Hyperbeast, Stylezeitgeist, Ask Andy About Clothes and many others – there are so many great guys on those forums, they’re a goldmine for anyone interested in men’s style.

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The gallery above shows a very simple yet powerful demonstration of men’s style changing over 5 decades. These photos come from the UMASS online yearbook, featuring their undergraduate Engineering class photos from each year.

The original idea for this piece came from a thread on the Film Noir Buff Style Forum but most of the photos were dead links. Hunted them down from various repositories and compiled them here.

Here are some choice comments from Reddit:

I’m not sure that an Engineering class is your best indicator of what’s fashionable

- from isecretlyjudgeyou

1971 – everything looking good, pretty cool, shirts and jeans
1972 – BAM! MOUSTACHES EVERYWHERE!

- from trumann

God the 90s fucking sucked. Nothing fit well and everyone got fat.

- from definitelynotaspy

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