Looking good for school is honestly really simple. While this article is dedicated to the dudes, it can also be a good read for the ladies who perhaps need a little extra knowledge on male fashion – maybe to dress up their boyfriends. Being in far-flung NUS, we – as a sweeping statement – find it rather unnecessary to dress up for school, unlike our counterparts who have their campus situated right beside the heart of our local shopping district. My opinion is that we at NUS, particularly the men, feel that it takes too much time and effort to dress up. Maybe it is due to the lack of knowledge and experience in fashion that makes us shy away from styling ourselves. Fear no more, because I’m here to share with you what I have picked up over the years of attempting to look good without going over the top. So here is my little guide to the essential clothing every guy’s wardrobe should have for looking good on campus.
T-shirts
You’ll never go wrong with solid colours. Unlike graphic and print tees, a plain solid colour tee makes it easy to style with. But the little concern with colours is how to match them. My suggestion is that you should go with colours such as forest green, eggplant, charcoal, maroon, navy blue. Some lighter colours you can think about are the royal blue or teal (jade colour), cardinal red, mustard and white. The colours mentioned here are similarly relevant to the rest of the clothing as well. When you’ve got 3-4 colours for each of the mentioned clothing, all you have to do then is experiment with mixing and matching them to see which combinations fit you best. If you have a lighter or brighter colour for your top then go with a darker contrasting colour for your bottoms, vice versa. Though I recommend the safe approach of keeping your bottoms the darker colour.
Tip: Get striped tees if you’re looking for that extra dimension. Some variations are the scoop or V-neck t-shirts.
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Click on colour chart to see the names of the various colours.
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Shirts
Checked or plaid shirts never go out of style, but do get linen, denim or casual cotton solid-coloured shirts as well. Some colours to consider are oatmeal colour, mustard, deep sky blue and dark blue.
Tip: Getting the right fit – Avoid letting your shirt length go beyond the zip line of you pants. A good rule of thumb is about 2 to 3 inches below your belt or pants button if you don’t wish to tuck your shirt. If you intend on tucking them, then it will be fine if they are slightly longer. Also, when the sleeves are not folded, they should not go more than an inch beyond the start of your palm.
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Bottoms
Chinos are the new jeans and slim fit is the way to go. With a cut that is between that emo skinny jeans (I’m sure some of us went through that phase) and the unflattering straight cut, the current fashion calls for a trimmed sleek look, and the slim fit cut affords you exactly that. Brown pants or chinos are my personal favourite – it goes well with any colour. Some other must-haves are navy blue, maroon and eggplant. If you’re feeling brave enough, mustard is a good choice of a brighter colour to have. The thing about chinos and pants are that they give a cleaner, neater and more mature touch to your dressing, and they’re definitely classier than jeans. On days you feel like looking and feeling more casual, a nice pair of charcoal or dark denim jeans in slim fit cut can be a good alternative to the chino pants. The warm and humid weather makes bermuda shorts the ideal bottoms to wear. Shorts made from the same chino material are the in-thing now. So go ahead and get yourself a couple of pairs of them chino shorts for those days where you want a more relaxed outfit.
Tip: Don’t get berms that go beyond your knees. A good gauge is 1 to 2 inches above knee length and not any shorter than 6 inches above your knee. For the chino pants, alter them if you must, just slightly lower than your ankles. Try folding the pants not more than 2 or 3 folds for a slight variation in look.
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Footwear
What you wear on your feet makes a world of a difference to your outfit. While the gentlemen’s shoes have almost as wide a range as the ladies’, the most versatile pair you should have are the sneakers. A good variation to the usual Converse ones is the Plimsolls. While sneakers complements most casual attire, Plimsolls give that extra edge when it comes to looking a little more dressed up, as well as giving that bit more mature look. My recommendation is that you avoid wearing those rubber slippers with any of your outfit. If you must wear slippers, a more stylish pair would be one with leather straps. Leather sandals would make a classier alternative to leather strap slippers.
Tip: Grey, brown or navy shoes go well with many colours and that makes it easy to match them with your outfit. Getting a faux leather shoe can give you a more stylish look to your attire.
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Outerwear
This, my friends, is the secret weapon, the best tip from this guide. While it can be rather silly to don an outerwear in this hot and humid weather we have all year round, owning a cardigan can be one of the best fashion items to have in your wardrobe. A cardigan magically makes any attire you are in seem that much more fashionable and proper (trust the girls on this). What is even better is that cardigans are available in thinner fabric, allowing us to wear it without being afraid of breaking a sweat – well at least for a good 10 minutes out of an air conditioned place and if you do, you can always take it off and it fits nicely into your school bag without taking too much space. On the other hand – for those rainy days, the cardigan has the right thickness to keep you warm. Don’t worry, a man wearing a cardigan is no girly man; it has been part of the male fashion catalogue for a long time. Personally I think that owning one grey or navy coloured cardigan is good enough to last you through your university days.
Tip: Make sure it isn’t overly fitting or too loose; choose one that fits nicely off your shoulders with the sleeves not extending beyond the line between your palm and wrist.
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Where to get them?
T-Shirts – UNIQLO, FOURSKIN After all the time spent trying out plain tees from various shops available locally, I found that Uniqlo and Fourskin offer the best fitting t-shirts. The sleeves don’t flair out at the upper arm and the cutting fits nicely off the shoulders.
Shirts – H&M, UNIQLO, TOPMAN The price ranges rather widely between these 3 suggestions, and I personally get most of my casual shirts from H&M.
Pants/Berms – H&M, UNIQLO, TOPMAN I find TOPMAN berms the best fit, but at a cost. My favourite chinos were purchased from Uniqlo.
Footwear – H&M (less costly), PEDRO, ALDO (more costly) H&M plimsolls cost less than SGD30, definitely worth getting a pair from there. The shoes, leather slippers or sandals are more costly in Pedro and Aldo.
Cardigan – H&M, ZARA (more costly) You can get a cardigan at H&M between SGD 25 – SGD 70.
Brief Style Guide
Simple layering goes a long way. Wearing a shirt unbuttoned over a plain tee can be a good change up while using the same clothes you wore just last week. As mentioned, the cardigan can have the same effect as well. Wearing your shorts with a white tee one Monday and wearing a pair of chinos and the same white tee on Friday and you’ll have a totally different look on both days! It goes the same for your footwear. It’s all about switching and mixing it up. In my opinion that in itself makes styling and dressing up really fun!
While this guide mentions only solid colours, playing with prints and designs can get rather tricky. A more specific guide would be needed to properly understand how to incorporate prints into your dressing.
Perhaps something this guide assumes is that the cost is affordable to all. My advice is to use what you currently have, and whenever you have the extra cash to spare, purchase one or two of these essentials, and slowly your wardrobe would be fully made over!
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If you’ve enjoyed reading this and had learnt something new from it, please don’t forget to let your fellow bros read it too! Feel free to give me any feedback at jco91@hotmail.com. I plan to write more style guides in the future so if you liked it and want to see more do let me know! Also do feel free to follow me on http://www.pinterest.com/jeromecaleb/