(06-15-2011 12:38 AM)Mark Wrote:  Oh, if you're European, then dress shoes with jeans may be a no-no. In the US it's fine though.

No it's not. Never heard that one before. Looks great (if done well).

@Frozen:
Just buy a simple raw jeans (dark indigo or the traditional blue). Get some nice brown shoes. Get some well fitting shirts (get them tailored if needed). Or let them tailor them for you in asia: http://www.youtailor.com, http://www.tailorstore.com, http://www.moderntailor.com

Christ, just read the stickies in some fashion forums. Or reddit/r/malefashionadvice. Show some initiative (or discipline as Mark would say )

Which country do you live in? Languages?

Dress shoes with jeans are fine anywhere in the world, and you don't need to have travelled all over to know that. The problem that I've noticed with most Americans (especially Boston guys) is that for them dress shoes mean hideous wide toed monstrosities that I would have worn for my first couple of years in high school (http://www.zappos.com/images/721/7211330...72-p.jpg), and jeans means boring loose fit American Eagle (http://www.ae.com/web/browse/category_fu...cat130130)

Now neither of those is that bad by themselves, but put them together and you have nothing that sets you apart from anyone but the worst dressers.

Mark's right about Aldo, take a look at this http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dress-lace-ups

I can't recommend them for their quality (I have a pair that started to fall apart after the first week), but that's the style you should be aiming for if you don't know a whole lot about fashion. And if you're thinking 'well that's very European' then good. The French are supposedly the most fashionable people in the world (they're actually quite conservative), the Brits can claim to have invented the modern gentleman, and Italians are renowned for making the highest quality, most fashionable shoes in the world! European=good.

As for jeans, Levi's seem to have a good reputation here, even though everyone seems to wear them. What's most important is they work with your body size, but ideally you want a slightly tighter cut than what most guys here wear, so a straight leg fit would work best. If you don't have the guts or body size to try that, then go for a different colour to everyone else, something like the 'rigid' fit (top right) in this link: http://us.levi.com/family/index.jsp;jses...Id=3515596

Calvin Klein is another good quality brand, though nothing too daring there.

For guys with a little more $$$ to splash around, apart from the big name brands such as Armani (who, in my opinion make very boring jeans, just very good quality ones), there are two very good quality, high fashion jeans out there. Nudie (http://www.nudiejeans.com/fitguide#/pan1) and Ksubi (http://www.ksubi.com/denim-mens/)

Mark, I remember recently reading from you that you said when you walk into a club you know you're the most fashionable guy in there. Just from a curious skepticism, what do you wear?

I actually didn't dress that well until a year or two ago.

But to answer your question, the going out clothes in my suitcase are the following:
- Couple pairs of designer jeans
- black dress shoes from Aldo
- Three tailored Italian dress shirts. No idea what brand they are. Bought them in a shop in Amsterdam. They look like nothing in the US. Have also a plain white button down from Express
- Leather Jacket from Diesel. Limited line. $750. Looks amazing on me though.
- An amazing sweater I got from Banana Republic. Have no idea how to describe it. Very unique and edgy though (I know, I was surprised to find it there too).
- A couple scarves (no one in the US wears these), ties and a vest (rarely wear anymore)

I'm by no means the best dressed guy in the world. I still think my fashion-knowledge is mediocre. I've just found some really nice items that look good on me. In Europe, I'm average-dressed in many venues. In America, I'm anywhere from over-dressed, to ridiculously stand-out over-dressed. I've probably been approached in the US by 25+ women on my leather jacket alone in the last two years. I've had some women ask me if I'm a male model (flattering, really). Get asked if I'm gay all the time. I've even had women ask which European country I'm from. When I say I'm American, they have a hard time believing me.

Often I get lazy and just wear a T-Shirt and jeans out. Needless to say, I get NONE of the comments/approaches like mentioned above when I do. Probably get half the eye-contact as well. In fact, it took me like three years just to learn to stop wearing T-shirts at all. Figuring that out by itself and buying the jacket probably doubled the amount of eye contact and approaches I get. Granted, I'm sure getting into good shape helped a lot too.

I'm going to be back in Asia this year, and I'm thinking about picking up a number of custom-tailored suits while I'm out there and see what happens when I wear them around. I've talked to a couple guys who absolutely swear on this. Honestly, over the course of five years, I've slowly learned that it's more or less impossible to be over-dressed. It's almost never a disadvantage. So might as well take that to the next level.

Still have no idea why you guys insist on spending so much money on clothes lol, but i AM a big fan of the leather jacket look.

Yeah, honestly, anything past the "Button-down + nice jeans + nice shoes" is optional. Back in the day, I was broke and went out looking like crap and still pulled. It's just much nicer and easier now.

But personally I like looking good. I like looking really good. So I spend the money.

haha when I clicked on one of eros' links i got this picture

works fine when you remove the )

When it comes to dress lace up shoes I like these the most:
http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dr...scholer/97
http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dr...bussard/97
http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dr...cdonell/97

Most loafers have square toes which I don't like at all, and some of those with round toes are too shiny which imo doesn't look good with jeans (e.g. http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dr...-samora/97 ), so I don't have that much of a choice.

I like these http://www.aldoshoes.com/us/men/shoes/dr...-mcratt/97

So is my taste bad?

Thanks for help guys!

EDIT: resized image.

I totally agree about it being impossible to be overdressed. The only thing that sometimes needs to change is how you carry it.

@FF

Haha, security camera footage I guess.

I think your taste is pretty good IMO. Except for the 'Macdonell' because I don't like the 'creased' look.

FF - I agree about the square toes. I literally took a belt sander to a pair of square-toed cowboy boots I was given, rounded them off and re-dyed them. You're spot on lol

haha awesome! you know whats funny: while searching for good blog posts about shoes, I found an Askmen article that said that tall guys need to wear square toe shoes!
Jesus...