Simplicity is the Ultimate Sophistication

To continue with the theme of essentials, I'm going to talk about a few essential pieces that every man should have in his closet. A couple things that are important to us here at Form & Function are quality and simplicity. da Vinci once said "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" and that couldn't be more true when it comes to clothing. 

The reason I take presenting myself so seriously is because no matter what anyone says, people judge you on what you look like. That's just human nature. And you say, "well I don't care what people think of me." Yes you do. I promise. I say this to myself every morning before I put on my clothes: dress yourself like you're going to meet the most important person in your life. Whether it's the woman of your dreams (I'm single by the way ladies) or a business contact that can affect your future financial situation, you want them to think of you in a positive light. The best way to do that is to look as aesthetically pleasing as possible. 

So here are a couple pieces that every man should have in his closet and if you don't, you should probably run out to the nearest Hot Topic to pick them up. 

Just Kidding

1. White or blue dress shirt. No orange. No red. And for the love of Don Draper don't ever wear a black dress shirt. I've seen way too many pictures of frat bros going to their formal looking like The Situation at the club who came straight from his grandmother's funeral. Keep it simple.

2. Brown chukkas or desert boots. 

They go great with a pair of raw denim pants or colored chinos. Which reminds me...

3. Raw selvedge denim. There's nothing like unwashed denim worn to fit your body. I own only Levi's. Like Nate said earlier, you just can't go wrong with a pair of 501's. 

4. Blazer or sport jacket. It can be blue, tan, two buttons, three buttons, single vent or double vent. Along with suits, just MAKE SURE IT'S TAILORED. Anyone can make a jacket look 100% more expensive than what it was if you make sure it fits. How to figure out whether it fits or not I'll have to save for another post.

5. Classic sunglasses. I'm not even going to get into bad looking sunglasses because you don't want to see a man narrate his own suicide so here are a few looks.

Persol (^Steve McQueen, Bond, Ari Gold)

Ray-Ban (Nathan and I both own these, great look)

6. Watch. "A man wears a watch." Don't know who said it but it doesn't matter, it adds instant credibility. Unless Jay-Z is reading our blog then I suspect you probably don't have the income for a Rolex or Hublot. So go pick up a classic Fossil or Timex Weekender. 

That about wraps it up for my list of essentials. So take off your snap-backs and graphic tees and go put on something that people will take you seriously in.

You can never be over-dressed,

Ryan