Dress Like a Man Read Online Free PDF

goal for a heavyset dresser is to keep everything looking neat, simple, and proportional. Don't be afraid to be bold -- you've got the body to carry it off.

    Clothing and Posture
    Men of any size should also keep their posture in mind when selecting clothing.
    Ideally, you want your posture to be as straight as possible. The most attractive way for a man to carry himself (and there are deeply-engrained biological reasons for that attractiveness) is with his back straight, his chest forward, his chin up, and his shoulders wide and square.
    If you already assume that posture naturally, you're ahead of the game. If you don't, it's worth trying to change your habits, but in the meantime you'll want to be aware of your normal posture when you shop for clothes.
    Always try clothing on in your "natural" posture. That means relaxing into your default habits, rather than stiffening up and puffing your chest out for the mirror. Remember, you're not trying to impress anyone in the changing room.
    This is particularly important when men are getting fitted for custom clothing or adjustments. Well-made jackets take the "pitch" of the sleeve into account: the angle at which it attaches to the shoulder and torso of the jacket. If you're artificially distorting your posture during the measurements, you're likely to get a jacket with a pitch that doesn't fit your body.
    Be realistic, and shop for the body you have rather than the body you want (that's always good advice, for issues of weight gain and loss as well as posture). Work on straightening your back and shoulders -- it's good for your appearance and your health -- but be ready to take a pass on clothing if it wrinkles or distorts on your existing default posture.
     

Section 3: What to Wear and When to Wear It
     
     

C HAPTER 9: D RESS C ODES, W RITTEN AND U NWRITTEN
    There are only a few places where you're likely to see a formal dress code set down in writing.
    Invitations are the most common. Workplaces may also have a "dress code," although in that case it usually means a written set of policies rather than a simple one- or two-word category like you'd see on an invitation.
    That doesn't mean the concept is obsolete, however. Understanding the established dress codes as you would see them written on an invitation is a useful shorthand for knowing how people are expected to dress in other social and professional situations as well.
    Different lists will include slightly different terms, but broadly speaking, the scale of men's dress codes (from most formal to least) looks about like this:
Formal Dress - a rarely-used standard for the most formal events
Semiformal Dress - the typical modern default for high-formality events
Business Dress - the standard for suit-and-tie workplaces and meetings
Business Casual - a broad, relaxed code designed to be less formal than suits
Casual - the catch-all category for "undress" social and work wear
    Most of the time, you won't be attending an event under a written requirement to wear one of these things. But you'll still probably fit into one of the categories anyway. For most men, it'll usually be casual or business casual.
    The advantage of written dress codes is that they give you a "gold standard" example of what that level of formality should look like when it's done as well as possible. In everyday life most men will add a little variety and deviate from the standard -- it's just there as a useful marker or guideline.
    There will also be outliers and special situations that don't fall neatly into any of the written dress codes. Social suits are a great example -- they're too light and colorful to be business-appropriate, but to modern eyes they still seem "dressier" than a business-casual blazer and khakis would.
    Uniforms and task-specific work clothes like a shopkeeper's apron or a factory worker's coveralls also fall outside of the concept of formal dress codes. They're required, but they're not a fashion statement.
    So don't hold too