Part Two: Ties, Shirts & Tees

Its been said that clothes speak an international language. And I have to admit, I'm a bit of a 'fashion whore'. I'd like to think my sense of style is structured along the lines of "smart/casual". None of this tanktops and shorts business for me. Some may think of my dress sense as ostentatious(Calender word meaing: The attempt to attract attention to one's self.), but as I said before in a previous discussion, "dress to impress no one, but to make yourself feel good.". Don't get me wrong by assuming I over dress. You should dress according to the situation at hand. Dressing a full suit in 43 Degree weather is hardly logical. As it happens, a welcome change of weather has arrived. Never before have I been so pleased to look out my window in the morning and see nothing but the grey of Stratus cloud. And the rain it has brought along is also a welcome change. So, in light of the much appreciated change of weather, I thought it'd be fitting to continue our discussion on men's fashion and delve into the realm of ties, shirts and tees. We'll start off with shirts since the selection of the appropriate ties is highly dependent on the choice of shirt.

Shirts are fairly popular choice of attire. They have a wide variety of uses from being cooly casual to upmost formal. However, I feel that properly choosing a shirt can be somewhat of a challenge. I filter it down to two things; cut or fit and style. Now, unfortunately for us chaps, we don't specifically head out to shops to buy clothes. We usually pick up one or two pieces at a time and add them to the wardrobe. Its alright lads, there's no need to be ashamed if you're caught out shopping for clothes. Now the things to look for when buying a shirt is the cut or fit; how the shirt will fit on you, and the style; the pattern or design, fabric and overall look of the shirt. The gist of it is, that the shirt should fit you well, none of this 'over-sized rapper-esque" shirts. Because in all honesty, who really ever looks good wearing a shirt thats two sizes too big for them? As for style or design, I usually prefer simple stripes or a plain clean fabric. Paisley, ala Panic At Disco, only works in certain situations, so if you have more than one Paisley shirt in your wardrobe, I suggest you pick your favorite and burn the rest. Quickly. In the colour department, its mainly up to the user and their own personal tastes. I'd stay away from odd colour shirts though, take for example, bright orange. In the end, they usually just end up looking tacky and cheap. I'd like to think that the purpose of a nice shirt is to look sophisticated, so buying a shirt that makes the wearer look cheap and tacky totally defeats the purpose. On a last note, Pink to not a colour to be afraid of lads. If you lose masculinity like some of us do, you have no reason to fear pink. Pink is a great colour to spice things up.

Ties are highly dependent on the shirt that they're going to be accessorizing. Patterns are everything when it comes to ties. The fabric that they're made of also comes into play, but its not such a determining factor. The simple rule is "Plain Shirt, Busy Tie" & "Busy Shirt, Plain Tie". Busy in this context meaning patterned. There are some exceptions to this rule, some plain shirts look good with plain ties and some busy shirts look good with patterned ties. It all depends on the users sense of personal style. I usually find that a plain black tie, be it normal or skinny, accompanied with a plain white shirt works in almost every situation. I do admit that the favorite of my lot is my Topman Diagonal Black Pink/Fuchsia Striped. It works on pretty much every shirt I own and was a steal for $20 quid. 

Tees on the other hand are something more individual. Tees can go with pretty much everything. Jeans, pants, shorts, you name it. Nowadays, we've seen the emergence of 'vintage tees". Don't get me wrong, I love vintage tees as much as the next bloke, but recently I find that they're just become a tad too common. Call me ostentatious, but you're more likely to stand out wearing a plain tee rather than a vintage one nowadays. Tees are pretty much self explanatory, the only thing I'd like to add is, again lads, stay away from the over-sized. It does not flatter one's appearance one bit. Not at all. 

Now we'll briefly delve into cologne while wrapping up this section of our multiple post discussion. When in comes to the cologne department, most men over do it. Americans(For example) practically spray it on with a crop duster. My rule, nothing above the neck. Three sprays is maximum. Period. 

Just to break from our topic, and being the proud Welshmen that I am, my colour of the day is Scarlet Red in honor of the brilliant performance that Wales showed against Scotland last night. If you're a little lost, its the Six Nations tournament, the sport is rugby, and the final score was 26-13 to the defending Grand Slam champions.

Thought of the day: "Singing in the rain."

Song of the day: "Scarecrow Adams" - Disagree

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