Fashion advice for a grown-up: Gentlemen…

Of course, this comes with many sets of responsibilities, and a major one in particular: learning how to dress yourself and how to do it properly.

Keeping a presentable look is one of the most difficult parts about the university transition.

You can’t find the answer in textbooks, it’s just something you have to figure out on your own.
Borrowing on my own faux pas and trends I’ve seen around campus, I’ve devised a few Dos and Don’ts (mainly don’ts) for incoming first-year males.

No sweatpants. Period. I know sometimes having to get up for that 8:30 class gives you an excuse to be a bit lazier than usual, but you can still be lazy in jeans.

Leave the sweatpants to the ladies, they look better in them anyways.

Keep all MMA related attire (Tapout, Affliction, et cetera) in the gym and all sports-related clothing (jerseys, team shirts, et cetera) for game day or the day after (if your team wins).

Lose the skater shoes. Sneakers (yes, sneakers are different from skater shoes), flip flops, boots, loafers, anything else but skater shoes. Nothing screams high school more.

PLEASE for the love of God, don’t mix horizontal and vertical stripes.

Nothing looks worse than plaid shorts and a polo shirt with contrasting stripe patterns.

I don’t design clothes, I design
dreams”
—Ralph Lauren, American
fashion designer (1939 – )

Relegate stripes to only one item at a time.

Master the art of the iron. Seriously, learning how to iron makes all the difference in the world. It’s a big part of the difference between being GQ and Pig Pen from Peanuts.

My final and most important piece of advice: find your own style. If you have your own already that you are importing from high school, change it.

You’re in university now: the big leagues. Branch out, try new things, but remember there are limits. Nobody wants to see you in anything that reminds them of the ‘80s (unless you are at The Turret).

Just remember these words of wisdom from fashionista Mark Twain (he didn’t just write books, you know): “the clothes make the man”. If you think about those words every time you reach into your closet, you’ll be fine.