5 Steps to Transform Your Style
How to go from slovenly to stylish
Here at Letters from the Old World, we’ve outlined why you have a duty to dress well, and why doing so entails investing wisely in what you wear. Once you’re on board with these two concepts, a question naturally follows: where do you start?
I get asked this often, and over time have come to distill my advice into five main steps. These points apply to any style in any climate, and are designed to maximize your ROI with regards to both time and money spent.
As with many aspects of style, the devil is in the details, and these five steps alone won’t transform you into Cary Grant overnight. They will, however, give you a solid foundation for understanding the foundational elements of classic style, even if you can only apply them to casual wear, jeans, and t-shirts.
So without further ado, here’s my guide on how to go from slovenly to stylish in five easy steps…
Our mission here at Letters from the Old World is to share the secrets of Old World elegance, and our approach is two-fold:
1) Every Wednesday, we send a free article exploring the theology and philosophy of why beauty matters, particularly in regards to decor and dress.
2) Every Friday, we send What’s In a Fit, a members-only article exploring practical tips and guidelines for dressing well.
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Step 1: Pay Attention to Color
Right out of the gate, most people misunderstand this point. So let me make this clear: it’s not about choosing colors that go well together, it’s about choosing colors that go well on you.
I wrote about this in depth in the first edition of What’s In a Fit (free for all readers), and encourage you to reference that for a better understanding of how to dress in harmony with your physical features. Failure to do so can lead to you looking pale and sickly, even if all other aspects of your dress are technically “correct.”
Admittedly, this is an area in which men have much to learn from women. While I have often seen women “try on” dresses by holding them up to their chin, I can’t tell you the last time I saw a man do the same with a dress shirt. And yet, wearing colors that complement your natural features is one of the easiest ways to appear better dressed than you actually are.
I list this point as the first step because you don’t need to buy anything to implement it: simply go through your pre-existing wardrobe to see which colors look good on you, and which ones don’t. Calibrate accordingly, and let your discoveries influence any future purchases you make.
Step 2: Wear High-Waited Trousers
This one might sound like more of a trend, but it’s in fact rooted in classical proportion and human biology. I outlined why in this article, in which I break down the reasons behind the following statement:
Classic proportions, in menswear just as much as in architecture, are those which follow the proportions of the human face. Beauty, as it turns out, is not subjective: it’s what looks most harmoniously human.
High-waisted trousers elongate your legs and make your body look more classically proportioned. Wearing them, therefore, is one of the highest-ROI steps you can take to start dressing well. As with Step 1 above, this applies to whatever your personal style is: from denim jeans in the midwest to suit-and-tie in the city or breathable linen by the seaside, high-waisted trousers immediately elevate your look.
So far, the first two steps of this guide have focused on the big-picture elements of color and proportion. The next two focus on small but impactful details that most people overlook.
But of course, none of them matter if you don’t follow Step 5. It is, without a doubt, the single greatest ROI move you can make to transform your look, and everything else in this guide depends upon it…
