Advice on casual, non-tailoring clothing ideas
I'm a big classic menswear kind of guy, which means I've kinda put all my skill points into tailoring. I feel like most of my outfits are too dressy for me to bum around town in, but the second I get out of my dress clothes, I turn into peak 'dad' -- Brooks Bros polos, chinos, Sambas, etc. I don't seem to be able to find clothes that I like that are casual and interesting (to me), and have just settled for boring, rumpled 'regular guy' clothes.
Is there somewhere to look for casual clothes that still have the same polish of tailoring, without the connotations?
51 Replies
Have you heard of casual tailoring
How about an unstructured cotton blazer with like a tee and jeans and sneakers
Or, tweed blazer, jeans, and rumpled OCBD
Look at the pics in https://malefashionadvice.substack.com/p/how-i-built-an-academic-wardrobe . Many of them are quite casual and you could bum around town in them, IMO.
Building a secondhand academic wardrobe
Those of you who know my posts here know I'm all about buying secondhand, so, I wanted to share my progress on building an academic wardrobe completely secondhand. I work in academia, and like to play into that a bit with some loafers and tweedy sport coats, especially at professional events like conferences.
Casual + interesting is like the entire mfa playbook. Fun light jacket over a collared shirt and some funky denim and sneakers is the template.
No Man Walks Alone or Drakes lookbooks great places to start
Take one of your regular guy fits and swap out pieces with more interesting fabrics or slightly warped proportions
Or go vintage and geek out on the history behind what looks like extremely regular clothing
Or go designer and geek out on the brand behand what looks like extremely regular clothing
SEH Kelly and the more tailoring end of someone like Cabourn/EG or the Japanese repro brands that lean more on officer clothing over GI clothing?
Really curious how you normally dress. A picture or two would be great as well
Also second sehk, but be aware that you might only wear them two or three seasons only.
For context:
This is the more casual end of what I wear to work
And then my “off duty” clothes are just OCBD + chinos + sneakers
agree with sal and cdfchopper. pretty easy doing very casual tailoring now
barena jacket, t-shirt, jeans and mimimal white sneakers is kinda 10 years old bonedead rn
(i do this)
or EG bedford lol
I don't want to wade into Minimal White Sneakers
Like this is fine though, but different sneaks, a popover short sleeve and some nice flowy linen trousers would be very similar but potentially better?
Is there any other style that you like but are not necessarily comfortable dressing in (yet)?
how dare you impune my beige sambas, the mayonnaise of shoes?!
sudede derbies, loafers, or uggo tyrolean shoes are fine also
whatever floats your goats
I look at a lot of Italian street style pics, but I don't have the morphology (read: BMI) to pull a lot of it off
there's a lot of not-tailoring, but tailored sensiblity to it
Do you have any examples?
so sprezz
working on it
no, at least not how I see it
these generic-ish italian dudes
it's all the same formula
but when I do it, I just look like I'm in dress clothes
pick lighter fabrics with better drape then
the other problem is basically hiding my body
i like blazers because they contain me
pick oversized casual blazers in lighter fabrics with better drape then
i feel gross outside of them
and don't opt for a tuck
or swap a blazer for a chore coat on days off
You can check out
The armoury channel on youtube
I think they do casual tailoring very well
that sounds like you like the structure, so a casual unstructured blazer feels wrong to you?
Mark cho constantly have contents on mixing up pieces
I like a casual blazer (most of my blazers are unstructured out of need, because I live in the desert)
but my natural dress-sense is a coolness black hole
I have to work against looking like a CPA every day
sorry for sounding like a broken record but you will look more interesting if you choose more interesting fabrics and cuts
it does seem like you could take your dressy/work outfit as a starting point, and dress it down. go rumpled. un-ironed OCBD, linen pants, etc.
This shirt I just picked up is an example of that, it's just an ocbd but more fun
Maybe a jacket like this: https://www.vetra.fr/en/french-workwear-dungaree-mens-jackets/2555-workwear-organic-cotton-twill-blazer.html
VETRA : Vêtements de Travail depuis 1927
Workwear Blazer in organic cotton twill - VETRA made in France sinc...
The timeless made in France 3-button jacket in genuine workwear twill, now 100% organic
(which I want btw)
What Sal said. Add some linen/high twist wool ghurkas or pleated trousers/chinos with your sambas and you'll look light breezy and cool.
Whilst keeping the "tailoring" element you like.
swap sambas for sabahs they even sound alike
throw a cuff in your pants and toss on an extra ring or two
someone used to post on mfa reddit who worked at Sabah - even he said buy em on sale
Chck him out too
Casual tailoring
fwiw i'm looking at buying a pair of Sabahs in the near future too
Overshirts and light jackets of all stripes can be cool. Safari / field jacket, chore coat, trucker jacket, etc etc. Spier & Mackay has a good set at a solid price, and Epaulet makes great ones
tremendous hair, as an aside
You should check out @malti001 ‘s fit pics and albums. Many are a bit more summer focused, but he’s the master of using unique casual items to make outfits with tons of visual interest.
Imo the most interesting ones here are the first and last ones, and even then, they’re on the more basic side of the spectrum. Basically they’re good looking guys, so they could wear anything and it would look good.
I’ve lived in Italy for a while and my ex gf was Italian - something that I definitely learned about Italians (and it also comes across in these pics) is the attitude of how how they carry themselves. I find that to be very attractive and beautiful in they way they go about it.
On MFA you may have came across the term “sprezzatura” - looking like you didn’t really care too much when dressing up; having this element of casual cool (even though everything was carefully considered). You are wearing the clothes, not the other way around - this is the ultimate goal. I am not interested in sprezzatura that you find find in Pitti Uomo or in traditional menswear - it usually ends up being too stuffy and costumey for me, but I am interested in the ideas behind it. Details like rolling up the sleeves of a blazer, undoing some buttons on a shirt, using socks or a scarf as an excuse to inject another colour or pattern to an outfit - this is the sort of stuff I’m interested in.
This is why I’m drawn to designers and brands like Haider Ackermann and Umit Benan because their stuff leans a lot on this “undone elegance” that the Italian sprezzatura draws upon. It’s a more casual take of that (because that’s what I personally like), but it is based on a lot of traditional menswear principles that you’re familiar with.
I can related to this lol. For me the key was swapping in some more interesting casual pieces for tailored pieces.
Hot weather sucks for ivy oriented wardrobes because polos are pretty basic. I picked up some camp collars, patchwork madras, popovers, rugbies, chambray, and different colored OCBDs for more casual fits. I also have a couple t-shirts I like to wear.
For outerwear, I love jungle jackets and chore coats to replace a blazer. Barbour is my go to in the fall (usually a Beaufort but I love my border).
For pants, ecru/light washed denim, fatigues, and wider chinos (vintage PRL or Jack Donnelly M1) replace my more formal pants.
Shoes are another good thing to play with. I don’t usually wear loafers when I’m out and about with my kid, so I reach for my camp Mocs, chukkas, NB 990v2s, or some canvas sneakers.
A good baseball hat also toned down an outfit.
Here’s a more casual drakes inspo: https://imgur.io/a/sHVa87Z
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Maybe try lightweight sweater knit polos and tshirts under casual suits? It's still quite tailored, but without the button down and tie it's also very relaxed. It's rare to see and when done well with fabrics and colors it looks fantastic. No Man Walks Alone and Permanent Style have some great inspo for this.