Improve this outfit please
This was me trying to put together a summer ish, monochromatic/muted smart casual outfit for work in an educational setting. Jacket, trousers and shirt are all some combo of cotton/linen.
This was my best attempt but I couldn't quite make it so I was happy with it.
What can I improve in terms of fit, or swapping out items/colours/fits to make it look relaxed and a bit slouchy/casual but still smart?
I would really like to include the trousers as I've hardly worn them. Are they incompatible with the jacket though due to any particular thing like fit/colour? Or is there potential for making this jacket/trousers pairing work?
Accessories? The trousers have side adjusters and no loops so I can't add a belt, which I think would help with the casual but put-together look I'm after.
Edit: looking at the pics now I think it looks too bottom-heavy with the trousers being darker? Would lighter trousers help? Am I on the right lines?
27 Replies
There are many directions to take this. Do you want to keep it in the space of traditional menswear?
a tweed jacket with elbow patches would look great here
if you wanted to go slouchier then I'd say maybe getting trousers that are a little wider fit could look nice
I think you should look at @zeometer (xxxvi) 's outfits in waywt
things like this
Kstocks for a little more conservative/traditional route
also some of TheVirt's fits could fit here
another option for making something like this more casual is moving from a loafer to a more casual shoe
one very popular option is a tyrolean shoe like the paraboot michael or its cheaper counterparts
or maybe another leather shoe like the lemaire piped loafer
or you can go into more casual materials like cotton twill instead of wool
or put on a core instead of a coat
or a different kind of blazer like this DB one
I think the outfit looks fine as a 'smart' outfit, I like the tones. def not very slouchy or relaxed though
I wore a couple of sorta similar outfits a few weeks ago - I think a darker shirt like the first pic or maybe a tonal stripe shirt like the second one could be cool
a bit more extreme of a change could be a big slouchy jacket, like here. I think a single breasted jacket could also work if it has a similar features like a low gorge, low buttoning point, and broad shoulders (see 80s or 90s armani for inspo on this)
a really simple change could also be just having less neat creases on the trousers, although that might take away from the 'put together' look you want
I actually mean slouchy or relaxed compared to the only practical alternative for the situation I was going into, which would be a business suit.
Lovely fit but a little too showy for the environment I was going into. Which was basically a board meeting for the educational board of which I am a trustee. Business suits mostly but I was going for more academic-leaning than corporate.
Thanks for the suggestion, but I was deliberately avoiding tweed, which would have been a natural choice for the environment, because I was deliberately looking for spring/summer fits and living in England tweed is just too associated with autumn/winter for me. Thank you for the suggestion though.
Not sure what this mean, sorry!
Thanks, I was looking at other shoe options and I have the Fracap postman shoe which I think is quite similar to the Michael, but again they didn't feel spring/summer enough.
Thanks, I didn't feel badly dressed, I just had a feeling I could make the outfit more visually interesting.
Great pics, thanks for your reply. Your outfits are beautiful but definitely something I would be happier wandering the streets of some elegant European city in, than attending a board meeting of an academic trust. Actually the DB outfit you posted I might just about get away with, if I had such a jacket but sadly I don't.
I was giving someone else advice about grey (and any non-navy really) DBs not being that versatile recently but you might have changed my mind. That palette is very close to what I was aiming for!
Just in outfit styling and overall vibe. Kstocks is a user here, he does some nice, traditional tailoring looks. If you go to the search bar and punch in "in:#waywt from:kstocks" you'll see a bunch of his stuff
yeah, thats why I shot the cotton twill option at ya as well
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ty! for what it's worth I did wear all of those outfits to my office job and I live in Philadelphia so wherever you are in England is probably a bit more european lol
I think words are just kinda falling short here. You want something more interesting but don't want it to be too showy. Best bet ime is to put together some inspo for what you like or are trying to achieve. Doesn't have to be exact 1:1 of what you want. Could be the colors, vibes, shape, anything
Re: your fit, Iām not sure if I love the tonality
The bottoms-up gradient I think is throwing me off maybe
The jacket shirt combo would seem to work and the jacket pant combo could definitely work but not the 3 together maybe
my main advice: I think the fit would be better if it were a suit. Tons of space to place with more somber suit fabric colors. TheVirt does this quite a bit and I think you can take queues from his fits and just tend towards more conservative suiting details and vibes.
I agree with beans here, I think if you want to improve the fit you need an idea of how you want to dress or its just throwing shit at the wall forever with no idea what the general goal is.
its easier for people to help guide you towards how you can do something close to inspo than juts a vague "make the better"
this might be a worthwhile album if you're trying to find a particular direction https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1117803378521673768/1240355583538761901
it's a broad range by design; there are individual users tagged, and if you favor one search
in:waywt from:USERNAME for more fitsyou can add has:file to that to only get media links sent by those users in those channels