Got Style? Get Style!

Got Style?  Get Style! *

Finally!  Spring is here and alongside warmer weather and patio season comes a mild panic as you try to navigate through the fashion establishment’s trends for what’s in this season.  It’s okay to admit it fellas - we’re all in the same boat here.  Rifling through fashion magazines often leaves me shaking my head as I try to figure out how to make outfits remotely suitable for Planet Earth, let alone my own closet.  

What’s more important than following the latest trend is feeling comfortable in your own skin and marking your own type of individuality onto the look of the moment.  This credo saves those who are both too lazy or too poor to reinvent their wardrobe every season - and, seriously, who isn’t?  It also helps you steer away from following trends that are just damn silly (recall the shorts suit trend of last year?).  

Aside from massaging the what’s in & what’s out for your own comfort zone, there are a few things you must do every season and all the time to make sure you’re in style and fashionable.  It has nothing to do with what you’re wearing, but everything to do with how you’re wearing it.  To wit:

Tailor Me, Tailor You!

There’s nothing worse in the world of style than sloppiness.  Sure, grunge was a thing, but thankfully it’s not anymore which means you have no excuse for wearing clothes that don’t fit properly.  Pants should be hemmed.  Suit sleeves too.  Please don’t buy your dress shirts too short - your wrists want to wear your shirt too!  Common sense stuff that isn’t too hard to do.  So do it.  

Sock ‘Em!

Pity the working stiff who goes to work in a suit and has only the sock as his outlet of fashion creativity.  I love socks.  Stripes, polka dots, splashes of fun colour - go wild!  Just make sure the socks you’re wearing are appropriate for what you’re wearing.  I’m talking white, short gym socks with your suit.  NO.  Just.  Don’t.

Shoe’s the Thing!

I could write a PhD dissertation on men’s footwear, but for the sake of brevity  and your own boredom I’ll keep it brief.  Fellas, your shoes tell your story.  I do not overstate.  Do you want your story to be ultra-casual-not-a-care-in-the-world-lets-grab-a-bud Teva’s or i’ve-sort-of-got-it-together scuffed Brogues?  Unless you’re auditioning for a part in Jesus Christ Superstar, trust me when I say no one wants to read your Birkenstock story.   Be deliberate.  Choose wisely.  I am available for consultations.

Ultimately, much of what many consider stylish or not does amount to personal preference.  Unless you’re Jake Gyllenhaal (and if you are, Hi!  Huge Fan!  Can’t wait for Southpaw!), I’m not much of a beard person.  I don’t really like guys in shorts.  I prefer solids to patterns.  The list goes on, but it goes without saying that I’ve seen many a fine fella rocking all of these looks and more.  What makes them stand out from the crowd is a touch of swagger and, of course, the essential fashion staple for any season:  a sexy smile.  

*Originally published April 17th, 2015 in Ego Magazine Online.

Be Normal

Be Normal*

Look I get it.  I really, really do.  Dating, for the most part, can be pretty terrible.  It’s hard enough meeting someone in the cold hard city, let alone having that someone be a someone that you want to date. But let's just say you did find this person, and you want to date them and maybe you sort of get the feeling that they kind of like you and want to date you.  So,  what do you do?   How do you not screw it up?   How do you make sure that you don’t assume they’re screwing it up as you both try to figure out what to do when and how to say it?

There is a way, I think, to navigate through these murky waters of dating whether it's online or set ups or a well meaning (yet meddlesome) Aunt:  let’s all just act normal.  And by this I mean real life human being normal, not the kind of normal we think is now normal because we’ve been dating in this cesspool for so long. Real life human being normal where we treat a person who we think we might like and think might like us as a normal human being, and we in turn act like a normal human being.  REVOLUTIONARY!

Is it normal, after meeting someone and having a grand ol’ time, to take their number and never use it?  No, no, it’s not.  Is it normal to never hear from someone again after you've gone on two or three kinda good dates? No, my friends, it isn’t.   What about waiting more than a day to reply to someone's message?  Nope, that’s not normal either.   How about dating someone for a while yet never meeting their friends?  That’s right, not normal!   Of course there may be reasonable explanations to all this behaviour, but death, amnesia or being whisked into a witness protection program, while unfortunate and certainly possible, aren’t really normal occurrences either.  

The basic credo of treating one another as human beings serves us well in all facets of life, so why can’t we extend this philosophy to the one activity where we should really be putting our best selves forward?  Not the super cool player (not normal) self or the I’m so hot and desirable I don’t need to call anyone back (not normal) self, but the normal human being self that you are on the regular.  Come on.  I know you’re in there.  Be normal.  Can you be normal?

*Originally published March 27, 2015 in Ego Magazine Online.