Style Matters

We live in an information/digital/media age with screens everywhere you look, smart phones, billboards, tablets. Check your pocket, I bet there’s a screen in there somewhere.  With screens come images, images of well-known individuals, friends and family members having their words, actions, haircut, clothes and footwear discussed at length.

If you want to be at the
top of your game, there’s more to getting ready than a shower and a shave. Each person is different, with individual characteristics and an infinite number of physical features. It’s important to have a positive approach to how you portray yourself to the world because, usually, when you meet someone for the first time, you have approximately 30 seconds to make a first impression. We like to call this positive approach ‘Style Awareness’.

Being style aware not only keeps you on top your game, it also provides you with the enthusiasm to seek knowledge on what clothes suit or flatter your lifestyle, body shape, skin colour and personality. It’s fine for us to give you advice on what to wear and how to wear it, but before you start thinking about that, you have to appreciate what you should be wearing. 

The issue with the amount of choices we as men have available to us today is that with so much choice comes the opportunity to make the wrong choices. The list of male fashion faux pas stretches round the block but most of them are easy to avoid as long as you know the rules. My experience working as an image consultant with men is that when it comes to dressing, most men like rules. Personally, I believe rules can be interpreted in your own way, as long as you know what the rules are. It's not set in stone. The most important thing is to dress in what makes you comfortable.

Elbow patches have been creeping back into retail shops over the years. I personally like the way they add more detail to the shirt or jacket, giving it a unique identity.

The down side is that it'll make the jacket or shirt easily remembered (not exactly a bad thing), limiting the number of combinations that can be worn with it. 
Tweed jackets were the first clothing items to have the elbow patch; it served a functional purpose when it was introduced. This was to reduce the amount of dirt, wear and tear the jacket endured while the hunter placed his elbow on a surface to take steady his arm and take aim.

Featuring on clothing items on high street retails shops indicates this functional purpose has been flipped on its head to a sartorial detail.