Category: Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Shirts, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Sizing up the Right Shirt for our Style

Originally considered underwear, shirts didn’t come into their own until the 20th century, yet of all the garments that go into our outfits, the shirt is the most diverse and the most visible. White shirts have always been at the top of the fashion food chain because it’s indicative of a lifestyle where the wearer doesn’t get dirty. Likewise, colored shirts have traditionally been more casual because the colors were originally meant to obscure stains between washings.

The easiest way I’ve found to organize this list is by the length of the placket — the reinforced piece of fabric onto which buttons are attached. A shirt with a full placket is one with buttons from the neck down to the bottom hem. Shirts with partial plackets have buttons that start at the neck but don’t extend to the bottom of the shirt. A shirt without a placket has no buttons.

Full Placket

Dress and Sport Shirts
First, let’s discuss our basic shirts with full plackets and collars. They come in a countless array of colors, cuts, and costs. A simple dress shirt in a conservative color is the foundation for nearly every formal outfit. Add a bold pattern or a unique cut and it becomes a sports shirt, ready for a night out. These shirts come in both short- and long-sleeved varieties. Whichever way we go, fit comes first, if it’s too billowy we’ll look like we borrowed dad’s shirt, if it’s too tight, we look fat.

sport shirt sierratradingpostdotcom
www.sierratradingpost.com

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Daniel Allen
Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Mixing the Michelada

Style isn’t just about the clothes we wear or how we wear them. Style is what we do, how we do it, what we eat, where we go, and so much more. Today I want to focus on something we drink. Specifically, I want to focus on one drink, and that’s the michelada.

Though the drink is gaining in popularity in the United States, it has been a staple of Latin American bars for years. Micheladas come in many different varieties and no two restaurants are likely to prepare them the same way. Most will have salt and lime at a minimum but numerous variations can dramatically change the flavor of the drink.

I just got back from Cancun where I got to sample many styles of micheladas and I wanted to share my variation on this Latin American classic. We will need Dos Equis Amber beer, Clamato, Valentina, salt, and a lime.

miche start

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Daniel Allen
Interviews, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Six Questions with Robert Godley

Hopefully we’ve all had a chance to read the article I wrote about Psycho Bunny by now. I think it’s clear that I’m a fan of the brand, but as I pored over my research, there were a few things I still wanted to know more about. I reached out to Psycho Bunny directly for some insights, and co-founder Robert Godley gave us a peek into the level of dedication required to produce a brand that continues to create high-quality clothing and remain relevant and competitive in the cut-throat luxury retail industry.

Style Zero 2 Style Hero: Where do you draw inspiration for your patterns?

Robert Godley: I have an interest in pop art and its origins. Our logo being such a distinct graphic lends itself to this application and seems to resonate well with our audience.

www.islandtrends.com
www.islandtrends.com

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Daniel Allen1 Comment
Brands, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Psycho Bunny

Before I began my quest to become a Style Hero, I never paid much attention to clothing brands. My daily uniform outside of work consisted of baggy jeans and a printed t-shirt. Now that I’ve been exposed to the broader sartorial culture, I wanted to take a look at a brand that’s caught my eye. I was initially drawn to Psycho Bunny because of their awesome logo [originally sketched on a napkin by co-founder Robert Godley]. I’m sticking with the brand because of the quality construction of the garments.

Psycho Bunny was founded in 2005 by fashion industry veterans Robert Godley and Robert Goldman. Godley cut his teeth with the likes of Turnbull & Asser and Ralph Lauren; Goldman got his start in the family business – neckties – eventually moving to retailers Federated Department Stores (Macy’s and Bloomingdale’s) and Lord & Taylor. Both men got their start in fashion by making high-end neckwear, and although the original focus of the business was creating luxury neckties it has since grown to include polos, t-shirts, socks, underwear, scarves, cufflinks, pocket squares, and wallets. You can even find poker chips, playing cards, and dominoes.

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Daniel Allen1 Comment
Accessories, Style Zero 2 Style Hero, Watches

Which Watch to Wear

thewire.in
thewire.in

Although wearing a watch can be as simple as throwing on our reliable old Casio, there is a tangle of “rules” regarding watches that dictate when we wear them. Some of these rules are merely relics, and others we would be wise to remember.

One rule we can ignore governs which arm to wear our watch on. Traditionally, watches are worn on our non-dominant hand. Most people are right-handed, so most watches are designed to be worn on the left wrist. This is evident when we look at the “crown” (the knob used to wind the watch and set the time), which is almost always positioned to the right of the face. This is to make it easier to adjust the watch while wearing it. Although left-handed watches are available that position the crown left of the face, they are not the norm.

www.amazon.com
www.amazon.com

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Daniel Allen
Pants, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Jeans: From Genoa to Glamor

Denim has been used for making clothes for over 350 years but it has only been in the last 50 years that they have enjoyed widespread popularity. Blue jeans, as we know them today, were invented in 1871. Soon after, Jacob Davis and Levi Strauss would patent their rivet-reinforced work pants. It would be nearly 100 years before jeans found their way from workers’ wardrobes to pop culture and ubiquity. Today you can find people wearing blue jeans in nearly every country.

www.denimsandjeans.com
www.denimsandjeans.com

Part of the secret to their popularity lies in the particular way that denim is made. The indigo dye – whether synthetic or organic – is only applied to the warp threads of the twill weave. Further, the dye is only applied to the surface of the cotton threads, leaving an inner core of white cotton. As the jeans age and flex and stretch, some of that indigo dye is lost causing the blue of the jeans to fade. This fade is unique to each pair of jeans and is influenced by how they are worn and what we do in them, making each pair as individual as the wearer.

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Daniel Allen
Pants, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Pleated vs Flat-Fronted Pants

both

As I was doing the research for this article it struck me that this debate has been happening on the internet for at least 10 years. Most of that writing focuses on what’s in or out of fashion but the true secret to choosing between pleated pants or flat-fronted pants is choosing the pair we feel most comfortable in. Being happy and confident in the clothes we are wearing is the ultimate secret to style.

Having said that, there are some big differences between these two types of trousers. The number one difference is the pleat. Pleats are folds in a fabric that are stitched permanently in place. In men’s pants these folds are designed to allow more room around the hips and waist, especially when sitting. Pleated pants also tend to have a higher rise than flat-front pants which means they have a bit more room in the crotch.

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Daniel Allen
Accessories, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Belts: Beginning to Bring an Outfit Together

Besides holding our pants up, belts can be an essential fashion accessory that puts the finishing touch on an outfit. While we don’t have to wear a belt with every outfit, there are times when it is expected, like whenever we have our shirts tucked in.

First and foremost our belts are accessories. Our belts can be flashy or understated, but they shouldn’t be the center piece of our outfits. The belt should serve to accentuate another part of our outfit, personality, or physique. Since the belt divides the two halves of our bodies, a flashy or contrasting belt can serve to psychologically shorten our appearance to others while a neutral belt that blends in will make us appear slightly taller.

belts 1

The most basic rule of wearing a belt is to match it with our shoes. That is, the material, texture, and color should all be in accord. If we’re wearing shiny, black leather shoes, our belt should be shiny, black leather as well. There’s a bit more leeway with brown leather shoes since there are so many shades and tints of brown but in general we want to get as close as possible to the same color and texture. If we’re not wearing leather shoes the rules tend to be a bit more relaxed but we still need to exercise some degree of coordination.

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Daniel Allen
Pants, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

How to Find Your Fit

pant fit

Proper pant fit is important because pants that are too loose or too tight draw attention. Too loose and we can end up looking clownish while wearing pants that are too small can bunch up in awkward places or make our pockets protrude from our hips. We want people to be paying attention to our faces, not our pants. Nicholas Taverna of Primer says “Pants will mostly be in the background of an outfit, serving as a foundation for the foreground of your shirt or outerwear.”

So how do we figure out if a pair of pants fits properly? While there is a lot of advice out there on lots of different sites, the basics can be boiled down to the lengths of the waist, the leg, and the rise.

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Daniel Allen
Pants, Style Zero 2 Style Hero

Picking the Perfect Pair: A Pants Primer

Before I get in too deep with the jargon of pants it’s important to point out how fluid these terms are. Despite what we might read here or anywhere else, expect to see some of these terms used interchangeably elsewhere. I think of pants as the catch-all term, while slacks tends to include trousers, chinos, and khakis. Of course parts of the UK say pants instead of underwear and for some people, slacks are only for women.

Trousers

trousers - www.realmenrealstyle.comTrousers are your nice pants. They can either be paired with a suit or sold alone. Modern trousers were made fashionable by Beau Brummell, the original Dandy, in the early 19th century. Brummell believed, and most writers today agree, that trousers look best when they’re tailored.

http://www.realmenrealstyle.com/mens-trousers-style-fit-fabric/

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Daniel Allen