Everyday Dressing

Ok, here’s where it starts to get really interesting. Dressing for the Level 3 type of event or situation is the next plateau, the conceptual-sartorial span between average day-to-day and The Suit. Level 3 is where your personal style is most noticeable. In case you weren’t paying close attention to that last sentence, let me repeat it, with emphasis: Level 3 is where your personal style is most noticeable.

Anybody can look good in a suit. The hardest part is taken care of: pairing the trousers to the jacket. The dress shirt and the necktie complete the conventional well-dressed definition. (This is Level 4.) Naturally a mistake in the choice of tie or shirt can ruin the whole thing, but still the Level 4 outfit is easier to get right because there are fewer elements to coordinate. Dressing right for Level 3 requires the correct choice of jacket to go with the shirt and with the trousers, and the possibilities for error are multiplied geometrically.

This intermediate stage of formality, in between sportswear and suits, this Level 3 way of getting dressed introduces the element of a tailoring. It means taking the Level 2 look, the well-ironed slacks and shirt, and adding a jacket, some sort of tailored garment to bring the outfit up one notch, and this can be the instance in which a man will look his absolute best.

“What?” you’re saying. “Better dressed in a sport coat and slacks than in my suit?”

That’s right. Better dressed because it’s harder, the way that climbing the face of El Capitan is harder than ascending Everest, because it demands more pure skill. And the ones who take the time and put in the effort to learn this skill are the ones who deserve – and get – the highest honors.

 But first, let’s review:

 Level 1:

Tee shirts and sweat shirts; cut-offs or shorts; un-ironed garments; any garment with an excess of pockets; athletic clothing and footwear (including socks); any garment with tears, rips, worn-out spots, logos larger that ½ inch, or writing of any kind on it; baseball caps.

 Here’s a tip: If it involves cleaning products, a garden hose, participation in some athletic activity, or any exposure to tools, garden implements, dirt, or animals, it is a Level 1 function. Dress accordingly.

 Level 2:

Collared shirt, knit or woven, solid, stripe, plaid or check; turtle-neck or mock-turtle; jeans which are clean, reasonably uniform in color, and which fit you; trousers – cotton, wool, elegant casual or relaxed-dressy – with a crease, a belt, and clean leather shoes. 

 Another tip: You should dress in this Level 2 style if your day’s activity includes things you won’t get dirty while engaged in. This stage involves situations in which it is unlikely you’ll get paint on yourself, or be in danger of getting your clothes torn by being caught in machinery. Level 2 situations include a range of possibilities, from hanging around the house to going to work, especially if you work in a casual atmosphere or if you are self-employed. Level 2 is where the vast majority of American men will spend their day-to-day lives.

 “Business Casual”

The first time I became aware of the exalted status of the really good Level 3 dresser I was astounded by the experience. I was having dinner with a friend in the second floor Tap Room of the New York Athletic Club. I looked up from our conversation and noticed a complete stranger, a guy in a sport jacket, slacks, shirt and tie. Not much to it at first glance, but as I looked I realized that it all worked together. There was a harmony to the elements he’d chosen, a theme. And he looked just great; a regular guy who had studied the art of looking good.

Now this same guy, had he been in a perfectly tailored suit, custom-made shirt and expensive tie, would not have attracted my attention. His outfit had been put together carefully. It showed real personal style. The jacket was a dark rusty red and grey plaid, the trousers were the right shade of grey flannel, the shirt had a little pattern to it, a spread collar, and he wore a knit tie. An Ah-Ha moment, there in the dim light of the NYAC. I realized in that instant that most guys would have no idea how to put that together, and that, furthermore, the possibilities for costly error were so great that very few men would be willing to risk the investment in all those different garments. This guy was, obviously, more than the average man in a suit. He was a Well Dressed Man.

I became, in that moment, a self-appointed sport jacket-and-trouser evangelist. The religion of the well-put-together outfit has been my good news for years. But, alas, it hasn’t been what anyone would call preaching to choir. Men are timid souls, bless them. Here we get to spout a bit of arm-chair sociology: Men are more likely than women to mock and deride one another – to establish their superiority, their seniority in the pack, in a sort of acceptable blackly humorous way – and they live in secret fear of this  Men are stultified by the possibility of vulnerability. The wrong tie? A phallic symbol. Funny shoes? Pathetic. Ugly sport coat or mismatched outfit? Oh my God!    

The difficulty most men will have with this Level 3 concept of dressing is getting the elements of it that work together, and the only advice I know to give men – besides telling them exactly what to wear with what, of course – is to tell them to go to stores they can trust. That’s all there is to it. Go into a store and look at the people who work there, and if you want to look like them, if you think the people working there have good style, shop there.

It’s not brain surgery. You may be color-blind or otherwise clueless, or just too concerned with the rest of your life to ever learn it yourself, but you could do worse than to have one of the great ones teach you. It’s better than going through life looking bad. In this do Alan Flusser’s books succeed. They are good guides – a bit dated now perhaps – to the right places to go to get your own style, whether tutorial or tune up.

Of course, the boundaries of these levels may sometimes be vague. A man in a navy blazer with dark gray slacks, white shirt, solid or neat-patterned tie, pocket square and polished oxfords is as formal as any suit-wearer; he is probably good for most Level 4 occasions. And a cotton or linen suit, worn with a crew neck or a collared shirt but no tie, is Level 3, sportswear. It is only the attitude you want to project, the venue, and the time of day, that dictates the level of dress a man needs. The intention here is to give some form, some memorable pattern to getting dressed. As far as how each level is defined, I am confident you’ll get the groove, especially since you’re interested enough in the subject to have read this far.