Monday, November 19, 2012

Fashion Tips: Dressing Your Age

Just because you are on your way to your midlife crisis that does not mean you should go around looking like a walking fashion emergency. If you are already in your 40s or 50s, you should not give up dressing well. By this time, you have probably set aside a sizable nest egg and climbed your way up the career ladder. It is time you begin dressing for your position in life, and your age.

Trends Have Age Limits, Too
As tempted as you might be to get on with current fashion trends, they are not going to flatter you once you have hit 40. Do not bother with that cropped leather jacket, and do not even think about picking up that deep v-neck tee. Even if you have the right body for it, clothing pieces that are too stylized will simply make you look awkward. You do not want to step out looking like you borrowed an outfit from your 20-year old nephew.

Living La Vida Leisure
There is a good chance that you have begun winding down your career by now. You probably take weekends off a lot more often. Heck, you are probably a regular at the nearby golf course. If you have been sticking to a career-oriented suits-and-ties wardrobe this past decade or so, it is time to loosen up your outfits and dress for your new, more relaxed lifestyle.

Retire some of the starched and stiffer pieces of your wardrobe and learn the virtues of a solid-colored polo paired with jeans or chinos. Pick up a casual shirt, roll up the sleeves and then partner it with dark wash jeans. Hang loose; you have earned it. If you find the changes too sudden, you can do it gradually, month by month. Start with a sport coat over casual shirts and chinos so that you get a look that is not too far from typical office attire.

Fit for Forties
As you get older, it becomes more and more important to get clothes that fit you, and fit you well. Many older men make the mistake of shopping at trendy, brand-name clothing stores and end up with butt-hugging denims and tees that only a runway model should wear. You have gone beyond the permissible age of sexiness, so you should simply aim to be stylish with everything you wear.

Go shop for clothes that fit you well in all the right places (your waist and shoulders, for example) but fall away slightly from your body. That way, while you do not end up wearing yards of extra fabric, you do not show off anything unflattering either. Straight cut denims that fit you like chinos and regular or vintage fit shirts should work best for your new style.

At this point, you may want to consider getting the services of a professional tailor. A good tailor will be able to give you clothes that fit you specially well, making you look even better than if you had shopped at the department store. Besides, you can probably afford it by now. If you can get a name or an establishment from a trusted friend, drop by and get a shirt or two made, just to try it out. You will be thankful you did.

Dont try dressing like a 20-year old once you have passed 40. You will j women's jackets ust look like you are trying too hard to cling on to a youth gone by. Wearing fitted, designer duds is about as tasteful and elegant as liposuction and botox treatments, which is to say, not at all. Dressing well into your forties and fifties wont just make you look good; it will make you look every inch the made man that you are.

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