Rule 1
It's more important to look good every day than to look different every day.
This is the genius of being a man.
Joseph Abboud Collection suit ($800), josephabboud.com
Thomas Pink shirt ($195) and tie ($105), thomaspink.com
Cole Haan shoes ($250), colehaan.com
Photo: Rainer Hosch
Rule 2In the days of Mad Men's Don Draper, business attire was simple: Suit, tie, hat, and polished shoes. No wonder that generation was able to invent such marvels as space travel and the automatic coffee-maker: People weren't distracted figuring out what to wear each morning. Nowadays the office looks more like the cantina in Star Wars, with slackers and dandies breathing the same filtered cubicle air. Hence the ongoing confusion: Should I wear a tie to this meeting? It's simple: Wear a tie whenever you're trying to make money gravitate from another person's pocket into yours.
Rule 3
The rule of shoes: Black is basic. Basic is boring.
If you're wearing black, then by all means wear black shoes. But if you're wearing gray, blue, tan, or a combination thereof, brown shoes will almost always look more sophisticated. There's simply more range, from caramel to chestnut to chocolate. If you wear a belt, it should (sort of) match.
Remember: You don't need 100 new shoes to look good.
Add: TRICK TO LIFT MORE WIEGHT IN GYM
Rule 4
Thin with thin, thick with thick
Narrow lapel? Narrow tie. Thick lapel? Thick tie. This is why Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky look good together. Arnold and Maria? It was never going to work...
Rule 5
By the time you realize you need a haircut, everyone else has, too
Figure out how long you should go between haircuts. (Hint: This interval
will shorten as you grow older. Just ask Gary Busey.) Schedule them in
advance—every 6 weeks, or whatever works for your hair. If you wait
until you need one, then you're walking around looking like you need
one. And masculine style is about looking like you don't need anything.
Rule 6
A man wears a watch
Men used to wear pocket watches, round clunky things. A pocket watch was
great for a guy, except when he was trying to discreetly measure the
time between two job interviews or the time he had to finish up with the
Dowager McMurtry and come a-calling on the Widow Jones. Then came the
invention of the wrist-watch, and now a man could juggle employers and
women with just a casual flip of the wrist. Sadly, this ingenious tactic
is under siege: These days, many of us tell time not by wristwatch but
by our cellphones. Great devices, unless you're, well, trying to be
discreet while digging one out of your pants. So we're back to square
one. Be a man. Wear a watch.
Rule 7
Vertical stripes make you look thinner
So guess how horizontal stripes make you look?
Rule 8
Good tailoring is job one
Add: HOW YOUR WALK DEFINES YOUR PERSONALITY
Don't try to dazzle
Stick to basics for an interview to ensure that your qualifications are the focus. "Minimize patterns and loud colors," says Andre Johnson, son of NBA legend Magic Johnson. Choose a classic tailored suit in blue or gray, and add a pop of color with the tie or pocket square.
Rule 10
Be ready for anything—or anyone
Always have your A game on, Johnson says; in today's market, you're networking even in your off-hours. "When people first see you, they put you in a box, so you want to make sure you never look sloppy," he says.
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