Fashion Elements for the Well-Dressed Man

5. Accepting that looking good is not a sign of vanity--on the contrary, it's a sign of your respect for the people all around you. Once I lived in Nepal for about 4 months. One day, my exchange group was paid a visit by a Buddhist monk, a westerner who'd been a monk in Nepal for 10 years or so. He arrived looking very spiffy, wearing a nice leather jacket, and riding a motorcycle. Naturally, the group's first questions had to do with the fact that he looked so different than what we'd come to expect from monks. He informed us that looking their best is one of the most essential aspects of truly enlightened people. We can all promise you this: people will only appreciate it if you go out of your way to look your best. Sure, you shouldn't spend all your money on nice clothes and you should send plenty to charity, but don't think fashion is shallow in comparison.

4. Refusing to wear cheap shoes. Nice shoes are better for your health, straight up. Looking again to the east, spinal health has long been equated with longevity and general health by eastern medicine. Be kind to your spine; wear nice shoes. And, not only do good shoes have this utilitarian health aspect, they also can be every bit as telling about your character as the item in #1, hats, and can set you apart from the pack as someone who has attention to detail and a deep sense of the common good.

3. Sweating the small stuff. When you start down the path of being a fashionable person, you may find yourself realizing what a myriad of smaller elements there are to high fashion. For example, if you carry a pen with you, imagine how much cooler you'll look when you sign a check if you pull out a beautiful, vintage ball pen as opposed to a cheapo Bic (unfortunately, in these days of identity theft, it's not advisable to sign checks with a fountain pen). Do you wear your money in your pocket as I do? Why not get a swanky money clip? Do you wear a jacket or suit regularly? Why not get a nice pocket square for it? Did your father give you the nice vintage pocket watch he used to wear? Break it out. Do you walk with a walking stick as I do? Instead of those impossibly ugly medical canes, find yourself a nice shillelagh or hand-made stick. That's one item that, if it's nice and you paid attention in choosing it, folks will always notice right away and give you compliments (in fact, they're thanking you for your respect and consideration in looking so fine).

2. Wearing well fitted shirts, jackets, and suits. To really get a good fit, you have to have your clothes custom made. Mind you, custom-made clothes don't need to be all that expensive in this day and age. One can get a custom dress shirt in the neighborhood of $40; and a custom suit can run in the neighborhood of $250-400. Off the rack suits from Men's Warehouse cost around that much, and they sure won't fit you like a custom-made suit would. Stand out from the crowd and take pride in your threads when you walk out your front door.

1. Donning fine hats, preferably vintage fur felt (straw in summer), but nice wool hats and some others can be very handsome, so long as they're well made. How so many men and women can leave home without a lid day in a day out is beyond me now; only just 6 months ago I too left the house almost everyday naked in this respect. Not only does a nice hat help define your personality, and not only does it serve important purposes (keeping sun out of the eyes, keeping the rain off, keeping its wearer warm (the vast majority of body heat escapes through the head)), but also the colors of the outside world would be richer if folks wore hats more commonly that not (as they did before 1960...until JFK took off his fedora at his presidential inauguration, ushering in the current day and age of naked heads everywhere. As Mark Twain pointed out, "Naked people have little or no influence on society.").