No-Fuss Guide to Better Dressing

Darren Barefoot has written this “Geek’s No-Fuss Guide to Better Dressing, which I think is fair to call a viable strategy for those unsure in personal taste but desirous of heightened levels of snazz. He suggests finding a couple of local stores with a nice selection and letting their able attendants help your choose your outfits.

* Check the fashion articles in your local alternative newspaper (in Vancouver, that’s the Georgia Straight). Find out where the clothes were obtained from.
* Ask your female friends who among your male friends is the best dresser. Find out where he shops.
* The stores should be independently owned–no chains, franchises (at least none that expand beyond your own city) or national brands. Otherwise, apathetic 14-year-old girls will be choosing your clothes.
* The stores are unlikely to be in malls. They’re probably in downtown cores as opposed to the suburbs.
* Include one vintage store (vintage is a fancy word for secondhand clothing).

Darren also suggests something that I’ve been trying to incorporate into my current wardrobe: buying nicely cut, relatively expensive clothing over cheap but unflattering options. It’s not necessarily about buying name brands or the most expensive option, but removing the poorly made items from your selection. Rather than buying five pairs of generic, loose jeans, two pairs of well-fitting jeans will last longer and look nicer. It’s the same reason I’ve decided I’m never buying a button-up shirt off the rack again, opting for the surprisingly-not-that-much-more-expensive tailored options.

Now I just have to keep purging my closet of all these worn shirts and bad suits bought on a whim. Or even better, figuring out how to alter them into something more attractive. How impossible is it to take in the cut of a suit jacket at the back seam? (My guess: pretty freaking difficult.)