As the old saying goes, “clothes make the man”–but is this always true? While dressing up undoubtedly has numerous benefits, a gentleman who is well versed in proper sartorial practices will also be familiar with a few unique pitfalls and problems. We’ve compiled them here so you’ll be better equipped to overcome them and look your best. Those who frequent social media have no doubt encountered the concept of #FirstWorldProblems, a hashtag used to describe minor irritations that frustrate people who live otherwise comfortable lives. An example might be having your name misspelled on your Starbucks order or finding Hulu is down when you want to binge-watch a classic TV show. In the same vein, we’ve compiled a list of #GentlemansProblems from top to bottom of a tailored outfit: things that devotees of classic menswear will suffer from that others probably wouldn’t even notice. 1. Collar GapLet’s start at the very top of your jacket. Collar gapping describes the way the back collar of your suit jacket or sport coat can pull up and away from your shirt, usually on one side of your neck. The particularly frustrating aspect of it is that the cause is not easily found. It can be experienced with jackets that are quite roomy, and jackets that are very fitted. It has been reported to happen if the collar of a jacket is too large for your neck, but the fact that it mostly shows up on only one side of the neck suggests a different cause, perhaps having one shoulder that is lower or wider than the other. Some men find it happens on every single ready-to-wear jacket they try on, which makes it especially frustrating; in this case, made-to-measure or full bespoke may be the only solutions to address the issue. It may also be possible to cheat the collar gap by having a tailor lower the top button slightly if the gap is on the right side of your neck; this will pull that side of the jacket down a bit more when you close it, pressing the collar closer to your shirt. As an extreme measure with a gapping jacket you don’t want to get rid of, you could even safety-pin your shirt collar to the area under your jacket collar, provided you never take your jacket off during the day and have someone to help you with the pinning. Others have found certain brands in which there is no gapping and stick with these. In the case of the author (Dr. Christopher Lee), a fuller-cut jacket like those made by The Armoury or Ring Jacket seem to avoid gaps while Suitsupply, which is more fitted, does not. A collar that occasionally shows a small gap when you sit or move your arms a certain way may not be noticed by those around you, but once you’re aware of it, it will likely become a deal-breaker for you, and you’ll see it everywhere on others: politicians, the weatherman, actors on TV, and athletes doing NFL commentary. For this reason, it’s definitely a #GentlemansProblem. 2. Shoulder Divots on JacketsThis one is even less noticeable to the general public, but is similar to the collar gap in being difficult to diagnose. It occurs when you have your arms at your sides (in the “natural resting position”) and can see dimples (or “divots”) just above the biceps on your suit jacket sleeves. These indentations can appear on both sleeves or just one, and seem to be more common or noticeable on flannel rather than lighter summer fabrics. Contrary to popular opinion, this issue is not caused by jacket shoulders that are too wide but rather by several possible factors. One is a sleeve pitch or rotation that does not jibe with the way your shoulders sit, and the other is an armhole that is too small for the sleeve. Tailors can make attempts to fix these issues with varying degrees of success, though if you see it on a jacket you are looking to buy, you may want to think twice rather than hoping that alterations will fix the issue. Most casual observers (such as your friends, family, or co-workers) will not notice the problem, but once you are aware of it and see it on a jacket, it’ll drive you crazy. 3. Flyaway CollarsThis is something that happens when the collar points of your shirt don’t sit where they should, which is flat against the rest of the shirt and firmly under the collar of a suit jacket or sport coat if you’re wearing one. The flyaway collar, in various forms, happens if the collar points (or just one point) stand away from the shirt when it is fully buttoned and worn with a tie. This will occur if the collar is small and stiff or if it is long and soft, so either extreme of length and stiffness will cause it. Collar stays will do much to solve this problem, but making sure that your collar complements the build of your neck and shoulders is the ultimate key. 4. Second Shirt Button in the Wrong PlaceThe second shirt button is the one you keep buttoned if you open your collar and wear your shirt without a tie. If this button is placed too high on the shirt, you’ll still look “buttoned up” and boring with your collar button open. On the other hand, if it’s too low, you’ll look like Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever, maybe even with some chest hair showing. One solution is finding a brand that places its second button at the right height. The other option is going custom, in which case you can arrange to put the button wherever you need it to appear relaxed and slightly rakish–neither too conservative nor too playboy. This is something the stylish gent will worry about while the average person will most likely just go with any button location. 5. Pocket Square Sinking or RisingMost men don’t even wear pocket squares, so the idea that one can sit too low in your jacket pocket or billow out too much is purely a gentleman’s problem. Depending on the size and material your pocket square is made of, it can either sink down too much, so it can’t be seen at all (usually if it’s small–under 12″ square–or heavy), or it balloons up like a souffle and looks silly. The latter happens mainly with satiny silks, which are a combination of airy and slippery. Frankly, with some pocket squares, there is no solution except to jam it back down or pull it back up at various times during the day. Some specific folds and pocket squares of the ideal size for your pocket may help, but it depends on the size of the individual pocket and square, so experiment for yourself. You can try something like a pocket square holder, but usually such gadgets are a waste of time and money. 6. Difficulties with Sleeve LengthHow much shirt cuff should show below the sleeve of your suit jacket is a topic that takes up a lot of space in online menswear forums. The conventional response on proper sleeve length is ¼-½ inch max. This is fine and dandy, until you have a bunch of different jackets with different sleeve lengths along with a variety of different shirts. Some jackets (usually Italian cuts) have shorter sleeves than others. Shirt sleeve length varies off the rack, as well, and if it’s too short to peek out that ¼-1/2″ below your jacket sleeve, you can’t go to a tailor and tell him to make them longer. So, even if you alter jacket sleeves as much as you can to get a decent length, you find some shirts have cuffs that sit at the perfect length for your jackets while others still do not. This means keeping track of which shirts work with which jackets or buying specific shirts at different sleeve lengths. The optimal solution is really to get custom shirts made up with a proper sleeve length to suit your arms, but you may still need some shorter ones for Italian summer jackets if you don’t want to show too much cuff. Many guys will also have one arm slightly longer than the other, or one shoulder lower than the other. This will mean the amount of cuff showing on your shirts will always be uneven unless you 1) again go totally custom made or 2) get a longer sleeve shirt and alter one side differently than the other. All in all, exposing the correct length of cuff is a #GentlemansProblem that’s complicated enough to make you tear your hair out. 7. Getting the Right Tie LengthThe question of how long your necktie should be–just touching your waistband is the general rule–occupies the man who is new to dressing well. However, even when you are a pro at it, tie length will continue to be a #GentlemansProblem. For one thing, depending on your height, you may find ties either too long or too short. If you adjust the length of the front blade to satisfy the rule, you might find your back blade either too long (if you are on the short side) or too short (if you are tall). Moreover, if you have pants with a high rise, your standard ties will be too long. One solution is to do a double four-in-hand knot (which is to say, looping around twice rather than once) to effectively shorten the blades. Another is to tuck one or both blades into your waistband, a look some men are not too fond of, though it does remain invisible if you keep your jacket closed. Both of these issues affect even the world’s most well-dressed men, such as Andreas Weinås, who has complained about how his ties often end up with back blades that are too short. Two factors compound the difficulty. One, off-the-rack ties can vary in length from 57″ to 60″ in a standard range, and those three inches can make a world of difference in where the tie ends on your body. The second factor is that bespoke ties are not easily found and can be costly. When they are available, they can come in only more business-like printed silks rather than woven or textured ties. Fortunately, Fort Belvedere offers many of its ties in a range of lengths from short to long to help alleviate the issue. 8. Pleats that Stay OpenIt’s likely safe to say that a great many men these days will scorn pleated pants outright, but we’re willing to bet that once you try them in a cut that fits well, you’ll be sold on them as a variant in your wardrobe. The problem encountered by wearers of pleated trousers, though, is when the pleats on the front pull open and stay open while you’re standing. This seems to happen if the pleats are small or sewn too tightly, or if your pants are too tight. The result is that the front of the pants (the rise) doesn’t look as clean as it might. In extreme cases, it can lead to your pants showing some “ballooning.” If you have a jacket on, no one will likely notice it, but once you see it, it will be a source of dissatisfaction. The solution is to try the pants on to make sure the pleats stay closed based on a good fit (though they could also be sewn down). Further, inward-facing pleats will gap less than those that face outward. 9. Not Being Able to Use Your PocketsBack in the day, your author used to carry a large billfold wallet in his front pants pocket. In the other pocket were keys and even a hairbrush. This, of course, should give pause to any gentleman of style. Anything that creates a visible lump in your pockets not only looks vulgar (“Is that a wallet or are you just happy to see me?”) but ruins the clean appearance of the fabric. Today, Dr. Lee only carries a few bills and a loose key or two in his trouser pockets, with a small bifold cardholder in the left inside pocket of a sport coat, where it isn’t visible. Some gents swear by a larger wallet worn in the same inside pocket, but this isn’t just uncomfortable; it also ruins the look of your pocket square if you wear one. Of course, besides your pants, you can’t really use the outside pockets on a suit jacket or sport coat either, especially if they’re patch pockets, because that will eventually lead to unsightly stretching and sagging of the pocket, which cannot be fixed. So, the solution is to keep your “everyday carry” light and use the inside pockets as much as possible. Ironically, though classic menswear tends to have a surplus of pockets, the gent concerned with appearance will often sacrifice utility for style. 10. Keeping Light Pants CleanFrankly, men with little interest in style don’t often wear light-colored pants. Some men may be reluctant to do it, in fact, because they think that telegraphing their attention to clothes is somehow unmasculine. While this is a false assumption, those who make the foray into off-white and white trousers do have to wrestle with the problem of keeping them clean, which is more of an issue with pants than shirts or jackets because they’re close to the ground and you sit on them. Stylish gents wearing light colors will find themselves sweating over sitting on public benches or on the subway—maybe even putting down a magazine or handkerchief to sit on–and they’ll get anxious when eating pasta with sauce or curries. For sure, it requires a great deal of care and attention, which can either be a tremendous pain or a way of slowing down and concentrating on something in an otherwise hectic world. Fortunately, effective stain removal methods do exist, for whenever accidents happen. 11. Keeping Pants at the Right LengthContinuing with clothes worn below the waist, we have the issue of controlling pants length. Whether one wants a break or no break, cuffs or no cuffs, is open to one’s taste, with the prevailing wisdom being that trouser hems should either just touch one’s shoes or show a minimal break. However, both of these choices make one prone to a particular #GentlemansProblem. During the day, your trousers can subside to below the ideal position, even with a belt or side adjusters, creating a larger and more sloppy break over your shoes. This is hard to avoid because when you set your hem length at the tailor, your pants are hiked up to where you want them, not where they will sink later. Many gents who want to keep their trousers looking sharp will simply pull up their pants a few times during the day, but the best solution is wearing suspenders. Because they hold your pants at the right length from your shoulders, they should prevent sinking and maintain a clean leg line. For the true connoisseur of classic style, suspenders are a must. 12. Managing Your SocksThe usual advice on dress socks for men is that they should always be over the calf (OTC). The shorter variety popular today that come halfway up your calf will sag or bag, and when you sit, they’ll expose your hairy shins, which is a faux pas. However, wearing OTC socks is easier said than done. In warm weather, they may feel too hot, while if you wear them with flannel pants in the winter they’ll ruin the line of your pants (the inside of your pants legs will cling to them and cause bunching). Sometimes it seems necessary to wear shorter socks, which then create the issue of socks that drop during the day. This is an age-old problem once solved by wearing sock garters, which are considered silly looking today, not to mention being a royal pain. Some nylon content in your socks helps alleviate the problem somewhat but not entirely, so you may be left with pulling up your socks at various times while being careful not to show your bare legs when you sit down. An alternative solution may be shirt stays, if you can warm to the idea of wearing them. 13. Creases on Your Shoe VampLike most articles of clothing, dress shoes look their best when they are new and unworn. Once you put them to use, they’ll inevitably develop scuffs, dings, scratches, and gouges, all of which can be camouflaged by polishing except in one place: the vamp, or the top of the shoe directly behind the toe. This is where your foot (and therefore the leather of the shoe) bends when you walk, creating permanent creases in the material. Nothing seems to agitate the shoe-obsessed more. Complaints abound online concerning creased vamps, and people desperately seek advice on how to prevent it from happening. Once creases occur, they can’t really be removed and polishing this area is impossible because the wax will cloud and crack as the leather continues to flex. So, what do you do? First, buy good quality shoes. Thinner, cheaper leather will crease more and look worse. Next, use shoe trees when you store your shoes after wearing them. These will help minimize creasing by holding your shoes in their original unflexed position. Lastly, live with the creases. Of your entire wardrobe, shoes may be the most hard-working and subject to use. Some creasing is natural and only adds to the lived-in beauty of a quality pair of shoes. 14. Asymmetrical ShoelacesThis may be the most overlooked and finicky of #GentlemensProblems, but once you know about it, you may never be able to unsee it. When you tie your shoelaces, you probably loop the left lace over the right when you make a bow. The end result is that the finished bow will be twisted slightly on a diagonal. It won’t lie straight across or perpendicular to the shoe. No one will notice or care—except you! Fortunately, Sven Raphael Schneider explains how to tie your shoes to get a perfectly straight bow, which involves reversing the loop direction. It’ll be difficult for righties to make this feel natural at first, but it’s a nice finishing touch, even if only you know that you’ve done it. As a bonus, mastering this technique will also mean that your shoes should stay tied longer. ConclusionTo be honest, all #GentlemansProblems are the result of seeking perfection, the desire to look not only one’s best but to be flawless in dress. This idea is fed by images on social media or the larger internet, which are professionally photographed or curated to present a highly refined look. They may present products that are just out of the box with no wear on them, shot under controlled circumstances before having filters applied to them. In reality, such perfection is nearly impossible to maintain. Still, many of us feel we need to look Instagram-ready even “in the wild,” which risks removing all the fun in dressing up. Therefore, especially since most of the people around us will not notice, we should lighten up on issues of dress that only we can see. We can be committed to looking good without agonizing over fastidious concerns. Which #GentlemansProblems bother you, and how do you react to these issues? Are there any others we’ve missed? Share your views in the comments. 14 Problems Only Well-Dressed Men Have published first on https://medium.com/@CostumeCorner via Tumblr 14 Problems Only Well-Dressed Men Have
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FashionPassion
I lived my life in Europe and now a global citizen in fashion. I have attended the American University in Texas and hold master degree in Media & Communications. I have also spent 4 years of formal training in clothing and fashion. I love travelling around the world and being in different artistic environments has helped me discover more and more about my passions which is fashion. Personal Links |