For Men: Wearing The Right Pants & Shorts

Jeans, Khaki, corduroy are the pants we’ve discussed earlier here, but there are other pants that will look great on you. Of course we’ve agreed that not all pants are good for you, so make sure choose the ones that look good on you and make you look fabulous.

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Cargo Pants Vintage Camoflague
Cargo Pants Vintage Camoflague

Cargo Pants are a fun fashion statement that has pretty much become a staple. I believe they are here to stay, so you can feel safe buying a pair.

Cargo pants (called Combat pant in some places) can add a sense of youthfulness to your look, especially if you are actually old – as long as they fit well and don’t have too many pockets. And the pockets they have are not storage units. Don’t put all of your life’s possession in your pockets.

I guess I don’t need to tell you that you may feel uncomfortable wearing cargo pants in the summer, well, the heat will tell you.

Drawstring pants
Drawstring pants

Drawstring Pants are for the summer, the beach, and vacations. A pair of drawstring pants with a white T-shirt and flip-flops is a wonderful, easy breezy, relaxed kind of look, but drawstring pants probably don’t fill a need other than that. This is because they are a little too close to elastic waistband pants, hence sketchy. They make you look like you’re wearing pyjamas in the middle of the day, which is just not okay.

Dress Pants
Dress Pants

Dress Pants are essential for official outings, dates, or other functions that require corporate dressing. Here we are talking about any pants not Khaki, Corduroy, or Jeans.

When temperatures have risen, say in the summer, dress pants can be made of linen, lightweight cotton twill, poplin, while winter ones might be wool, heavyweight cotton twill, suede, leather, or cashmere blend.

The great thing about dress pants is you can add a variety of sport coats, sweaters, and patterned shirts to top them off. These will give you tremendous versatility.

If you buy a couple pairs of solid-coloured, well-fitting dress pants, you’ll enjoy using dress pants as you get to wear those few pairs with as many shirts, sport coats, sweaters, etc. as much as will stay within the confines of good fashion. But please, always remember our deal on pants; NO PLEATS. If you have a pair in gray flannel, a pair in black or navy wool, and you throw in a tweed pant, you’ll have the ammo to pair them up with interesting shirts and sweaters and make lots of interesting looks.

Make sure you don’t forget to buy dress shoes, a dress belt, and a beautiful shirt to go with your dress pants. Sneakers with dress pants and a T-shirt may look good on models and fashion gurus, but it’s sure not for amateurs. Don’t also forget that dress socks go with dress shoes that go with dress pants. They shouldn’t be athletic socks or tube socks.

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Shorts. Like pants, avoid pleats in shorts too. Make sure they fit, which includes fit of the rise and the seat. Avoid elastic bands and drawstrings.

Except you work at the motor park, shorts I believe are really for weekends and vacations – not for the office. They were conceived for casual country club or beach side living, which is important to remember when you pair them with shoes. Shorts are meant to be worn with a classic tennis shoe, a sandal, flip-flop, driving moccasin, or loafer. Wearing any other kind of lace-up shoes with shorts is always the wrong answer. And please, be wary of the shorts, socks, and Birkenstock look.

Work with the few tips you’ve read here and watch people laud your fashion sense and ask you who dresses you. All we want is for you to look fabulous. We’ll discuss more fashion tips for men next week. Make sure you are here.