I need daily casual wear advice please
So I watched a video and it was along the lines of “…if you wear T-shirt’s with jeans and tennis shoes, you don’t wanna be that guy…” and I felt super called out 😂
I can’t go out and buy a bunch of clothes right now, but I want to come here and ask for some advice on cause wear. If I dress up too much, my wife gets upset because she feels out dressed or she thinks I’m looking for something 😓 I just wanna dress nice.
So what is a step below business casual, but isn’t just “tshirt and tennis shoes” because that’s all I have right now. I’ll shop later just coming here for what to shop for. I live in north Texas USA for weather inspiration. I know it’s hot, but I do not like wearing shorts if I can help it. I will, I just prefer jeans (or a different long pants if anyone knows any for hot weather)
68 Replies
You could wear some linen trousers with a tee tucked in if you want to elevate slightly
Jeans can be upgraded to chinos
T shirts can be upgraded to henleys or polos
Shoes can make a big difference too
Building A Basic Wardrobe v7.0
Version 7 of the classic MFA post
There's nothing wrong with wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. Don't take everything you see in random fashion videos to heart
Remember, videos make money when they get clicks, not when they give good advice. It's a medium where there's more bad info out there than good
That being said, an outfit that's a t-shirt with jeans and sneakers can look anywhere from meh to great depending on things like fit and design of the clothes.
I would recommend posting what you typically wear day to day in #outfit-feedback , then we can see if what you're wearing is good or not and provide specific recommendations
You can look like garbage in a tee and jeans and sneakers or you can look great or anywhere in between like gsh said
Specifics matter in fashion
Any fashion content that makes you feel bad about how you currently dress vs excited about how you could be dressing is not good content
You could wear a casual button down shirt w jeans - so not a dress shirt, but something in a looser fit with casual detailing. Madras, seersucker, chambrays, linens, are all options for hotter weather. I can give specific recommendations for where to pick one up if you provide a budget
You can look good in jeans, tee, and sneakers. If you want to be slightly more formal, which is not the same thing, try chinos, linen pants, polo shirts, short sleeve button up shirts, nice sneakers, loafers.
And you don't have to switch everything. just getting a new pair of sneakers to replace a pair of old ratty ones can make a difference.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with jeans, tshirts, and tennis shoes. If that's what you like then wear it. Just because some idiot on youtube said you have to pay $$$ to dress differently doesn't mean you do. It's a basic daily-ish uniform for like a hundred million people in just the US. It works fine.
But if you actually want something different then the key is to figure out what you like, not just do what youtube-idiot says. So. Watchu like?
Don't watch videos along the lines of: "So I watched a video and it was along the lines of “…if you wear T-shirt’s with jeans and tennis shoes, you don’t wanna be that guy…"
You shouldn't take it personally just because there's someone on the internet who thinks an outfit is bad.
People have all sorts of opinions on the internet. For every person who thinks an outfit is bad, there will be a few who think its great.
People have all sorts of opinions on the internet. For every person who thinks an outfit is bad, there will be a few who think its great.
I was just in Italy for almost 3 weeks and I gotta say I'm embarrassed at Americans and our sense of fashion. I barely saw anyone wearing t shirts which are the standard American uniform. Not a lot of shorts either, even tho it was 100 degrees. Guys on the beach with linen long sleeve shirts etc. Was like that everywhere. And let's not even get into the body differences and fitness levels.
I sort of made the decision now that I will rarely leave the house in a t shirt going forward unless I'm hiking or some other functional reason. That's just my opinion though. OP if you feel inspired to do the same I'm here to fully support you. I'm currently working from home without using cameras and still wearing a buttoned linen/cotton blend short sleeved shirt and casual chinos
But how many people in Italy did you see changing tires
Not sure what you mean, I don't often see someone changing a tire in US either. Lol. I live in a beach town and all summer here I just see graphic t shirt and shorts of people getting ice cream or walking around town or out to dinner
In italy it was all finer materials and more formal in every occasion
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
I mean I'm open to being wrong, but it's hard to disbelieve my own eyes, same for my wife, same for anyone I talk to about this who visits Italy (I have Italian family) so I dunno it seems pretty real. Where do you guys live that you don't see most people in t shirts and shorts in summer?
Also for the body shape thing it's statistical facts lol. The beaches here have a much heavier demographic if you know what I mean. I guess not just the beaches but everywhere
You might not be wrong about what you’re seeing, but it’s a little narrow minded to equate tees and shorts with an inferior outfit and a shirt and pants with a necessarily superior outfit. I know I sure hate the effect of Italian style on bad tailoring and bad fashion writing worldwide
It is very easy to look like absolute dogshit while wearing formal wear. It is very easy to look cool as fuck while wearing a t shirt and jeans
I see plenty of people in Tees here in Italy 
I think this is more a difference in cultural taste. A graphic tee and shorts can absolutely look good
I go out in tee as well sometimes, it's not necessarily a bad thing depending on how you style it
To be fair I did say it's just my opinion
just checked my bday pics from last week and there were plenty of people in t shirt as well, just not graphic ones
Also Drew are you implying that being fat prevents you from dressing well?
No, where did you get that?
the more you eat the less money you have for clothes 
It seems like you were implying part of why italians are better dressed is because they are more fit
Re read what you wrote.
I guess I was just pointing out the difference overall in appearance between the 2 overall
Reading between the lines it comes off like you are saying americans are just fat slobs
You're free to be offended if you want, I am overweight myself and found it really jarring how thin most Italians are compared to Americans
Your weight has no correlation with how well you dress i’m not sure why you felt the need to include it as a reason why italians are better dressed in your opinion
I think you’re getting pushback on the part where you said you’re embarrassed at Americans because of how they dress
And are heavy and unfit
Am I an asshole because I think thinner people are more aesthetically pleasing? Sorry if that opinion offended you, I sincerely didn't mean to
If you think that being thin increases your value as human being then yes you’re an asshole
I noticed the same thing in France. People were better dressed too
with full respect I feel like you're just looking for things to be offended by here
I re-read what I wrote and I guess my point is that I found Italians overall presented themselves better to the public than Americans, and yeah that includes weight. I personally find thinner people to be more aesthetically pleasing, and I find linen shirts and chinos to also be more aesthethically pleasing than graphic Ts and shorts. Again, that's all just my opinion. I wont be offended personally if you disagree.
Regardless, I think most here would insist there is a difference between well dressed and formally dressed
yeah Sure I'm stilll learning which is why I'm here. I feel like I barely know anything about fashion even though I've been working on it for years
And I think it's a common thing to conflate. I've certainly done it myself
to me it's also an intention thing, the feeling I get overall walking in my town here is that people dont get dressed with intention. They just throw shit on that's comfortable. In Italy it felt like it was much more intentional. When I'm in NYC it feels like Italy in that sense
Yeah, intention is a good word for it
yeah that's something that I noticed as well between Germany and Italy, in Germany people have a much more utilitarian view on clothing
Its just a difference in cultural standards, not caring about fashion is more common in America
Nothing wrong with not caring about fashion
I think it's also important to realize as a visitor/tourist, you see a particular idealized picture of a place, not the totality.
Are you going from a small town where you see a relatively small number of people to a metropolis where you see a ton of people and a totally different culture
for sure, nothing wrong with that
surely saves some money
I am personally offended by this! (Just kidding)
You could have the same experience going from one part of America to another depending on the places
It’s fine to have higher standards for yourself. But try not to get a superiority complex because of the way you dress. It only says you care about how you present yourself. Same thing with being fit. As long as you remember that I don’t see the problem.
That's fair
I also would encourage you to try to appreciate things without feeling the need to denigrate other things
Yes
“I really liked the way I saw people dressed in Italy, it was a total change of pace from what I was used to in my hometown”
I think there's a sort of Zen aspect here too. I wear jeans and a T-shirt --> I want to dress better --> I'll wear a coat and tie every day --> that's a lot of work and looks weird --> I wear jeans a T-shirt, but better
I feel like I'm going through that myself right now.
I mean I'm embarrassed when the team I'm rooting for loses really badly or if I cook a meal that came out mediocre, this is how I generally speak when talking to a group of friends, I didn't mean to say all americans are pieces of shit lmao, but I can see why you felt like I'm a fucking snob, probably because I am
It's good advice what you are saying overall here, I agree with you
@drew-fc , I think weight and obesity are very complicated issues, and this probably isn't the place to get into it.
I mean I literally posted on here the other day asking for help with custom shirts because of my disproportional belly size haha, so I feel like its at least tangentialyl related to this topic, but I hear ya, I don't want to get into it
Do you want to be a person who moves through the world making people feel bad about themselves and then spending a large amount of energy justifying it or do you want to be empathetic when you get feedback that your comments were poorly received and just take some time to reflect on it
I think I just want to make YouTube videos with my shitty opinions so I can profit off it
🙂
It sucks to have people tell you you did something wrong, and the instinct to be defensive is understandable and extremely common, but I think a sign of maturity is to take some time to pause and reflect before attempting to counter something immediately
I hear you and I think it's great advice and appreciate your thoughts. I still would like to have this convo with you guys at some point though, I'll have to make another thread sometime as to not hijack OPs any further. It does feel like American culture values casual wear and ease and comfort compared to places like Italy who seem to be intentional and value fashion more and I dont understand why or what happened. I've researeched this since I got back from my trip and didn't find any good answers
From what I can tell by watching shows like Mad Men, the USA wasn't like this always
Well, Mad Men is a TV show for entertainment, not a documentary.
But I certainly wouldn't object to admiring the costumes. That was one of my favorite things about Mrs. Maisel, for example.
Yeah if you want to talk about the culture of fashion feel free to make a new thread, in #questions-and-advice or #fashion-discussion
A lot of fashion YouTubers just prey on people’s insecurities. Don’t fall into that trap
You can do a lot with t-shirt, jeans, sneakers
Play around with fit, colour, details, etc
Rather than tees/blue jeans/etc are bad,
I think,
It'd be nice to wear other things, to have some variety in what I can put on and what I can say with it depending on the occasion
LTTP but some of the worst dressed people I have ever seen were Italians in Italy. No country is beyond being cringe.
Italy is the america of europe 😆
Italy has both the best and worst dressed people of Europe
And the best and worst cooks