Fit Doctor!
So I've decided to start a Fit Doctor thread based on a suggestion from #fashion
Basically, I feel that my progress in fashion has stalled a bit and I've also gone back to searching by brand.
The images I've supplied are a couple of things I've worn recently.
90 Replies
searching by brand is good it's the best way to find things made by a brand u like
are all thse pics with the same pants? if not, then they all look the same so I'd start w/ trying out some different colors/fabrics/shapes in there
However, there‘s a thin line between searching by brand because the brand matches the style you like and searching by brand because you like the brand as a name
I would definitely avoid the latter because it just leads to buying things you‘ll never actually wear
Do you have any inspo in terms of what you are aiming for
post some of ya inspo so we can get a better idea of what you're going for!
They are the same pants :linkThumbsUp:
this is my problem too Lol
also might help if you can get a bit more expressive about what you mean by words like progress and plateau
do you feel like you’re not progressing because you feel your outfits are same-ish? or because you havent been able to source new things that are interesting to you? not sure how to build your wardrobe more?
try to figure out whats giving you these feelings, and remind yourself that building personal style and experimenting is not something that happens fast. it’s perpetual, and viewing your progress as something that shouldn’t plateau or stall might lead you on a treadmill of consuming. it might be helpful to try to pin down these feelings a bit more so you can better address things
Is this a plateau in terms of execution (idk how to do what I want) or in inspiration (idk what I want to do or where to go from here)?
I don't have much inspo (at least on the top of my head) for what I want to achieve, but I do have this
IMO from what u posted in the past & this (and other inspo youve dropped) you'd benefit from switchin up your shoe choices, leaning into some oversized raglan sleeve sweaters/more substantial units, and some sort of shirt like an ocbd or western
& ofc like lud said: pants
You mentioned you've been searching by brand, maybe try searching for items instead, seems there's a lotta items that slot well into a more ivy inclined wardrobe (as carrion pointed out). gotta build them foundations before slotting in more expressive stuff!
What do you like about this fit?
Yeah, I've gotten a fair bit of usage out of the Uniqlo chinos so far but it would help to have a variety of pants.
🤔 what types of shoes would you suggest here?
If you feel overwhelmed with the options of different styles you could start by getting the ones you have in different colours
im think if you like zeo's style, loafers or boots might be a better choice long term
i could even see you in some boat shoes, sperry adjacen
t
i think the chinos r a solid foundation but like others said, need to build up some outwear that likes up better
thrifting fun blazers would be a good start, dress shirts
some nice slim to straight denim in a similar wash to zeo's would also have endless applications
all of these options r also dirt cheap so like u can really cop a lot
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1255197478312087672/1348717961413787648 :linkCool:
It's the latter
a lot of people gave some really good advice and the only thing i'll add to it is to buy slow
you bought a blazer; maybe find a pair of pants (i am being vague here i had/have many pairs of pants) or a pair of loafers and then start with combinations of these
really see how you feel in them (both physically and mentally), because how you and i wear things will likely differ.
Also have a secondary hobby to take your mind off of clothing; you need to see how styles interact with your specific lifestyle to see if it makes sense
and i would really consider Virt's questions here - by saying you've stalled because you're unsure of where to go here, it implies there's something wrong or not ideal about where you're at currently with fashion: what is that? it could be one thing or many things or nothing at all, and all of those could be true, but it's worth trying to see what that is to you
I know I've got some straight jeans I could potentially try with this that looks closer to the inspo photo of you
https://discord.com/channels/1116793467654381685/1135916565183856660/1301590368479088700
It feels like you’re trying to speedrun clothing, which isn’t really how this works. I can understand wanting to go further and progress, but some things just time for you to figure out; the more you can articulate what you like and why, the more targeted you can make your choices
Wider straighter denim is a great way to go
this
as someone who in the last year did the speedrun you're attempting to do, except with more money, knowledge, access and time - it was not the healthiest way to go about this imo
:bloberm:
I don't really know how to not speedrun clothes
i just think you need to figure out more long term what you want out of this hobby!
i spent a lot of time trying to find the magic formula of what to wear in large part for others' validation/the intangible desire to be "right" and wound up with a lot of undue anxiety and self-consciousness and a little resentment whenever people wouldn't praise me or whathaveyou
the answer really was "find what is meaningful to me" because it turns out people appreciate me regardless (or they don't but i can choose to not deal with them yay)
the "find what is meaningful" takes a long time and exploration and frankly it should, because that's how those concepts last
Also things tend to come in stages. You’ve already made a ton of progress from before and your fits look much more intentional. Reaching a plateau is likely a stage where you can learn to get comfortable. Your inspiration will gradually come as you keeping looking at things and figuring out yourself and your preferences
I think what initially caused this was when I realized that I'd gone back to what I did last year with searching by brand, and for a little while I was wearing similar stuff with little variation (think jumpers over shirts with the chinos).
So it's more just not making progress and in some ways losing it.
progress usually isn't linear
a few months is minor compared to 10, 20 years etc
Absolutely agree
I‘ve been into fashion literally since kindergarten and I‘m also currently at a point where I don‘t really know where to go from here and that‘s totally ok and normal, all of us experience it
it doesn't make those months easier BUT at least to me it gives some comfort that one bad day isn't the end of the world
Think of your journey like ice turning into water turning into gas. Temperature doesn’t just keep rising; it stays at freezing/melting point as energy is transferred to change states, and the same happens at boiling point
The tricky part is trusting yourself and letting things happen rather than trying to force it
just for perspective: u dont need to engage with this hobby every day.
Im active on this cord most days because its fun and the community is great, but im not spending every single day buying clothes or planning out my next purchase. If u find that all ur thinking about is clothes then u gotta make an adjustment.
(It’s almost certainly better NOT to engage with this hobby every day)
recognizing your patterns of behavior is good, but you've also got to then find if they're good or bad
True comfort in your clothing is simultaneously understanding your clothing and choices deeply AND being aware that they’re just pieces of fabric on your body
And that life is WAY MORE than just clothing
It's not something that I just think about, but it's a good chunk of what I think about, especially recently.
I also just caught up :linkSweatSmile:
there was a lot of quality advice given, both about specific clothes and about life. i encourage really look at it to see what you want out of clothing, and what that looks like visually in order to find the best inspiration for you (both in type and amount)
some of the other things - practical knowledge of clothing terms, names of aesthetics - these are more universal things but finding out "what does Sam value? "what inspires Sam?" is a question specifically for you
Or even in more everyday language to yourself: “what do I think is cool and could see myself wearing? Why do I like it? What’s cool and could I NOT see myself wearing? Why couldn’t I see myself wearing that?”
I'm back :linkWave:
i went to play Halo
it's been a fair bit of advice :linkSweatSmile:
what's the summary of what i've been given so far?
I think figuring that out yourself is a way to really engage with the advice you‘ve been given
Ok, so from what I'm getting, it's about figuring out what I want to get out of clothes? 🤔
I'm sure there's more to it than that lol
I feel like what I want to get out of clothes is to look cool and stylish, wearing outfits that look great to myself and others around me.
yeah but u gotta take some time to actually figure out what that means. because my "cool & stylish" would be your "freaky & weird" and vice versa.
Ok 🤔
Also I think you have to come to terms with the fact that there is neither the one true solution nor a way to speedrun this, no matter what you try, it will take time
but I‘m just repeating what others have said before, really
What steps could I take in the short term to contribute to this?
stop buying things
why
not the best phrasing but: chilling tf out for a second
you're coming at this from a very solution oriented mindset when i think you dont have to be so worried about solving anything
especially it often seems like you're buying things and legit checking them which feels like "if this is real i got a good deal" as opposed to "do i actually like this"
like fundamentally, a hobby or interest should be fun. what are the things that make fashion fun to you? start there
you don‘t have to be actively doing sth all the time, just letting things happen and progress naturally is really the best thing you can do sometimes
yeah precisely this. it'll ebb and flow. i started posting on fashion forums literally almost 20 years ago. i still don't really know what im doing, but i have a sense of what i like
and there will be times when i just don't think about it for, like, literal years
and then i'll see something cool and be like "oh yeah i love this shit"
Hey gu- :bloberm:
like others have said sam you've noticeably started putting together way better fits, you might not notice the improvement but it's there
🤔 what mindset should I have for this?
don't think about an end point, think whether you feel better with how you're dressing, if you are comfortable
you're proving Seth's point
and if you're having fun engaging in the hobby
there is no end game here unless you're looking for a uniform, which is fine, but is arguably not the same as being interested in fashion
you have to answer the question yourself about what you want.
it's very melodramatic to type out but stop thinking so much and start feeling
Yeah :linkSweat:
i got back into clothes because i was depressed and working from home and basically living in sweatpants all the time. it was a way for me to get off my ass and take care of myself again
i stayed with it because it was validating, fun, and i like the community here
but thinking in terms of gaming here because i know you're into that, there's no 100%
do you want to look like your inspo? do you want to look presentable? do you want to look like a runway model? do you want to look cool, and cool by whose standards? tons of reasons to get into this stuff and nobody's really going to be able to tell you which is the one you should strive towards
but it shouldn't be stressing you out and you shouldn't feel like you've hit a wall because like people said, progression isn't linear, but also progression isn't the same to every person.
for what you've posted here fit-wise, i think you've shown progress by embracing these wider fits. i think next steps are to move beyond the template of just having a collared shirt over a sweater. I think look at how the hood interacts with the denim jacket, which is a bit odd to my eye. Wear shoes in your fitpic. Play with cuffing your pants when they're long (and maybe pulling them up a bit). Find those same wider chinos in other colourways (Olive is a fun colour to experiment with)
but Sam you've only been here like, what, a year? 6 months? You've progressed by any standard even if there is no standard for progression.
I started engaging in this community around October last year
and I think in that time you've shown a better sense as you've been here for what you might want, or what you like. You're better able to identify your inspiration and talk about it.
I think the biggest hurdle is just not thinking about there being an end point. Or if there needs to be for you to interact with it (becaues I get it, my OCD really requires me to have deadlines, or binaries, sometimes to function), then trying to articulate what you want that end point to be.
sorry for the wall of text also, i just don't want you to feel discouraged by feeling like you might have plateaud and i also don't want you to feel like you have to parse everyone's suggestions into an action plan. the hobby is really about taking what you want from it.
Ultimately, I think the key thing to internalize when it comes to engaging with fashion and style is that it can be a deeply personal and long (if not perpetual) journey. This is why it takes time - you need a good balance of exposure to inspiration, consideration of your personal tastes, experimentation, alignment with your lifestyle and comforts, etc etc...
Many of the people in here who's fits you admire have been doing this for years, none of them have cracked some formula to style. Its taken not only a lot of adjustments to their physical wardrobe, but also their personal tastes and lives. This is ultimately what brings fulfillment with clothes in my mind, the long journey of figuring out how to make your clothes work for your life which is an introspective and perpetual thing. Keep doing what you're doing without worrying that you're not as stylish as you want to be yet, because only you can define what stylish means to yourself, and that definition will take lots of time to craft. Frontloading your thoughts by thinking there is some achievable endgame will not be kind to your mental. Just keep progressing as you are, and as you learn more about what you like about clothes, everything will come naturally in due time.
Thanks for the advice everyone :linkThumbsUp:
I just read through the whole thread and it looks like you got some good advice. The one thing I’ll add is that if you need something tangible to strive for, find 5 or 6 people (or more) here whose outfits you admire. Look at their fit pics in detail and try to pick up what they are doing and why it’s working for them.
How is it reflecting who they are? What extra creative choices are they making that pushes them over the edge of good into great? How are they presenting themselves in the photo? What colors, graphics, shapes, volumes, textures, or materials are they wearing? How does it sit on their body?
Now take that critical lens and start styling yourself as you get dressed. What choices are you making?
I know Zeo mentioned loafers yesterday
Would that be something worth exploring? :linkThink:
I would say so
1 pair of nice loafers can really elevate your wardrobe
yeah
I had a look at Russell and Brombley not too long ago, their shoes were nice but currently not in my price range
the other place i can think of is Clarks
I'm going to go a little against the grain here. To throw it back to something Virt said - I think you've currently hit an "execution" plateau. You've acquired a fair bit of clothing quite quickly, and you seem to have pinned down some specific inspo/influences. What you haven't seemed to pin down quite so well is creating outfits on yourself that reflect your inspo and add an element of you. There's often something not quite there with your outfits that strikes me as being a combo of attention to detail and not quite nailing the silhouette or details.
Rather than acquiring more stuff, I really do think you'd benefit from creating more outfits with what you have and experimenting with it a bit more - like a few people have said, play with cuffing, belts, tucks etc.. Even a bit of attention to your photography and posing might help here. Take some time to reflect on what is working with what you're doing, and what it's missing by really looking at the photos you take of your outfits. Don't be afraid to make mistakes. Take stock of what works and what doesn't.
You don't get better outfits by buying more and more stuff if you haven't figured out how to put stuff together in interesting/exciting/fun ways. Loafers etc etc might help you get somewhere eventually and they're probably fun to shop for if you like shopping, but if you haven't figured out the other stuff they aren't going to fix things.
If I were you at your stage, knowing what I know now, I’d prioritize the appearance and comfort of loafers over the quality of construction. You don’t even truly know if you’ll end up liking loafers in the long term; save yourself some money that way
honestly it may be worth asking yourself how much effort you want to put into this. this is not to shame but if what you want out of clothes is just to look cool and stylish to people quickly then you could just probably wear a variation on the basic bastard with wider pants and be set, and/or do this https://malefashionadvice.substack.com/p/building-a-basic-wardrobe-v70
Building A Basic Wardrobe v7.0
Version 7 of the classic MFA post
one issue in doing this is if you don't know why clothes "look good" to you - be it due to colors or silhouette or any of the stuff mentioned to you previously or in the containment thread - then you're probably going to experience this again when trends in style or what are cool changes wildly
I don't mind putting some effort into this :linkBow:
I had a look at Doc Martens because I generally like the look at those and I found these new on sale for £69
or a used pair for £68.95
I do like the looks of Doc Martens in general so thats why i thought of it :linkThumbsUp:
I tried on some doc boots earlier and determined that my size was 9.5 so that was what I searched for
Not the exact boots though
those are doc marten adrians which i wore and then subsequent got rid of; they're chunkier than the loafers i wear now which may or may not be a good thing
The ones I have are Clarks, the cost me 50€ (on clearance tbf) and I‘ve had them for 8 years so the quality is decent too
If you‘re not sure what works for you yet I‘d start out in their price range
If you want something more high end later on you can still upgrade then
Sam, do you think - looking at your inspo - there's a reason these might be on sale at that price?
They're not selling? :linkThink:
well yes, but why aren't they selling?
sample fits from me, though epistrophy also has a pair if you check #waywt
there is a fairly broad range of fits here but you've got to ask yourself if any of these are something you would wear specifically with those loafers, or if you could figure out a way to wear these loafers otherwise. if not then buying them is a waste of money imo
work through matt's train of thought first though - the conclusion you reach may be bolstered by your opinion on the fits
2 more fits on my end with doc adrian loafers in the cherry stain colorway
People aren't buying it because of the color?
probably - it's not a terrible colour (I have shoes that colour), but it's a lot lot harder to work with than brown, black or cherry or suede. It's the kinda shoe to buy when you have nailed your style and have a lot of shoes. It's not first loafer in my opinion.
i wouldn't buy these, they kind of look like human flesh
black adrians are cool! like others have said, they're a bit chunkier, but that works too. it just depends what you want out of them
Btw the reason mattw phrased it the way that he did relates to what I said above
One of the best skills to develop over time is to learn to be critical with your eye
Figure out why some things are more versatile than others or what sorts of things go together and why
Or how something fits in with a larger vision (first loafer vs 5th)
Again, you’ve got good advice to take it slow, but develop some of the free skills like acquiring an eye for design
And for critically analyzing inspo and your own stuff
It takes time, we’re happy to help
But really finding inspo you like that could be a reflection of you will be a good start to take you forwards
I think I may have said it earlier, but its much easier to compare how you are now vs how you want to be
Instead of just saying “this is how I am, how could I be better”
Because there are people in here with tons of different styles and they might not reflect your vision which ultimately is what you’re trying to achieve
You arent trying to achieve my vision
Or anyone elses