How Long Should My Socks Be?

How Long Should My Socks Be 2

No Sock Look? How Long Should Socks Be? Socks Bunched Around Ankles? Let’s touch on some important points here and some not so important points. Here’s everything relating to socks.

1. Should I Try The No Sock Look?

Some could also ask should you wear socks at all, the simple answer is, if you’re employed – yes. The no sock look is great for walking around on holiday or relaxing in a park somewhere but at work, socks are an absolute must. If you insist on the no sock look then give your colleagues their right to odourless air by wearing invisible socks.

Should I Try The No Sock Look?
[Image Credit: forgetfulgentleman.com]

2. Whats The Deal With Stretched Out Socks?

Quality is important in every aspect of your wardrobe, from your suit to your shoes. It’s a widely accepted assumption that the more expensive the item, the better the “quality”. Since more expensive materials were used then the item must be better for the user. This may be the case in general but just because your socks cost the price of most peoples shoes doesn’t mean they are actually good quality.

Many socks lose their tightness (elasticity), thus resulting in the sock rolling down your leg and bunching up around your ankles. The sock can also bunch up in your shoe which can easily make you uncomfortable when walking. I’ve found this most commonly in cheap cotton socks but it still definitely happens with the expensive branded socks that are made cheaply.

This can be easily resolved by getting a pair of socks that are a blend of cotton and lycra. It will cost you slightly more in the short term but you will end up buying less pairs of socks thus resulting in everything balancing out.

3. How Long Should Socks Be?

Now onto the discussion of how long your socks should be. If you are going to take anything from this then let it be the following. Keep all the hair on your legs hidden at all times. When you sit, your trousers will raise and your sock should at all times prevent your lovely hair legs from being on show.

How High Up Should My Socks Be

The issue of white socks is well established so I’ll mention it briefly, if you’re an Michael Jackson fan and couldn’t care less what some humans think about you, then go for it.

Regardless to how beautiful your legs are, they are not appropriate for the work place. Save them for the beach when you can really turn some heads.

Also bear in mind, none of these rules really mean anything, enjoy yourself and have fun with your socks. Trial and error is the way forward my friend.

Until we meet again,

Hamed.

Matching Belt And Shoes

belt shoe combo above the ankles

It’s well known and established to have matching belt and shoes. The fact that you’re even on a fashion blog in the first place means you have some understanding of fashion. Black with black, brown with brown, tan with tan and so on and so forth. I don’t wish to bore you with the basics. With this post I intend on helping you with some tips as to how you go that extra mile and really match your belt and shoes.

2 Essentials – Black/Brown & The Tanned Belt

Black – The black belt is a must. Don’t cheap out here. I have a few black belts but the belt I’ve been wearing for the last year is a beautiful Tommy Hilfiger leather belt. I bought it on sale from House of Fraser for £26.

TOMMY HILFIGER Leather Belt

Black belts go well with everything, mostly because they go unnoticed by many. Having matching belts and shoes in black is the easiest thing to do. People with a keen eye will notice your belt and they will have a new found respect for you when they see the quality of your belt. This is something that has brought about many compliments for me, I recommend grabbing yourself a nice thick, genuine leather belt, preferably with a small designer logo on it.

Brown – There are a hundreds of different shades of brown. Finding one to match your shoes will be difficult. I solved this issue pretty easily. I bought a standard brown belt for £10 from Marks & Spencer. I’ve owned it for ages and it matches loads of stuff. If you put the belt next to the shoes, it would be slightly off but who cares. Not all of us have the money to own fifteen different belts.

John Lewis Reversible Leather Belt, Black/Brown

Tan – If you have a hard time matching brown with brown you will most definitely have a hard time matching tan’s. You can’t really have a tan belt that goes with everything. I wouldn’t advise having a basic tan belt, best thing to do is take your shoes with you when you go to buy a belt and just place them next to each other.

Can You Be Too Matchy?

Matching shoes and belt is a must. It’s never too matchy, don’t listen to anyone who says otherwise. With that being said, matching more than your belt and shoes, like the other types of leather accessories are a bad idea. Wearing leather driving gloves or carrying a leather briefcase that matches your shoes and belt will look far to pretty. If pretty is your thing, go for it.

Extra Tips

Leave The Belt At Home

It’s better to leave the belt at home and go out with your brown brogues by themselves than wear an off belt with it.

Same Store

As with the picture above, many good retailers sell belts that perfectly match their shoes in store. If you’re buying a pair of beautifully blended oxblood/brown shoes and the same store sells a matching belt – buy it! If you let that opportunity slip you may never find a matching belt again.

how to match your shoes and belt

Don’t Buy A Blue Belt

Except if you’re following the previous tip and you are buying that belt specifically to match a pair of bad-ass blue loafers, avoid blue belts. Match tan with tan, brown with brown and black with black or blue.

Always Have Matching Belt And Shoes – You Can’t Afford Not Too.

Matching Belt And Shoes

Burton Reivewed

burton review logo

My Burton Review

Burton as a whole is a good company.

The above statement is generally what most people would say about Burton, it’s also my opinion. It is a good company that sell good clothes at a good price. Once upon a time, 80% of my wardrobe was Burton branded, that’s now declined to 2%. To sum up my Burton review simply, as mentioned, Burton sell good clothes but after awhile good just doesn’t cut it.

History

I can’t say this is my Burton review without mentioning it’s history. The company has some amazing history, ever heard the phrase, “the full monty”?

Montague Burton founded Burton in 1904. After World War II, Montague Burton was one of the suppliers of suits to the British government. They supplied the jackets, trousers, waistcoats, shirt and underwear. Thus the phrase, “the full monty” was born.

As nice as that is, history is history and nowadays Burton are known as the little brother to Topman. I mean that in the un-cute way. Burton is cheaper than Topman with very similar quality and lightly chubbier. Topman is generally marketed towards skinny fit men while Burton is aimed more generally towards everyone. The issue then falls onto Quality – which both brothers lack unfortunately.

Burton is one of the cheapest options on the high street to buy a suit, usually ranging from £79 to £150. They fit the description of “off the rack” perfectly. Generally all are polyester or a polyblend with wool and usually come out quite thin. Their suits are not designed for an active man who enjoys walking or occasionally messing around. Try jumping onto a bench and it’s very likely you’ll rip the trousers at the crotch.

Collections

They have a few collections designed for everyone. I must admit, the difference between them is not much. I myself have owned a suit from every collection, as you can guess the best suits are the most expensive. The difference between the best and worse suits is very minimal.

£79 Machine Washable Suits

Supposedly Burton’s worst suit, this machine washable suit comes as a two piece suit, a jacket & trouser for £79. I’d never recommend machine washing your suits, even if they are machine washable. Out of all their collections, this suit is by far my favourite. All of the £79 suits come in default colours, black, grey & navy with no patterns or designs. They are simple, with very small lapels, usually forcing you into wearing a slim tie. They’re all a mix of polyester and viscose, which will often give them that shiny look to the suit, usually quite visible in the bright sun light. They way I see it, a suit for £79 – you can’t go wrong. Definitely the perfect suit for those starting out and building up their wardrobe.

burton machine washable suits

For an extra £30 you can grab a waistcoat to spice things up, totalling to £109.

Wool Suits

Wool suits from anywhere are pretty much guaranteed to be a good buy. The fabric wool is very reliable and comfortable. All their suits in their wool collection are 100% Italian wool. The quality is impressive, it feels good and looks better. The fit isn’t bad either.

The wool suits have been created with work in mind. Designed in five colours you could wear to work, all year round. Black, Blue, Navy, Dark Grey & Grey.

burton menswear wool suits

For some strange reason, they only do wool suits in slim fit. If you happen to fit into a slim fitted suit, enjoy. Everybody else, jog on.

Standard Skinny/Slim/Tailored Fit

Burton design their suits in three different fits. They’re most successful line is their slim fitted suit. I wore Burton’s skinny fit suits for awhile but I found they just didn’t fit me comfortably enough and I ripped too many suits at the crotch. Slim fit was definitely my favourite fit in their suits, I found their slim fit suits the most comfortable and best quality. The tailored suits just felt a bit.. slim fit.

Conclusion

Burton review menswear

Burton is without a doubt one of the best hight street retailers in the UK. Unfortunately that doesn’t say much for the high street retailers. Burton is really good for price but the honest truth is, there are cheaper options with similar quality. As 75% of Burton’s suits are made from polyester and viscose, literally the cheapest option possible – you can get similar suits everywhere. Matalan is a great cheaper alternative to Burton if you’re on a low budget. Obviously it’s much more reputable to have Burton on the inside of your suit jacket than Matalan.

Overall a good company for anyone just starting to buy suits. I’d definitely avoid Burton if you don’t wear slim fitted suits. Tailored just aren’t there thing.

Hope you enjoyed my Burton Review.

Secret Sales – Quality Designers – Massive Discounts – Hardly Any Stock

sales suits mens store

Have you any heard of such a site? You probably have but I doubt one as good as Secret Sales. If you are looking for a quality double breasted blazer, a stunning pin striped suit or the sexiest pair of crisp Armani shoes and want them all at a cheap price – keep dreaming. You can’t get brands like Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, Oliver Sweeney and Versace for cheap, they would be 100% fake. If however you want all those top quality brands with 20-50% knocked off the retail price, then Secret Sales is the site for you.

Secret Sales - Designer Suits

The easiest way to describe them is – an EXTREMELY successful flash sale site. They boast that they sell an item every 15 seconds, which is pretty decent. A company based in the fancy part of London (Notting Hill), they are quite huge (over 100 staff) for a flash sale website and have been going six years now.

You actually have to register/sign up to Secret Sales before you can even view their products, I suppose it creates a feeling of; “members only.”

The way the site works is simple, they buy designer products that are really low in stock off the big brands for dirt cheap, add a profit and then resell it. The reason they get the items for next to nothing is because the product is so low in stock the brand can’t put it out in their stores. Can you imagine Louis Vuitton having a clearance store? It’s bad for brand image!

Mens Designer Shoes - Secret Sales

Secret Sales runs successfully by adding a whole bunch of products together, for example they have a category called “mens formal designer shoes.” Then out of the 40 different pairs of shoes in that category, every design has one or two pairs left in each size. The whole category “mens formal designer shoes” is put up on the site for four days and then is removed and never to appear again. This is their biggest strength and weakness. Every day you go on the site, there are new things added but it also means that the beautifully crafted double breasted tweed jacket you saw yesterday, has now expired.

Top tip: if you see something you like & they have your size – buy it.

Check Them Out Here; Secret Sales

Size 8? Go For Size 7! – Loafer Sizes

mens loafers fashion blog

It’s fair to say it’s supposed to be summer now and even though the weathers not amazing, it is still loafer season. In the spirit of loafer season a couple weeks ago I bought some loafers from Zara and last Thursday I wanted to wear them to work with my blue pin stripe trousers. I took seven or eight steps out my door and realized my foot was flipping out the back of the loafer like sandals. Then it hit me, I bought the wrong size.

blue loafers cover photo

I’m a size 8 in every shoe and trainer except loafers. It’s important when buying anything that you try on a small size first to see if you can wear that size comfortably. If you can without feeling like you’re about to burst out your clothes and shoes, then go for it.

Everything looks better a size smaller and that is definitely true when it comes to loafers. Don’t ask me why, it’s just how it is. Size 10 shoes look better than size 11.

Next time you go shopping online or in-store, try goes a size down, if it doesn’t fit well you can always return it.

Continue reading if you want to hear how my returning experience went this weekend. I took my loafers back to return them and found that they were now £39.99 down from £59.99. Good news, to swap a size 8 for a size 7, I had to return the size 8’s for a full refund and then buy the size 7’s. I’m now £20 richer.

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Pay Day – Shopping List June 2015

selfridges every man needs these things

I’m in London for the weekend visiting my parents and considering it was just pay day, obviously I had to do some shopping. After spending all day on Oxford Street, I decided I would compile a list of all the great clothes and accessories I saw throughout the day. Most of this list, I either already own or just bought today and I’m hoping you will find as much joy and benefit from these products as I do.

Things Every Man Needs

 

1. Easy To Carry Cufflinks

On my trip down to London I realised I left my cufflinks at home in Birmingham, considering the only shirt I brought with me was double cuffed, I was screwed. Thankfully the weather on Saturday was fantastic so I just rolled my sleeves up and went shopping. I found myself in TM Lewin looking at cufflinks and then I remembered they sold those silly pretend cufflinks and figured for £4 – why not? So these are now my easy to carry cufflinks.

Navy Pink Knots TM Lewin
Navy Pink Knots – TM Lewin – £4.00

 

2. The Perfect Undershirt

If you wear a dress shirt to work then you know how useful undershirts are, not only do they stop your shirt from being ruined by your sweat in the summer, they keep you warm on those not so hot days. The problem is if your undershirt is too loose fitting or not long enough, it can cause your shirt to look cheap and baggy. This is easily solved with the best undershirt I’ve ever owned and seen. Uni-qlo’s undershirt is literally the thinnest item I own, its so comfortable and tight fitting I barely know I’m wearing it. The length is amazing dropping right down pass my boxers meaning it will never become un-tucked no matter what I do. I bought mine in white but it’s available in about eight different colours.

MEN AIRism V Neck Short Sleeve T-Shirt white
MEN AIRism V Neck Short Sleeve T-Shirt – £9.90

3. Loafers


With Summer basically here you really have no excuse now not to be rocking some dapper loafers. I’d definitely go for a slip-on loafer with the tassels. Loafers are fantastic for looking casual in a suit, especially when worn without socks. On Saturday I grabbed myself some decent loafers for £60 from Zara.

Blue Zara Loafers
Blue Zara Loafers – £59.99

4. Replacement Collar Stays

Us gentleman that wear shirts all the time and look after them properly know that you have to take out your collar stays whenever you wash or iron your shirt. Just incase you don’t know, if you don’t then you will ruin your collar and possibly melt your collar stays into your shirt. So since we are constantly removing our collar stays it is very possible that we may lose them. I’ve lost about five in the last three months. As an aspiring gentleman you should look after your clothes and buying some replacement collar stays is a great insurance item for you.

Collar stays - above the ankles
Collars Stays – £ 1.95

5. Base London Black Base Power Gibson Shoes

Black shoes are few and far between. Many men just wear any sort of black shoes and just expect them to go un-noticed. Your shoes are ridiculously important and every that cares about you will notice them. This June it is probably best you put away those battered black shoes and get yourself a new professional pair. Schuh is a great company to buy from, they have some good brands under their belt and are definitely a great retailer to check out. Base designed these shoes and they are both comfy and very stylish with a slight bump along the front of the shoe to create that perfect work look.

mens base london black base power gibson shoes 2
Base London Black Base Power Gibson Shoes – £68.00

6. TM Lewin Shirts

Buying a new shirt is something you should do every so often, at least once a year. I love shopping and summer is a great excuse to buy a new shirt. As it heats up you spend more time with your jacket/blazer off and more time showing off your shirts. Since people are going to see it a lot more the next couple months, it makes sense to wear fresh shirts. TM Lewin is a heavyweight in the luxury shirts industry and definitely without a doubt my favourite shirt retailer. Grab your next shirt from them, you will not be disappointment- I promise.

Slim Fit Light Blue Stripe White Cutaway Collar Shirt
Slim Fit Light Blue Stripe White Cutaway Collar Shirt – £29.95

Get The Look – #7 Tinie Colours Of Spring

Tinie tempah spring fashion colours

Tinie Tempah is well known to us for his many talents and recently he has become a bit of a fashion icon in London, for good reason too. He is very well dressed and is never afraid to express himself in his outfits and wear things others probably wouldn’t. This weeks Get The Look is one of Tinie Tempah’s more simpler outfits but still lets people know what he’s about. If you’re looking to dress casually smart on the weekend, this outfit and it’s many variations will serve you well.

The Look – Tinie Tempah

Considering we are well into spring now and approaching summer it just makes sense that we start adding more colour to our outfits. The colours of spring are warm, bright and light. What this look does extremely well is take all those spring colours and turn them into a pretty decent outfit without looking like a toddler wearing flowers.

The blazer, the main piece of the outfit, is a warm salmon colour. The spring colour scheme continues from the blazer onto the pastel jade trousers, combined with brown suede tassel loafers. The outfit is completed with a darker tie, white shirt, lapel pins and a watch.get the look cover tinie tempah 2

The Suit

You have a few options in the suit department in regards to which colours you want to work with. With the blazer you can go with MOST of the different colours in the spring colour palette shown below (avoid the dark colours.) The only rule you need to follow is that to you should either wear matching trousers or trousers that are lighter than the blazer. I recommend pastel teal trousers like the ones Tinie’s wearing or plain white ones.

spring colour pallete

In terms of material then I would go with Linen or Cotton. Both these fabrics are fantastic for summer and letting your skin breathe. You don’t want to be walking around in a wool blazer sweating all over the place. Choose how thick you want the clothes to be as well. Even though it’s now Spring, it still can be bloody cold here in the UK.

ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Summer Tweed
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Summer Tweed – £65.00
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Jersey
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Jersey – £55.00
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Washed Cotton
ASOS Slim Fit Blazer In Washed Cotton – £55.00
Burgundy Oxford Skinny Fit Blazer
Burgundy Oxford Skinny Fit Blazer – £70.00
Light Blue Texture Cotton Blazer
Light Blue Texture Cotton Blazer – £70.00
ASOS Slim Fit Suit Cropped Suit Trousers
ASOS Slim Fit Suit Cropped Suit Trousers – £40.00
United Colors of Benetton Mini Puppytooth Trousers in Slim Fit
United Colors of Benetton Mini Puppytooth Trousers in Slim Fit – £35.00
ASOS Slim Fit Cropped Trousers
ASOS Slim Fit Cropped Trousers – £25.00

Shirt & Tie

This part of the outfit is basic, you can swap these for anything really. It’s really easy to just stick to white shirt and any dark tie. The dark tie works really well as a balancing act between looking super summery and looking smart. The only important point to make is that you should keep your tie skinny. Thick ties don’t go well with the casual looks and will result in you looking quite odd – keep your tie thin.

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Loafers

Loafers – don’t we just love them? Tinie Tempah certainly does, he’s always seen in these funky cool loafers. The loafers in this look are a dark chocolate brown suede completed with small tassells. Loafers are easy to find online but it’s important you decide whether you want to wear casual loafers or work/smart loafers. Suede is quite versatile and depending on how you wear it and what you wear it with, for example with or without socks, you can really swing your suede shoes from work-smart to smart-casual very quickly.

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Accessories

If accessories aren’t your thing, don’t worry the outfit won’t fall apart without them. However, if like me, you love accessories, then you’re in for a treat with this outfit. Firstly the watch; any watch will do but ideally you want to match your watch to your shoes. Your belt should also follow suit with the watch strap and shoes, all dark brown will go perfectly with this outfit. The lapel pins are can be what ever you want really, I’d probably wear one of my charity badges on my lapel.

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That’s it, you and Tinie are now identical twins. As always let me know what your thoughts are on this look from the wonderful Tinie Tempah. Leave a rating up top on how many stars out of five you would give this outfit.

get the look cover tinie tempah 2

Ikon Black Stardust 2 Shoes

Ikon-Black-Stardust-2-Shoes-cover-big

Ever heard of the company Ikon? No, me neither to be honest. I was just shopping around online and found myself on the Schuh website having a look at some shoes for work. Ikon shoes is a pretty unknown company to me so I did some research as I hate cheaply made shoes and before I spend money on my outfit I need to know who I’m buying from. I already know Schuh pretty well so I spent some time on google. I found out a bunch of stuff I don’t care about like that they started in the 1990’s. But the good news is they have their shoes being sold in many different retail stores which is always a good sign in a brand. What’s more important than that, are the reviews written by other customers. It was good to see the Ikon Black Stardust 2 Shoes have fantastic reviews online.

Here’s a few;

Neil McDonald
3 Stars
Really nice looking shoes, but a very narrow fit. I’m a size 11, but they were way too tight for me. I exchanged for a 12, but the extra length looked odd. I don’t think I’m cut out for pointed toe shoes!

Anonymous
4.5 Stars
This is my second pair of these shoes, the first ones wore out after a year as the heel broke off but i had to get another pair as it is so comfy and stylish.

Daniel Crampton
5 Stars
Great shoe. One thing i’ve learnt though. Always buy a size above. I know this sounds daft as i’m a Size 11 normally but these are way too small in your normal size. Great shoe and have bought time and time again. Very happy.

Ikon Black Stardust 2 Shoes

These stardust Ikon shoes are quite basic in the fact that they are pretty much just standard black pointed shoes. Made from 100% leather and finished off with a nice polished look. I’m not going to say these shoes are any different to what else you could get on the shelf but priced at £55.00 with free delivery you can’t really go wrong.

Unique

Apart from the standard things you would expect from any shoe, there are some unique things about the Ikon Black Stardust 2 Shoes that really grab my attention. The back of the shoe has an embossed Ikon logo and the sole has this amazing graffiti spray on the bottom, even though no one will see it.

Ikon Black Stardust 2 Shoes

Reiss Tassel Loafers

Reiss Tassel Loafers

Spring is upon us lads, which means one simple thing; loafer time! As the weather heats up, we remove our layers until eventually we remove even our socks. No shoes look as good as loafers do without socks. Loafers are fantastic for formal wear to work, black tie events, smart/casual and even just casual. These Navy Blue Tassel Loafers designed by Reiss are beautifully crafted pieces of art, which is made with 100% suede leather.

These slip on design, low heel loafers would look amazing with any dark suit and can even be matched with a grey suit, as long as you pair it with a navy blue tie. As they are designed by Reiss you can expect to pay a decent amount for them, priced at £159.00 from ASOS you are going to want to take care of these properly with a good suede cleaner.

Reiss Navy Blue Tassel Loafers

Reiss Tassel Loafers 3
Reiss Tassel Loafers – £159.00

Here’s an example of how to make these loafers work wonders;

Reiss Tassel Loafers cover photo

10% Off TM Lewin – March

tm lewin 10% off

I do not remember the last time I bought an item for full price, the only time I would ever do that is out of desperation. Why would you? There are discount codes and vouchers all over the internet. Although to be honest some companies like TM Lewin are pretty good at keeping them hidden. Luckily for you guys, I’m here.

Just Enter MARCH10 at checkout and you got yourself 10% off anything online.

Click Here – TM Lewin

tm lewin 10% off
10% OFF – ENTER MARCH10 AT CHECKOUT