I hope you are all enjoying my What to Wear Corporate America series, but I want to take a step away from the formal business style and into the dressy casual style real quick. Lose the tie and have some fun while you look good for your special gal on Valentine's day. I am getting 100% of the Inspiration of this article from Jack Threads. I think you are really going to enjoy getting dressed up for Her this Valentine's day and I hope I can help.
Same as in my What to Wear: Corporate America series, I always start with the shirt. Now I like to be a little dull in my shirt because I know I will have fun in other places. So for Valentine's day, just keep it plain and simple. My suggestion is go with a white button up. It is a classic and when we dress it up with the right coat, you are sure to look dapper. I like the Definitive Window Poplin Dress Shirt they have right now for $35. It has a little bit of pattern on the white, but it is hardly noticeable.
Now lets choose the right pant. Since it is still winter out there, we want to go with something a little dark here. The obvious choice is your blacks and greys. Since we want to still have fun with the outfit and we went with the plain shirt, I am going to have to go with a grey pant here. This will open up options with my shoe and jacket choice as well. I like the EDGE by WD.NY Slim Grey Heather Pant they are showing for $42 right now. I urge you to stay away from jeans and denim. It is a date gents, so lets class it up.
At this point in the outfit process, you can either select your shoes and accessories, or your coat. For the purpose of this outfit, I am going to choose my coat first because I see a lot of ways to take the outfit over the top in accessories. The coat is one of our versatile tools when it comes to dressing up. I tend to lean toward brighter colors for my top half and darker colors for my lower half. So instinctly I found myself a light colored coat. Now right now, blues and browns are really trending, so I made sure to find a light blue coat. I selected the Paisley & Gray Railroad Stripe Engineer Jacket w Polka Dot Lining. This jacket is a lot of fun and really adds some pop to your style. It is a sure hit with the ladies and is going for $85.
Now before we pick out our mancessories, lets pick up our shoe game to complete this outfit. Now we have our pretty basic colors: white, grey, and blue. This combination really allows us to choose any color shoe we want. Since blues and browns are trending right now, lets go with a brown. To stick to the lower half dark colors, pick out a nice dark brown leather shoe. Since this is a little bit more casual of an outfit, your shoe style is pretty open. A nice pair of loafers or drivers will do the trick. You can even put on some nice lace up oxfords. I chose to keep this outfit fun and found a pair of nice dark brown leather chukka: the Crevo Carbine. You can own these bad boys for $65. CAUTION: stay away from tennis shoes. It just looks stupid.
Now for the fun part: mancessories. Here is where you can add the extra flair, but please do not add too much. Your outfit is already stylish enough and there is no need to over power. My two main go to products are the watch and pocket square. For the watch, I always do my best to match my band to my shoe. They are both a foundation product and should match. The Earnshaw Investigator Watch is an all time classic looking watch. It makes you look like a million bucks without having a million bucks. You can get this snazzy piece for $139 right now. Now even though the groundhog says we have 6 more weeks of winter, I am ready to bust out some spring colors. Here is the perfect opportunity to do it with a pocket square. A pocket square is a perfect accent piece to a sport coat. I rarely wear a sport coat without a pocket square. I went with the Imperial Linked Circles Pocket Square in blue and yellow. You absolutely will not be disappointed with these colors on this outfit. You can get your hands on this pocket square for $7. Now you don't have to choose these colors on the square, but if you do not choose a spring pop color use a brown color square. Remember, blue and brown are trending right now.
There you have it gents. Class yourself up for your gal. She deserves. Remember to stick to browns and blues where possible. Use light and dark colors to contrast your outfit. It is OK to have some pop and sizzle to your outfit, after all you do want to be noticed and remembered. Just don't over do it on mancessories. Two items max (your wedding ring doesn't count so don't take it off to follow the two max rule). Shout out to Jack Threads for having some amazing products.