037: Style Simplified: Proven Methods for Always Crafting the Perfect Outfit

Welcome to Episode 37 of "I'm Not A Gentleman," where we delve into the intricacies of crafting the perfect outfit. Vlad breaks down his approach to shirts and ties, emphasizing the importance of versatility and coordination.

From classic colors to bold patterns, he showcases how a well-curated wardrobe streamlines the decision-making process. Dive deeper into Vlad's strategy for selecting his shoes, ties, and pocket squares, where he balances color and pattern to elevate his ensemble.

Mentioned in this episode: D. Rymz aka Lex

Get my eBook "The 7 Style Mistakes That You're Making Right Now" for FREE here.

Discover the 7 Style Mistakes and how to correct them once and for all.

Transcript

00:00
Announcer: I'm Not A Gentleman is a production of chaceandryder.com

00:05
since the main color of the pocket square is navy, even though it's going to have like six or seven different colors, like all my pocket squares, except for the white ones, are going to have at least four colors. So even though they are going to be other colors, but if the main color is navy, I'm not going to wear it with a navy suit, because from a distance, it might get lost in my jacket because they're both the same color. So even though technically that pocket square works with that tie, but it doesn't work with that suit. So once again, it's not hard. You just got to put some thought into it.

00:37
Yo, what up? Welcome to I'm Not A Gentleman, the show designed to help you look stylish without following trends. I'm your host Vladimir Riché from chaceandryder.com and your favorite menswear YouTuber's favorite menswear YouTuber. I've helped dozens of clients and hundreds of students and viewers feel more confident by looking their best and always making a great first impression.

01:04
In today's episode, I'm going to answer a question that I usually get, which is, how do I put my outfits together? So it should be a fun topic, and I think you'll be surprised to hear some of the things that I'm going to tell you. But let's not wait too much time and get right into it. Intro!

01:29
in that bag in that bag again, whoa.

01:33
Welcome to episode 37 of I'm Not A Gentleman, AKA the run or test episode. Now, I know you're probably thinking run or test or met a world peace, whatever you want to call him. He wore 37? Yeah, he did. I know he wore other numbers too, like 15 and was probably the main number that he's known for. And he might've wore a number in the 90s too, maybe 99.

02:02
or something crazy like that. But yes, a run-out test at one point did wear number 37 for the Lakers. So go ahead and Google that. Well, yeah, man, this is going to be a fun episode. Guys do ask me, how do I put my outfits together? I don't think it's as fun or not fun. That sounds the right word. I don't think it's going to be as deep as some people think, but

02:30
I'm definitely looking forward to talking about it. But before we get to that subject, I have a question. And this stems from a new Facebook group, menswear Facebook group that I joined last week. And I must say, man, it's a disaster in there. But I'm not gonna say anything because the last Facebook group that I was in and I attempted to help some guys, because my biggest issue is not the fact that guys are on there looking a mess.

03:00
My biggest issue was the other guys putting the battery in their back and telling them nice, you know? Great outfit. And I'm saying to myself, really? So I got kicked out of that group. And all I said was, why is there a love affair in the comments? That's all I said. You know, if people are posting their pictures on the internet, I'm assuming that maybe they need help. I mean, don't go and push your pictures on the form or.

03:28
in a Facebook group dedicated to menswear and not expect for someone to say something if they don't feel like you're doing it right. If you thin skin like that, just don't join one of those groups, you know? But anyway, I got kicked out of that group because they felt like I was inciting some kind of riot or something like that in there. So, learned my lesson. But in this new Facebook group though, it's just as bad as the last one, if not worse.

03:58
It was probably not worse because I don't think that one has as many members as the last one, but it's really, really bad in there, man. So my question is this, is dressing well really that hard? Maybe I take it for granted because even though I started off as a disaster myself, but I've been dressing nicely, proudly since 2015. So that's going on a decade, but is it really that hard? Personally, I don't think so.

04:27
I don't think it's easy at the same time because if it was, we'd have a lot of well-dressed men. Unfortunately, we do not. But I don't feel like it's really hard. You know what I mean? It's crazy the stuff that I see on there, man. But I don't have the answer. So I was throwing it to your court and maybe you guys can hit me up on Instagram or something. Send me a DM or shoot me an email. vr@chaceandryder.com.

04:56
vr@chaceandryder.com and my Instagram is @chace.ryder. Um, yeah, let me know, man. Um, if dressing well is that hard and why do so many guys look really, really bad in tailored clothing, like not even close, you know, anyway, let's get into the episode, man, you know, let's do what we do. My goal with this podcast is to teach and inspire and share some stories with you guys, you know what I mean? Let's get to it.

05:26
So how do I pick my outfits? That's a great question. The first thing that I do when picking my outfits is think about the shoes. And this may sound odd to some people because I'm sure even amongst well-dressed men, most of them probably think about the suit first. So in a way, I do think about that too, and I'll tell you more in a little bit. But the first thing that I think about is what shoes that I want to wear.

05:57
And that's what dictates the rest of the outfit. But as you can imagine, someone like me who has about, I think the last time I checked, I had 43 pairs of shoes that are actually in the rotation. I have more than that that I don't wear anymore. So I don't count those, but I have 43 that I can pull out and I gladly wear them. So how do I pick out which pair that I want to wear? So.

06:27
The first thing that helps in making that decision is think about what exactly am I going to wear? Like am I wearing a suit or am I wearing business casual, meaning out trousers and a sport coat or a blazer? Once I know that, then it makes the decision a little bit easier and I'll explain. I don't wear the same shoes with suits as I do with

06:56
out trousers and sport coats. Well, that wasn't quite true, but hear me out. The shoes that I wear without trousers and sport coats, which are split to derbies and tassel loafers, monk straps, chukkas, boots, with the exception of boots, all those other shoes that I just named

07:25
I also wear those with suits, assuming it's a casual suit or something like that. But if I'm wearing a suit, the shoes that I do wear with my suits, so we're talking about Oxfords here, I do not wear Oxfords when I'm doing the business casual look. So therefore, if I'm doing business casual, I already know what shoes I'm going to wear. Like it's either going to be, you know, some of the shoes that I just named,

07:55
Mug straps, chukkas, boots. So that kind of segment things off a little bit to help me pick which one. Most of the time I do reach for a Splitoe Derby, but I have about seven pairs of Splitoe Derbies, so that still doesn't really help that much. But I figure it out, you know what I mean? Maybe there's a color that I wanna wear and I'll pick that color because all of them are different colors.

08:25
So, once I'm in the type of shoe that I wanna wear, then I go with the color. But that's a lot easier than when I'm wearing a suit because I have less of those shoes than I do Oxfords. Let's say out of the 43-shoe rotation, I have about 15 pairs of shoes that I would wear with that type of wardrobe. And then 28 of the rest of my shoes are going to be Oxfords for suits. So,

08:54
As you can see, that's a big difference for me to really pick what shoes that I'm going to wear if I'm wearing a suit. So the way that I go about choosing is really, it's a few different things. So first I want to see which pair that I haven't worn in a while. So right now I don't really have a favorite pair of shoes. I have a couple, right? But I don't really have like a favorite one, like a soulmate.

09:22
So S O L E by the way, in Soulmate. I did used to have one of those shoes, which was my Carlo Cento shoes. It was probably my second good year worth of shoes ever. I paid under $200 for them. And for whatever reason, man, I wore the hell out of them shoes. I think I got them resold three or four times. Granted, back then I didn't have a crazy rotation like I have now, but even then,

09:52
when I started to build my collection and I had about 15 to 20 pairs, I was still reaching for those color centers all the time. So back then that was an easy decision because I loved those shoes. But now I don't really have that one pair where I feel like reaching for it every time. So it makes the decision a little bit harder. But I try to look to see which shoes that I haven't worn in a while and take them out for a spin.

10:19
But I do have some favorites in there, just not one pair, you know what I mean? So the favorites are probably going to get more run than the other ones, but I'm really into suede shoes and grain shoes, so I usually favor those, unless I'm going to something more serious than is going to be regular leather, you know what I mean? So if I'm going to something like a wedding, and that's easy, is going to be a plain capital Oxford in black.

10:49
Although I do have two pairs of those, but usually it's the Carlos Santos one that I would wear more often. But if it's not one of those type of events where I can wear any shoe, then I just, you know, look to see how I'm feeling that day, what the vibe is, and then just pick one. I wish I had a more interesting answer for that one, but I don't really have one. It's really what I'm feeling. I'll look at my closet and...

11:14
see which box is talking to me because I do have my shoes in boxes. I wish I didn't, but I don't have the space to really just lay them out. So it's easier to have them in boxes and stack them on top of each other. So that's pretty much how that goes. And once I pick the shoes, it usually make everything else a lot easier. And that's because most of the time, I pick the color of my suit based on the color of the shoes. Not always, but most of the time.

11:44
And what I mean is I'm not talking about if I'm wearing a dark suit, then it has to be dark shoes. I mean, that's mandatory, right? Obviously I'm not going to wear light brown shoes with a dark suit. I'm not talking about that, but I'm talking about more, some shoe colors work better in my eyes with certain suit colors. That's not to say you have to wear those colors with that suit, but I just feel like they work better. So for example, if I'm wearing a charcoal suit,

12:13
then I'm probably wearing burgundy shoes because I feel like it's a great match. But at the same time, I could be wearing dark brown suede shoes with a charcoal suit. You know what I mean? It just depends on how I'm feeling that day. One combination though, if I'm wearing Navy, then chances are I'm wearing dark brown. That's probably the one that I always go to when I wear Navy. So I do have a few pairs of dark brown shoes. So if I pull one of those out,

12:42
then I probably want to wear Navy with that. So that definitely helps. Now, do I want to wear patterns or do I want to wear solid? I don't know, it just really depends on what I'm feeling that day. You know, most of the time you probably see me wear solid colored suits, but I may be feeling myself and do a truck stripe or something like that. You know what I mean? But once again, it's not really something that I plan ahead of time.

13:11
So when I'm getting dressed, like the night before, I never really know what I'm going to wear the next day. I might know what shoes I want to wear because let's say I just got a new pair of shoes, then I'm like, yo, I'm wearing that tomorrow. You know what I mean? But for the most part, I never really know until I wake up and I look at the shoes and be like, oh, okay, I want to wear these. And then I go from there, you know? But this is how I go about picking my suits. I base it on the shoe color most of the time that I'm going to wear.

13:41
Not always, but most of the time. The great thing is, the way that my wardrobe is curated, most of my shoes will go with most of my suits, and that's going to be a trend that you'll notice in this episode. Now, the next thing is the shirt. That's the easiest decision, because all my shirts are blank canvases.

14:07
We'll be right back.

14:12
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14:40
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15:02
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15:24
So it doesn't really matter what shirt I pull out. It's going to go with every suit that I have. And my shirts are light blue, white, blue and white stripes, whether it's bingo stripes or pencil stripes, and light pink. Those are the only shirts that I really wear when we're talking about with a suit. Now, if it's more casual, like business casual, I do have more colors. I have a brown stripe.

15:55
I have like a burgundy stripe, but as far as my spread color shirts that I wear with my suits, there aren't that many colors and all those colors are going to go with every suit color. So picking out a shirt is easy. The next thing is what tie am I going to wear? And this one is easy also.

16:22
And once again, we're going back to the curation of my wardrobe. 99% of my ties are going to go with 99% of my suits. Now, just like the shoes, they are some colors that will work better with some suit colors, but that's only if you're really going deep into it. But the way that I have my tie set up, the colors that I have, they go with all my suits for the most part.

16:50
One thing you won't catch me doing is doing the monochrome look. So if I'm wearing a color like a green suit, I'm not going to wear a green tie. I might wear a brown tie or a Navy tie or even a purple tie, but it won't be green, you see what I'm saying? But everything else is fair game. So it's very easy for me to just grab a tie. But once I grabbed the tie, that's where the fun begins. And that's with which pocket square am I going to wear?

17:21
But that's easy also because once again, the way that I curate my wardrobe, 99% of my pocket squares are going to go with 99% of my ties. But a couple of things to think about is, let's say I have a pocket square where the main color of the pocket square is Navy and I'm wearing a Navy suit. And let's say the tie is like a burgundy tie, but.

17:49
the burgundy has a little bit of blue in there also, so I could wear with the pocket square, right? I would not wear a navy pocket square with a navy suit. Since the main color of the pocket square is navy, even though it's going to have like six or seven different colors, like all my pocket squares, except for the white ones, are going to have at least four colors. So even though they are going to be other colors, but if the main color is navy, I'm not going to wear it with a navy suit, because from a distance,

18:18
it might get lost in my jacket because they're both the same color. So even though technically that pocket square works with that tie, but it doesn't work with that suit. So once again, it's not hard. You just got to put some thought into it. And this is just the way that I do it because that's a question that I get. I think a lot of guys have a lot of trouble putting a decent outfit together. They spend a lot of time trying to pick out what goes with what. So that's why I get that question a lot.

18:47
But I really don't spend that much time doing that. And that's one thing that I teach my students. That's one thing that I'm looking forward to teaching inside of my membership. And that's one thing I teach to my clients. Still have a wardrobe where you can just get up and get dressed. And I always use this example, but my men's style architect told me because of my style, I can get dressed in the dark. And it's true. Never tried it though, but it's true.

19:17
So yeah man, so that's how I go about picking my tie and my pocket square. Now here's a cheat code for you. Well it's not really a cheat code but when I wear a solid color tie, I'm always wearing a white pocket square. So that's something that you will notice when I get dressed. So the tie is solid, whether it's a black grenadine, navy grenadine, burgundy grenadine, whatever it is, I'm always going to be wearing a white pocket square.

19:46
I hope nobody pulls out a picture of when I wasn't. But I'm pretty sure if I'm wearing a solid color tie, I'm wearing a white pocket square with that. That's the only time really that you'll see something as predictable because dressing well is fun to me. So I hate to be predictable, but I do it when I wear solid color ties. And before I forget, another thing that dictates what watch strap I'm going to wear is the shoes.

20:14
because my shoes and my washstrap always got to match perfectly. And that's the reason why I started my own washstrap company, because that was going to get very expensive real quickly. And I was like, yeah, man, I need to start this so I can have all these options at my disposal. Uh, am I missing anything? No, I don't think so. I think that's pretty much it, man. So that's, that's how I put my outfit together, man. Now, as far as the coat.

20:43
If it's in the fall and winter, doesn't really have anything to do with the suit, except of course, if I'm wearing a Navy suit, I'm not going to wear a Navy coat. Or if I'm wearing a brown suit, I'm not going to wear a coat that's the same shade, but everything else will go. And as far as my scarf, just which scarf I'm feeling that day. So that one has absolutely nothing to do with anything else. Because all my scarves have multiple colors, seven, eight, and

21:12
I don't pair those with anything really. So just what I'm feeling that day. Well, not that you heard exactly how I put my fits together. I definitely would like to hear the way that you do it. And I don't think there's a right or wrong answer assuming that you do it pretty quickly. Cause I don't think that we should spend a ton of time getting dressed. One thing that does piss me off at times, sometimes I just can't get the tie to be the right length or like the dimples not right. It's not unusual for me to tie my tie three or four times.

21:43
for me to get it right. Most of the time, it's just one time, but there are those days for whatever reason, your tie just won't look right. And you have to keep undoing it and tying it over. I hope I'm not the only one doing this. But yeah, man, hit me up on Instagram where I'm really most active at. Once again, my handle is @chace.ryder or you can hit me up on email.

22:12
vr@chaceandryder.com, vr@chaceandryder.com.

22:26
So this is a part of the podcast called, I got a story to tell. And sometimes it has something to do with menswear and other times it does not. And for episode 37, this one has nothing to do with menswear. It actually has to do with rap. I started to rap in 1994. I was a senior in high school. And you might be wondering, damn, that's really late for somebody to start to rap. Well, I was in 10th grade.

22:56
So I was only really here for two years when I decided to pick up the microphone, me and my guy, Legacee. Senior year in high school, towards the end of the senior year too, it was like the springtime and what did I start rapping is because I loved the music so much, you know, I used to stay up till five in the morning on Thursday nights, listening to WKCR, if you're a hip hop head back in that era.

23:25
Then you know what WKCR is or 89 Tech 9 as they used to call it, 89.9 FM. And that was a Stresh Armstrong and Bobbito show. And they used to play all the exclusive songs before they got on the main radio stations and they used to bring guys up there that were unsigned, like, you know, underground hip hop and they had Jay-Z on there, they had Big on there, they had Wu-Tang on there way before. There, there were.

23:55
what they became. So every Thursday night, there was a show, I think it was Martin Moore show. Actually, I don't know if that was his name, but that show was from like 11 to one, and then Babito's show was from one to five. I would listen to the whole thing and then have to go to school on Friday mornings. But yeah, really, really love rap. And...

24:24
I think it was a big girl freestyle that made me pick up the microphone. Like I heard big girl rap and I'm like, yo, I could do this, you know what I mean? I was witty, you know? So I was like, yeah, I can definitely do this. I told Legacee, I think we should start to rap. So that's how it started. So that was like in the spring of 1994, maybe a couple months before high school graduation. But I remember,

24:51
One of my friends, although I can't remember exactly which one of my friends, I want to say it's my man Robinson, but I'm not a hundred percent sure. But he took me to go battle this dude named Chi. Now Chi was one of the nice dudes in my town. So he took me, he's like, yo, I'm cool with Chi. I'm going to take you over there because I know you rapping now and stuff. So let's see it, you know, get cool. Let's do it. So we go to Chi's spot.

25:20
And Chi's there with another dude named Quest. And back then they were rapping together. So I got there, I didn't expect to be another dude there. I thought he was just going to be Chi, but next thing you know is Chi and Quest. And they jumped me, literally that is. All I remember was I did my little verse and then Chi looked at me and he goes, I'm coughing.

25:49
my style is older than your Jordans. I was like, oh shit, this is going to be a long night. So yeah, they jumped me that night, pause. And gave me the business, you know? I mean, they gave me love and, you know, told me I did my thing or whatever. For somebody that was only rapping for about three months, I have my own, but I definitely call it an L. And by the way, I'm still cool with Chi.

26:17
She's a realtor in New Jersey now, a realtor extraordinaire. So shout out to Chi. All love. So fast forward a couple months later, Legacy and I joined with two other dudes and we formed a group called Skills University. I wasn't the nicest in Skills University, but I like to think that I was the second nicest. The nicest was the dude that put the group together. The name is Lex. Actually, his name is D-Rymz. He still raps now. Don't ask me why he never blew up because

26:46
I don't know many guys that are nicer than him. You know, so my man D Rhymes, you can definitely check him out. I think he's heavy on TikTok. I like to think that I was the second nicest. Legacy and Type Nyce were also dope as hell, but the way that me and Lex Rhyme was more like a lot of punch lines, a lot of syllables, a lot of battle-type bars. So we were coming for your head when we were rap.

27:15
versus Legacy was more about the flows and the melodies, like his flow is bananas. And Type Nyce, although he could take it there as far as being aggressive, but he was definitely a bit more laid back, you know what I mean? But that's what made us so good because we all had different styles. Although me and Lex, once again, we were more of the confrontational style rappers, you know? But anyway, a couple of years went by, we actually had a deal by that time, a production deal.

27:47
And who do we run into? Chi. Well, well, well. Ha ha ha.

27:55
You know, we went to the movies and who's coming out of movies, man, Chi by himself. I was like, yo, Lex, get him.

28:07
I didn't even get to rap that day, bro, because those guys are the story of how those guys jumped me before. So when we saw Chi, I just tapped Lex, I'm like, yo, bro, get him. And all I remember was Lex saying, Lex is like a reincarnated rhinoceros. I make it hard to breathe like an umbrella in your esophagus. Yeah, that was the end of the battle.

28:36
Nothing else had to be said after that. Chi was like, nah, I'm not messing with him. So that's my story for today, man. After Chi and his men jumped me, I got Lex to take his head off in front of the movie theater. Shout out to Chi. Once again, we still mad cool. But yeah, Lex wasn't playing around that night. Oh, and by the way, Lex and I did a freestyle one time on a mixtape. It was DJ Sinister Shan.

29:05
And that was probably like 96. And we didn't even tell type and legacy that we were doing this freestyle. Because the way that he went down, I worked at Costco at the time. And Sinister Shan also worked at Costco. He was a DJ in our town that used to put out mixtapes. We started talking and he was like, you guys should jump on the mixtape. Because Lex used to work around the corner for me. So he would stop by when I'd be at work. So Lex came through.

29:33
And we started talking to Shani, he's like, yo, what you guys doing after work? We should go to the crib and lay freestyle down. So we didn't even tell Legacy and Type Nice that we did the freestyle until the mixtape came out. And we were just playing the mixtape and then our voice just started coming through the speakers. So that was a great moment. And the month after that, we all did the freestyle together on the tape, but we just wanted to surprise them with that freestyle. If you guys can get your hand on that tape.

30:01
Actually, that's almost impossible to really do that, because I don't even remember that.

30:07
And if I can ever get my hand on that tape, obviously I'm not going to find it here. I'm sure it's in my basement somewhere, but I'm still cool with Shan on Facebook. So I think he moved to Virginia or something. I'll reach out to him to see if he still has it. And if he has it, I'll put it out. But man, me and Lex going back and forth on that mixtape, legendary.

30:35
So crazy that some of the dudes that I used to work with, they didn't know it was me. Because when I worked at Costco at first, I didn't even really tell anybody that I rapped. So there was a few guys that I was cool with in there, they never knew that it was me, until Shen told them like, yo, that's him. Because those guys used to play that freestyle all the time. Like I had so many guys come up to me and was like, yo bro, I play this shit every day. So yeah, we really killed that one and hopefully I can get my hand on it.

31:04
a crazy freestyle, man. But don't get your hopes up because I don't think that's the thing. We're talking about, once again, that was like in 96. So almost 30 years ago. But man, what a freestyle that was. So thanks for tuning in to number 37, how I put my outfit together. Come back again next week for another fire episode of I'm Not A Gentleman. Peace.

31:37
Outro music: Back in that bag, in that bag, again
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Tell 'em to watch it...