Fashion Over 40

Buying the same shoe in three colors because it doesn’t hurt your feet

Your clothes are telling a story before you ever say a word and after 40, that story hits different. We’re coming off a self-care week and a night out at a cigar bar, where one truth is impossible to ignore: smoke, setting, and comfort all matter, so you can’t dress the way you used to and expect the same results. I talk through what I wore, why I wore it, and how choosing the right fabrics and fit can keep you looking sharp without feeling stiff or restricted.

Then we get into the real heart of it: men’s fashion over 40 is built on simple, repeatable wardrobe essentials. I’m talking black and brown shoes, black and brown belts, a dependable color palette, and the kind of basics that let you create multiple outfits without buying a new closet every season. We also touch on classic style advice like the “core suits and shirts” approach, why it still works, and how you can adapt it for today’s smart casual world.

You’ll also hear the generational clash that sparked this whole conversation my son sees my style as “old man-ish,” and his comment that I looked like I was “going to church” had me wondering if I got a compliment or a backhanded shot. If you care about confidence, comfort, and looking put together without chasing trends, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share with a friend who needs a wardrobe reset, and leave a review. Was that “church clothes” line a compliment or not?

Family, friends, frenemies, pull up. This is your invitation to laugh, reflect, and speak your truth. No edits. No filters. Just grown-folk conversation. New episodes every week. Your comments shape the show. #unscriptedafter40 

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Transcript

Self-Care Weekend And Cigar Smoke

SPEAKER_00 0:13

So, in the efforts of taking care of myself, I realized that I have done a good job this week. So I went to a bar, a cigar bar, to be a Zach. And as you can see, my beautiful hair got cigarette smoke in it. So for those of you that are not watching on YouTube, I'm ball headed. So I really got no cigar smoke in my hair. It just got in my clothes. But I realized that, you know, when preparing to go to a cigar bar, you better get ready for the smoke. If you ain't ready for that smoke, don't don't don't go in the kitchen, baby. That's what I tell you. But welcome to another episode of Unstripted After 40. So, like I tell you, in the efforts of taking care of myself, I realized that, you know, you just can't go out there and just keep, you know, bang your body, bang your body. You got to relax it sometimes. So that's why I decided to do this weekend is relax my body and go to a cigar bar. Now, interesting. We're gonna get back to the real part of what

The Frog Quarter Bar Game

SPEAKER_00 1:25

my story is gonna be about. But as I start, one of the fun games that I did play in the cigar bar, if y'all never tried before, so you get like five or six quarters, you walk back maybe 10 to 15 feet, and then at the end of that 10 to 15 feet, it's a frog with his mouth open, right? Now, your job is to take that quarter and chuck it and get it into the frog mouth. And my let me see, kind of explanation, it's kind of like playing darts. That's what it is. It's like playing darts, but it's a European game, that's what I've been told. I haven't looked it up. So if those of y'all that's please don't eat me alive, okay? I I think it's a European game, I don't, I'm not sure. But it's like I say, it's a frog, and then you go back 15 feet, 15, I think 10 to 15 feet, and you take quarters and you try to chuck the quarters into the frog mouth. And it's a bullfrog, so the it's kind of big. I don't know if y'all ever seen a bullfrog in person. A bullfrog, if you ball your fist up, average-sized fist, like an average-sized man fist or woman fist, it is about big as that, most bullfrogs. So it's it's kind of a fun game, but that that's not what I came to tell you about, okay? Now, as I said, I went and got ready to go. Well, I didn't tell you I'd get

Getting Dressed After 40

SPEAKER_00 2:55

ready, so that's where you get the story. This is why I need to sometime ride a strip. This unstripped it, I tell you, boy, it gets you sometimes. But anyway, um, dressing or getting ready for a club these days as an over 40 person is different. You know, back when I was younger, I had the wardrobe, the wardrobe to dress for anything. And my wardrobe these days is still, you know, let me see, extensive, may say. I still maybe got a shirt like my daughter said that I had for like almost 15 years, but it still fits. It still looks good. I think I should be able to keep it in my closet. So, you know what? She'll be alright. But the kicker for this, as I was preparing myself to get ready, I brought my son in and I was talking to him while I was getting ready and picking up my clothes. He pointed out something that I didn't realize that now that he said it, it's gonna stick with me into the rest of my days. But if you haven't noticed, or most of y'all

A Simple Color Palette

SPEAKER_00 4:05

haven't met me, I have a simple wardrobe. I realize that you stick with certain colors. And with me being that I'm dark skinned, I don't wear like bright yellow. That just is gonna work out for me. I usually kind of stay with the darker tone color, you know, light tone colors, not bright and essential. So you will never see me wearing a neon green shirt or a you know, bright, bright orange shirt. It's no, no, maybe burnt orange or something like that, but that that's that's about the brightest you're gonna get me out here in these streets, okay, when it comes to fashion. And that's what we're gonna talk about this week, right here. Fashion over 40, okay? Now, as my son pointed out, within my closet, my shoes, which I buy them in pairs, which most people should buy their shoes in pairs. I've been doing this way before I've turned 40. I believe that, right? If you have a blight pair, you need a brown pair. It's just like a belt. You need a black belt, you need a brown belt. To me, that is the basis of wardrobe, of dressing, period. You got to have the basic colors so that you can branch out and go to all those other elaborate colors that most people like wearing. Not me, but other people, you know. So if I want to wear, you know, that um banana color suit, like back in

Black And Brown Basics

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Dick Tracy, and I know y'all know who Dick Tracy is. If not, look him up. Um, or the mask with Jim Carrey, those suits and stuff, color coordinate. Back when, you know, I I'm gonna, I don't, I'm not gonna, I'm gonna mess the dates up, but back when, you know, uh Michael Max during that time frame, the 60s and 70s, they used to call this thing called zoot suits, right? And when you wear a zoot suit, you came out to dress and press. It's just like the roaring 20s, you know. Back then, most men and women, when they came out the house, they came dressed to a press. They wear a suit. The women wear a nice, beautiful skirt, form-fitting, of course, with some flowers, maybe. You know, the men come out with a nice suit, and like I say, they go that European slim. That's what it is, but you know, but as we move up into today's world, you know, comfortability is a thing. Now, me after 40, yes, I do like to be comfortable. I will find me some shoes that fit my feet in comfortability. Like right now, I'm in the Birkenstock era, okay, because Birkenstock fits my arches for my feet, and it makes my feet feel good. So that's the where I'm at right now. But as I'm rambling, I'm let me get back to my story, okay? So the fashion sense over 40, for most of us over 40, we believe that still to this day, like I was talking about the Raging 20s, when we step out the house, we have to step out the house, you know, fashion ready. I'm not gonna go out the house to go to any place in some jogging pants and just a t-shirt. Yes, I know the irony. I am shooting this podcast for those that seen on YouTube in a t-shirt and a hat. My head cold, my head cold. But when I go out, I wear a nice hat. You know, I wear a button-up shirt, I wear some slacks or some jeans with a nice pair of shoes. I go out to look good. My son, on the other hand, he goes out with some freaking uh new balances, which nothing's wrong with new balances, but if you're wearing new balances that 80-year-olds wear, that's a problem, okay? He shouldn't be wearing that. He's in his early 20s. Matter of fact, he just hit his 20s.

Comfort Meets Looking Sharp

SPEAKER_00 8:10

He should be dressing better than that, okay? He got like an oversized shirt with some oversized jeans, I guess. Uh look here, that that's the way you want to dress, that's the way the kids dress. And I kind of figure it's just not him. It's all of them, okay? So to me, I'm thinking like, where I went wrong as a parent. Because he sees my entourable of clothes that I wear when I go out, and I was hoping that he would somewhat pick up my style. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like that. Apparently, he thinks my style is old man-ish. Because, like I said, he came to my closet, he said that why you got two of the same shoes, but one in a black and a brown, and that I went through this spill with him. I say, you know, the basis of fashion dressing, you got to have the basic colors to build off of. It used to be this thing back in the day where they tell you about a suit, right? So they say you need a black suit, um blue suit, and a beige suit or a like dark brown. You know, I can't do beige, you know, I'ma I'ma I'ma get like a dark brown color. And then you need a white shirt, a blue shirt, a black shirt, right? And then little combinations, you can come up with multiple um outfits with just those suits. And y'all can look that up. Like I said, it is Steve Harvey came out with it. That's who Steve Harvey came out with it, and said if you get these colored suits, you better wear so many suits. And y'all see the way Steve Harvey dressed up in his suits, he looked fly all the time. Not saying I'm no Steve Harvey, but I do look fly when I go out. Okay, so um, but getting ready to go to the cigar bar, like I say, I didn't wear a suit. Um I'm not in the suit age. I realized that I have to tailor my style to where I think. But I did wear some nice khakis, okay? Um, now they got these khakis that um that got scratched, like the golf khakis. That was the golf, I call them the golf pants because they're flexible. They like some like tights, but you know, they like khaki style, they wrinkle resistant, water resistant, stuff that because I knew I was gonna go someplace that was smoky. And I want me a nice button-down, you know, the scratchy one, because I lift weights now, you know, I'm getting bigger. I make sure my clothes, I can move my clothes, because you know, although I want to look good, I want to be fashionable and comfortable. Fashionable and comfortable. That is the key to when you're out the 40. That's why I start back saying, you know, the Birkin stocks. So got dressed, he done read meal by it, came out. He said, Man, you look good, like you were getting ready to go to church. I say, you know what? I know, I know I do look good. What? What do you mean I'm getting ready to go to church? So, so it I don't know if it was a compliment or a backhand comment. I I I'm trying to figure out, I'm still wrapping my mind around it. So, those in the comments, please let me know what you think it was. Because I'm a little confused. I I pretty much think you'll mess with me, okay? I think he'll give me a backhand comment. But like I was saying, I went out and like I said, went to the cigar bar and had a great time, okay? Besides the smoke, like I said, I used to smoke cigars back in the day, but now I don't smoke. And the cigar smoke in the bars be thick. So, like I said, I don't smoke or drink, so no more, period. But I wanted to go out with some friends since you know I did good this

How My Style Changed Over Time

SPEAKER_00 11:55

week and had a good time. And then thinking about to myself as I was going out, how my fashion sense as me as a male over 40 has evolved from when I was a teenager from talking with my kids. So I like to say, when I was younger, I used to wear, and I think I said this before, I think when I was in middle school, so I had to wear white, I wore the white t-shirts with the blue jeans and the cutoff. That that was the thing back then with some Nikes, you know. You had some Air Max's, okay? The Airfax, the Air Max in 95, you know, they came back, you know. And when I went to high school, you know, I started going to, you know, wearing jeans and slacks with the polo shirts, you know, with the nice collar stuff with all the different colors now. Not the bright colors, just all the different colors. And even though I didn't have, I say polo style shirts. I didn't say polo, okay. So let's keep that clear. I I we had that much money for me to get no polo. I only wear polo now. Shoot, polo costs money. Um, but the polo shirt, you know, but back then, even then, I know that you have a black belt, a brown belt. And even though I wore um, I didn't wear, let me see, I don't think I wore sneakers that much. No, I didn't wear sneakers that much. But I wore, you know, dress style shoes. They wasn't like penny loafers, and which I did have some pen loafers. Now, pen loafers was the jam back then, which I had back then a black pear and a brown pear. Now, I couldn't change the penny to be black or brown. I should have painted the penny to make it black. So I'm about I'm gonna bring it back. I'm gonna bring back penny loafers, and we're gonna keep going. I know I can look good and thing. But I am gonna move to loafers. So for all of you out there that's over 40, you know, take that style and for this week or a couple things, I'm gonna post some pictures of me, you know, dressed up looking nice. I'm gonna snap in the window, you know kids do. But I know over 40, we are killing the dress game. And like I say, all start with the basic, like I told my son. So if you out there and you already know the basis of dressing, and you're dressing fly over 40 when you stepping out that house, because I know you are, I see y'all out there. Like I said, when I was in Sigar Bar, I seen I seen no cats out there. I think I seen one cat had a bow tie that

Closing Thoughts And Style Challenge

SPEAKER_00 14:20

was made out of real feathers. Goose feathers to be a Zach. So hands down, I didn't know they made bow ties with goose feathers. Because I'm not a bow tie guy. I wear a tie every now and then, but I'm not really a tie guy. I want to feel restrained. So, but for all of you out there, oh for you looking good, keep it up.