How To Dress Well In Your 40s and Beyond | Men's Style Over 40

I would like to believe as I'm sure many of us would that as you get older your style improves you age gracefully you work out you watch what you eat maybe you get some salt-and-pepper hair and magically you're supposed to have better style right completely wrong I'm 41 years old and I can tell you from experience that it is not magic it takes some effort to develop better style although I'm over 40 age is not something that I've addressed specifically on the channel before though it is something I'm interested in talking more about and helping you guys who are out there over 40 in your 50s maybe 60 develop a better style as you age what's up guys I'm Bryan Sakawa you're watching he spoke style and today we are talking about tips for dressing well as you get older first tip is not a tip per se it's more of pointing out something that I see a lot of guys doing that if they fix it could make a tremendous impact immediately and that is you are not in college anymore do not dress like you are I see guys in their 30s 40s 50s dressing like they are still in college so what do I mean the college looked for me at least back in my day was the jeans or khakis that were too long possibly too wide that would get caught under the heel of your shoe and get frayed not a good look even if you're in college when you grow up buy a pair of pants that are the right length if you need to get them tailored take them to the tailor now what else am I talking about untucked dress shirts flip-flops sandals as daily wear College t-shirt or sweatshirt or hat all the time you know maybe on the weekend that's fine if your home just casual basically what this is is on some level trying to look younger by dressing the way you did when you were younger maybe trying to recapture those glory days you know or you just haven't evolved whichever one it is you know that was 15 20 25 years ago you've grown up it's time for your style to grow up to now how do you do that I'm not saying you need to go out and buy a suit and dress in suits all the time because not everyone needs to wear a suit on a daily basis but I do think you need to own at least one nice suit Navy or gray for an occasion you have to look nice that I think you should definitely have a sport coat as well definitely a few nice dress shirts some cotton trousers some wool trousers we can do another video at some point where I lay out a basic wardrobe upgrade but for now for clarity sake for this video I'm gonna suggest we move that discussion down to the comments so we can get to the next item on the list which is to dress your body listen our bodies change as we get older if you've put on some extra pounds wearing tighter clothes is not gonna make you look younger it's gonna make you look fat so you need to dress your body appropriately now what that means is to wear clothes that fit you that's where having a good tailor comes in handy a good tailor or a good made-to-measure or a bespoke suit company will hide your flaws if you don't like having flaws go to the gym eat better drink more water put the time and effort into yourself you know just like if you want to dress better you have to put time and effort into that as well the right fit for your age really depends on your body type if you're slim you can get away with a more tapered leg maybe just a slight break if you're not then a fuller cut is gonna look better on you it doesn't matter that you like the way the model and the magazine looks most of us don't have bodies like that and we need to make adjustments accordingly next thing is not related to clothes at all it's related to personal grooming and that is to make sure that you pay attention to it you know it's one of the things that you have control of that can really make a big difference especially in making you look younger when you go to the barber have them trim your eyebrows up it's it's magic you know you instantly look younger pay attention to your nose hair and your ear hair I don't know what it is hair starts to come out of those places and and you don't want to be that disgusting old guy with hair coming out of his nose and ears so get some little scissors get a grooming tool take care of it make it part of your routine and keep up with it next is to avoid street wear or any kind of overt branding there are definitely a handful of older guys that can pull this look off Nick Wooster for one but I think for the rest of us mortals it's best to leave the fashion for the younger guys unless of course you want to look like Ali G which is a reference that most certainly dates me next thing to talk about is footwear specifically sneaker now just because you're older doesn't mean that you have to wear a suit and dress shoes all the time sneakers are definitely okay but they have to be the right kind of sneakers basically the biggest thing is that you want to avoid wearing your athletic shoes when you are trying to dress nicely so here's a good example of what I'd call a grown-up casual look it's all basics button-down shirt with a classic Levi's sweatshirt suede jacket pair of chinos and sneakers but notice that the sneakers aren't athletic shoes they're clean they're minimal there's no logo they are sneakers that I would call age-appropriate in your 30s 40s 50s these particular shoes are by common projects now I'm not saying you need to invest in a pair of common projects there are a lot of great options out there like MJ my greats etc find a minimal pair of sneakers that fits your budget and pull the trigger now regarding casual wear I will say that dressing casual as an adult is a little tricky like how do you take casual staples like t-shirts jeans sweatshirts and so on and make them age-appropriate when they're worn by pretty much all ages especially younger guys now as much as I would love to tell you that there is a simple formula you can follow that's just not the case and there are a lot of examples of older guys who do casual really well alessandro squirty in his 50s and you can't tell me he doesn't look awesome in his trademark jeans military jackets and waistcoats similarly my friend John Paolo a yachtie looks amazing in a suit of course but he also knows a thing or two about rock and a leather bomber hoodie and white sneakers in every case what I will say is that it's important to pay attention to the details and the fit one little bonus tip is to invest in a quality casual jacket easy pick a simple leather bomber more advanced maybe something in suede wool or corduroy thinking about fabrics and textures when it comes to outerwear is a great mature style move now as I mentioned there are no hard and fast rules here just like any quote-unquote rules of style use these as guidelines but also remember to go with your gut and use a little common sense leave your comments below thumbs up if you found this video helpful don't forget to subscribe and until next time thanks for watching [Music]