Check out Part 1 here.

I’ve had a few requests to share my Every Day Carry items. You can tell a lot about a man by what he prioritizes keeping with him at all times. So here you go.

1. Cross Ball-Point Pen – I’ve found that carrying around a pen that’s a little nicer than the Bic options we all had in high school makes me more inclined to keep track of it. This isn’t some $300 beauty, but even losing a $10 pen is annoying.

2. Moleskin Graph Paper Notebook – I use this to keep track of to-do lists, my gym regimen for the week, and other assorted notes. Nothing fancy, just nice and simple.

3. Browning Pocket Knife – It should be no surprise that I carry one of these. A knife is one of my Staples. This guy is sleek and simple with just a single blade that comes in under 3″. It’s enough to accomplish most tasks without taking up too much real estate in my pocket.

4. Bersa .380 Thunder. Yes it’s only a .380, but – as the saying goes – “the weapon you carry has more stopping power than the one you leave at home”. I’ve chosen to sacrifice a bit of size for the sake of better concealability with my current style. This is still enough to keep me and my family safe (although I hope I never have to pull the trigger outside of the range).

5. Watch – Today it’s the DW that I reviewed just a few weeks back, but I always wear one.

6. White Linen Handkerchief – This was relatively useful when I was single, saw more use after I got married, and is a daily necessity now that I’m a father. I rarely need it myself, but it sees use almost daily.

7. Chester Mox Wallet – This is a new one they just sent me for review and I’m loving it (if you want to see more of their products, check out this review). Though slim and unobtrusive, it allows me to carry cards, ID’s, and some cash.

8. iPhone – A smartphone almost goes without saying – especially when my business is centered around the Internet.

9. Business Cards – I have a few for Masculine Style and some for Beckett & Robb on me at all times. I never know when I’ll make a good connection and want to quickly exchange information. It’s uncanny how much more perceived legitimacy it offers as well.

The only way I can carry all of this and not have my pants bulging in all sorts of unseemly places is by always wearing a jacket or blazer. I’ll get rid of the pen and notebook when I’m going a bit more casual.

So what do you carry?

Throughout the many conversations I’ve had with different men, I’ve noticed two statements that seem to contradict each other. The first is that your clothing should act like a picture frame – it compliments the man wearing it but doesn’t draw attention to itself. The other is that clothing is one of the best ways to stand out from the crowd.

It would be easy to say that different men have different philosophies in regards to the proper function of a man’s wardrobe, but I’ve made both of these statements myself and have heard plenty of other men do the same. What, on the surface, may seem like cognitive dissonance could actually be a consistent philosophy, it just needs to be applied in the appropriate environment.

For example, there’s a big difference between, “Hey that’s a great shirt” and “Hey you look great today.” Both can be desirable reactions but, in the wrong setting, hearing one or the other can be a negative instead of a positive.

Hey you look great today

This summarizes the ideal appearance when a man’s clothing enhances and communicates who he is, as opposed to drawing attention to itself. These are the kinds of compliments you receive when you make a subtle change and no one can pinpoint what it is – a clean haircut, a suit that fits better, a subtle tan, or even an improvement after a few consistent weeks at the gym.

The ideal scenario for this approach is when you want your character, your ideas, or anything else that is more internal to take center stage. This is the ideal approach when you’re going to a job interview, a day at the office, a funeral, someone else’s wedding, a court hearing or trial, or a religious service.

All of the above are scenarios in which it is a social faux pas to draw too much attention to yourself through your clothing and/or grooming. There are things more important than you as an individual man to which people are paying attention and you do yourself more harm than good by taking attention away from the task or person at hand and drawing it to yourself.

For a visual representation of this approach, check out Don Draper.

The style world references him a lot but that’s because he epitomizes a lot of the good and the bad of modern, urban masculinity. Draper has a uniform. 90% of the time he’s at work he’s in a white shirt, grey suit, and conservative tie. In fact, I’d have to rack my brain to really think of a specific tie the man has ever worn. While Draper’s uniform is a part of his overall presence and appearance, it falls into the background. Both the people around him and the audience pay much more attention to his facial expressions, the words coming out of his mouth, and his actions than they do to the details of his shoes or his pocket square.

So how do you accomplish this? It’s pretty basic and there are just a few things to keep in mind.

Wear solid colors or extremely minimal patterns. A bold, Gordon-Gekko-striped shirt is going to attract attention to itself, whereas a white button up won’t get a second thought. Same goes for suits, shoes, and ties. If at any time you find yourself thinking, “This ______ looks so cool” then it’s probably going to be too flashy to serve as a background piece. No one gets excited about buying solid white and blue shirts, but they serve a vital role in a man’s wardrobe.

Choose simple, complementary palettes. Colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel provide a stronger contrast and, therefore, demand more attention from the person seeing them. Choose colors that are similar to each other. If you have a stronger contrast between your skin and hair tones remember that pairing white with dark shades (charcoal, navy, black) can provide adequate contrast while still avoiding anything that’s screaming for attention.

You will also want to choose colors that are more commonly seen on men in your environment. You may think you’re playing it safe by wearing a red shirt, with a burgundy suit, and brown tie simply because the colors are similar. However, in no time in recent history has red been considered a conservative color. Stick with grey, navy, and charcoal for starters. If you want to expand you can move to black and brown but that’s it.

Wear minimal or no accessories. A wedding ring (if that’s your flavor) and possibly a watch. When you start to move into flashy cuff links, lapel pins, tie bars, additional finger rings, or other accoutrements, you’ll begin to draw attention towards those items and away from yourself. Keep it simple and minimal.

Lastly, you’ll want to dress appropriately for the occasion. If you dress either too far down or too far up, people start to pay attention to you. A simple, every day example of this is a job interview. There’s a reason no one recommends you wear jeans and a T or a tuxedo when you’re trying to get hired – both may get you remembered more than the sea of applicants in simple suits, but they’ll also peg you as an attention seeker who has no grasp of subtlety or nuance.

Part 2 covers the fundamentals of when and how you should dress in a way that your clothing calls attention to itself.

If you’ve spent any time online in the world of men’s style, you’re most likely aware of Antonio over at Real Men Real Style. He’s the go-to guy for style advice at the Art of Manliness, runs his own tailored-suit company, and has one of the largest and most expansive You Tube channels available to men who want to dress better.

Recently he came out with a visual guide for all the details in how a suit should properly fit (the image above is an excerpt from that guide). He nails almost everything and I wanted to share it with my readers so you guys would be able to have a quick and handy reference the next time you’re either buying a suit off the rack or commissioning a custom option.

However, there is one method he uses with which I take some issue. His is a common mistake but it’s one that can make or break the overall appearance of a suit or jacket.

What I’m referring to is his guidepost by which to judge the length of a jacket. Antonio functions on the old rule that the end of the jacket should fall between the first and second knuckle of the thumb. While this may be an accurate measuring rubric for the man whose arms are perfectly within proportion of both his torso and his legs, it will leave the length of the jacket either too short or too long for a man whose arms either resemble a gorilla (like me) or a T-rex.

One of the best things about men’s clothing is that it can be used to accentuate our strengths, mitigate our weaknesses, or balance out our misproportions.

A more accurate way to gauge the proper length of a jacket is by one simple rule – the jacket should always cover the seat.

The ideal aesthetic is accomplished when the distance from the top of the jacket to the bottom is the same as from the bottom of the jacket to the bottom of the shoes, as shown in the above illustration from Alan Flusser’s “Style and the Man.”

With disproportionate arms, this balance between legs and torso is more easily accomplished by measuring the jacket length in relation to the glutes. In layman’s terms – as long as the ass is covered, you’re good.

While this is the gold standard for the correct length, it’s also subject to current trends and the individual man’s tastes.

If you look at old jackets from the 90’s and early 2000’s, they are offensively long. But, that’s what was considered to be stylish at the time.

Contrast that against today’s trendy look of a super-cropped jacket that barely reaches the waist and you’ll see that this will also be considered ridiculous in a few years time.

It is better to embrace these trends in moderation. So ten years ago a man could have nodded to the longer-jacket aesthetic by having his made an inch longer than the bottom of his glutes, whereas today we can take advantage of the shortness trend by going an inch higher. Either one of these still keeps the jacket within the acceptable range of a timeless fit, without eschewing the fashion of the day.

This is only applicable if your goal is to avoid appearing trendy – a goal I recommend if you’re spending a decent amount of money on a suit or a sportcoat. However, if you’re dropping a little money at Target, H&M, Zara, or the equivalent and want to appear as fashion forward as you can, then go for the shorter, tighter jacket.