One of the biggest problems that exists in the space of men’s style – whether you’re brand new to the game and trying to find basic advice on YouTube, or you’re well steeped in the culture and can snob out with the best of them on Style Forum – is that the vast majority of men focus on a tactical approach.

By this I mean, all they seem to care about is rules and examples. There’s very little discussion about aesthetic goals, strategies, and objectives.

It’s a mindset that may be preventing you from really improving your style and, if you don’t change it, you may never get better.

Click HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Why Your Style Never Improves

Click HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Why Your Style Never Improves

Tactics vs Strategies

Understanding this approach to life will not only help you improve your style, it can make your career, hobbies, dating, family life, and personal progress all level up.

Let me give you an example.

My goal with Masculine Style is to run a great business. This consists of a few major objectives:

• Love what I do and be pushed and stimulated by it
• Create great, helpful, unique content and programs for you
• Provide a wonderful living for my family

Each of these objectives has their own strategies that involve things like posting to YouTube and other social media, having courses, coaching, and membership pages to really help you guys improve your style, and monetize my experience and knowledge so I can better provide for you and my family.

If we dive down into the the YouTube strategy then we can focus on simple tactics like:

• Post videos on Tuesday and Thursday
• Improve videography to make content that’s more entertaining than just a talking head (unless it’s a video like today’s where that purpose isn’t served)
• Purchase and use quality equipment like cameras, microphones, lights, and editing software
• Continue to learn from other successful YouTubers and figure out how they’ve grown their channels

Now, if I were to want to improve Masculine Style and the only thing I ever paid attention to were articles and ideas on making better YouTube videos, I’d be missing the boat.

Maybe my videos are great but the reason my business isn’t growing like it should is because I’m not treating my newsletter list correctly, or because I should be focusing more on the book, or because not enough people like a philosophical approach to style and I should try something different.

But if the only way to make my business succeed on YouTube is to do listicles and top 5’s on style, then having a YouTube objective detracts from one of my larger goals of enjoying what I do for a living.

It’s only by seeing the full picture that I’m able to assess each goal, mission, strategy, and tactic and then determine if they’re working together harmoniously.

A Tactical Approach to Style

If you’re a 40-year-old dad who’s making headway in his company and wants to improve there, your goal is very different from a 20-year-old who’s only concern is an outfit that’s going to help him get laid this weekend.

Because those goals are different, the tactics will likely also be different. So if all you focus on is the five outfits you should be wearing this spring – as told by other content creators or threads on different forums, you may end up compromising your mission instead of seeing it succeed.

It’s why I don’t focus on or answer questions like, “What are the best places to buy clothes?” or “Where do I find the best deal on quality shirts?” Where do you live? What do you do for a work? What’s your Archetype, your Tribe? What story are you trying to tell? What’s your budget? How big of a wardrobe do you want?

The answers to all of those questions will have a HUGE impact on my ability to tell you where to buy clothes or where to find a great deal on quality.

Everything is dependent on context. And if you don’t think about your tactics within the context of mission, objectives, strategies, and goals, then you may very well be metaphorically sending your squad directly into an ambush.

Tactics & Dependence

The other problem with focusing on a tactical approach is that it leaves you unable to adapt. If all you know is how to execute on orders given from your favorite influencer, you’ll be in big trouble as soon as the goals or terrain change.

If you don’t learn how to think strategically, you’ll always be dependent on said influencer to give you style advice.

One of the more common questions I get is why do my coaching, courses, and other paid methods on the site cost so much more than what other bloggers charge. The answer is that my programs are designed to render myself obsolete. By working with me one-on-one or within a group setting, you become aesthetically independent and won’t have to rely on me or other influencers anymore.

Whether you take the time to do it yourself or learn it from me, taking a strategic approach to your style, rather than a tactical one, is the ultimate way to not only dress intentionally and well regardless of the situation, but it also mentally frees you up to focus on more important aspects of your life.

Being thrown a curveball like what to wear when your wife is giving birth, you’re testifying in court, or receiving an award no longer require Google searches because you understand the goals and objectives and know which strategies and tactics to implement in order to accomplish them.

This post is a response to one of the most common questions I get.

And it’s a great question because it shows that you guys take the concepts I bring up here and on the YouTube channel and take them even deeper.

It’s all related to the Archetypes – which if you haven’t taken the quiz, go do that and get an idea of where we’re coming from with this whole post.

Click HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Moving Beyond Style Archetypes

Click HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Moving Beyond Style Archetypes

The Limitations

The Three Archetypes were never intended to be the only thing you needed in order to figure how you should be dressing. They’re too broad, too all encompassing to help you narrow down what your own personal style should be.

This is especially the case when you factor in that most men are a mixture of at least two, if not all three Archetypes. It’s incredibly rare that someone is entirely Rugged, Refined, or Rakish.

For example, I fall primarily into the Refined category with a strong dose of Rakish and a tiny bit of Rugged. So for me to only dress according to the Refined Archetype is actually missing some of the story I want to (and should) be telling.

A bunch of you have taken that quiz multiple times and gotten different results with only a minor tweak or two to your answers. Or you’ve been surprised by the result you got because you went into it expecting something completely different. And, believe it or not, that’s a great thing. It shows that you’re well-rounded and not just all Rugged, all Refined, or all Rakish.

Think of the Archetype is a big, encompassing umbrella. It catches a lot of the elements of dressing well, but there are smaller segmentations within it.

Tribe

Tribe is the next step down. Let me show you what I mean.

Those four photos all fit within the Rugged Archetype incredibly well. But, the men who are dressed that way would all argue that they’re dressed differently and that they belong to different tribes.

There are a ton of differences between a survivalist and a cowboy or a granola and someone in the military. Yes they all interact with the world physically – but thats the last common denominator.

To argue that there’s some sort of uniform or universal approach to style for all men who fall into that Rugged Archetype is limiting and doesn’t factor in all the nuances that ultimately end up being communicated through our clothing.

Combining Archetypes

So let’s take this a step further. Imagine you fall between the Rugged and Refined Archetypes. Does that mean that the right approach for you is to where something along the lines of old British tweed hunting suits?

Because you’re more Refined than Rugged and your Tribe is one that falls within that sphere of classic menswear. Yes you enjoy doing things outdoors but you should be doing them with a nod to the way classic, distinguished, elite gentlemen used to do them?

Does it mean that you should be more of like a Bay Area/Huckberry Rugged?

That you should be wearing rugged tech gear that’s made very effectively, has good, clean lines, and in a modern, urban environment would look more Refined and dignified?

Or maybe you do something that’s more like Boyd Crowder from Justified.

He was certainly Rugged – having a background in coal mining and running a criminal gang based out of trailers and hollers in rural Kentucky.

Crowder used Rugged elements in his wardrobe to keep in touch with the men he was leading but introduced Refined articles to help set him apart as a leader and give him the opportunity to rub shoulders with others who weren’t on the bottom rungs of the social ladder.

More Than Archetype

These examples are why you can’t just think in terms of Archetype. You can’t just say I’m Rugged or I’m Rakish and believe that’s as deep as you need to go. There are so many different expressions of each of those Archetypes that you can’t believe simply knowing that is enough.

That is why Tribe matters.

If you find yourself at this plateau of knowing your Archetype but feeling like that’s not telling your story well enough – move down into tribe. Think about what the people around you wear and why. Think about how you can implement elements of each of your tribes into a look that works for you. Dive deeper than just the rules and simple Archetypes.

Sound off in the comments below and let me know if you’ve used this concept already. Are you a combination of Archetypes and struggling to find ways to combine them? Are there specific styles that work within the tribes that you belong to and do you reject or accept them? Let me know!

One of the most common concepts in the world of menswear is the pursuit of timeless style.

And it’s all one, big false god.

The whole concept is impossible and is based on a goal that we shouldn’t even be pursuing.

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Timeless Style is Impossible

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Timeless Style is Impossible

Set & Forget

The goal most of us are after is being able to establish our style and then leave it alone to focus on more important things.

It’s a great goal and is based on a very real understanding that style is not anywhere near the top of a man’s priorities – nor should it be.

But, it’s a terrible goal too, because it’s based on the belief that somehow your style doesn’t require any maintenance or effort – that once you have it well-established, you can completely remove any focus on it.

And there’s four main reasons why this approach doesn’t work.

Clothing is Destructible

Reason number one is easy – your clothing is going to wear out. It’s a fact of life and one that can’t be avoided – even if you’re buying the most durable, high-quality stuff.

At some point, you’re going to blow out a crotch, get an irremovable stain, burn through an elbow, or experience some other unrepairable problem and will need to replace your clothing.

So don’t think that your most recent trip to the store is going to be your last. At some point, that wonderful new item you just picked up is going to need to be replaced.

Your Body Changes

When you read that you probably think about bigger guys trying to shed a few pounds or skinny guys attempting to bulk up a bit. Yes, both of those are true and they are real-world scenarios for a lot of men.

In fact, one of the most common questions I get from guys is whether or not they should be investing in their wardrobe when they’re in the middle of a physical transformation (the answer is yes, just buy cheaper stuff to get you through until you land where you want to be).

But even if you love the shape you’re in, your body is going to change. It’s called aging and, even if you do it incredibly well, you won’t look the same at 45 as you do at 25, and 65 is going to be a whole different ball game.

Body changes aren’t bad, unless you give up and allow them to happen in a negative way. But, they’re  a part of life and will affect the way your clothing fits.

Styles Change

Yes the suit has been around for centuries and has seen very minor changes in a hundred years. Yes most of our casual wear is still derived from WWII clothing and has changed little since then but styles change – on both a micro and a macro scale.

On a micro scale you can see why different trends and style emerge within each decade. The attitudes and priorities of Western society go through shifts and part of those changes are what we wear. Sure a powder blue suit from the 1970’s is more similar to what we wear today than something worn by George Washington, but it’s still going to look incredibly out-of-place if you show up wearing one.

Being aware of those small changes and learning how to navigate them properly – balancing fitting in with standing out and other variables are all part of being socially fluent and are status displays in any culture.

But take it out even further. Showing up in a perfectly cut toga, one that would have been the pinnacle of refinement and taste at the height of the Roman empire isn’t going to look good in a boardroom or a shared workspace. No one is going to see that as an appropriate throwback to a different time and something that should be considered as a viable choice when improving your wardrobe. You’re just going to look like an idiot.

You Should Change

The last reason timeless style is a Siren is also the most important. Once you understand that the way you look is a major component of your branding and the story of your life, you won’t want your style to remain stagnant.

You should be living your life in a way that you’re happy with and proud of who you are today. And, you should also be living your life in a way that you’ll be a different person in five years. You shouldn’t be able to look back five years from now and see the same person. You should have grown, improved, and changed over that time.

You story should be different. And, if it’s different, you’re doing yourself a disservice if your style hasn’t evolved with you.

There should be a monstrous difference between how you dress when you’re 25 and when you’re 65. You’ve accomplished things, made sacrifices, and hopefully come out on the other side of many of your ambitions from when you were younger. The story you tell the world should reflect all of those changes!

As I look over the last six years that I’ve written Masculine Style, I’ve seen huge changes in my life. I’ve been married, had kids, started and left jobs, lived in four different places, and gone through a whole lot more. As I’ve grown throughout those experiences, my style has changed – just like it should.

Aesthetic Entropy

Your style is like your physique – it will require less effort to maintain it than to get it established, but it’s still going to require some effort.

It doesn’t matter how great your body feels and looks today, if you stop sleeping well, get overly stressed out, avoid the gym, and fill your face with junk food, you’re going to lose all of your hard work. Those may be extreme examples and can read like an active act of sabotage against your body, but they’re all just a natural progression that happens without the effort and discipline to maintain your physique.

The same applies to your style. If you’re not replacing your worn clothing with new items, updating your fit as your body changes, properly responding to cultural changes, and telling a different story as your life changes, you’ll stop having great style.

In the past, I’ve called this Aesthetic Inertia, and I believe that term still applies in a lot of scenarios. But there’s a distinction here. This is Aesthetic Entropy.

Entropy is a law of science. It is the real-life scenario wherein order moves to chaos. It’s why buildings collapse, bodies decompose, and nothing in this life is permanent. The only thing that prevents entropy is a rational actor making disciplined moves to maintain order.

It’s visible in how you work, how you parent, and even how you make your bed in the morning.

Abandon the set-it-and-forget-it attitude and embrace that your style is something you’ll always be changing and updating. It will never be a neutral, so you might as well have your appearance be a positive.

Today’s post is basically video only.

I had the opportunity to spend a week in LA with some of the best men in YouTube/Blogger world who are focusing on men’s style. We’ve known each other for a few years and usually get together annually for StyleCon/Menfluential.

However, only seeing each other at the conference means we don’t get to focus on a lot of what we do best, nor do we have time to create some content together.

This video is a little vlog of some of the things we got to do while we were there. I’ll have a list below of all their sites and channels, so make sure you go check them out and see all of the stuff we made together.

Oh, and don’t think the irony of the cover is lost on me.

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Man Camp

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube Video: Man Camp

The Art of Charm

Gentleman’s Gazette

Primer Magazine

Order of Man

Mantelligence

The Modest Man

Sparta Strength

The Distilled Man

Effortless Gent

The Fine Young Gentleman

Beardbrand

Ashley Weston