The Truth About Dressing For Your Body Type

The inspiration for writing this article was a video from an Instagram account I follow (@the.second.button). Seeing the video made me realize that the concept of dressing for your body type was a subject I had never really tackled before on this site.

The owner of the IG account in question argued that the concept of dressing for one’s body type is mostly bogus. He basically said that if you adhere to such strict guidelines about what you should and should not wear, you’ll miss out on a lot of what menswear (and dressing, in general) has to offer.

“Don’t limit yourself based on silly internet advice”, was the gist of what he was saying.

On that point, I don’t disagree.

But I thought it would be helpful to go into a bit of depth into my own take on dressing for one’s body type.

The problem with so much internet advice is that it lacks nuance. My take on dressing for your body is that MOST of the advice you see out there is crap, but it’s not 100% bunk.

Let me explain…

The problem with most “body type” advice is that it’s too broad. You can’t put people into buckets like “tall”, “thin”, “fat”, “short” and prescribe for them items or niches of menswear that will automatically work (or not) for them.

Over the years (and this is something mentioned in the video I referenced earlier), I have heard that short men shouldn’t cuff their trousers or wear 3-button jackets. I have heard that heavy men shouldn’t wear pleated pants. I have heard that men with bellies shouldn’t wear waistcoats, cummerbunds, or double-breasted jackets. I have heard that tall men shouldn’t wear vertical stripes.

None of that stuff is true. It might make for a breezy clothing article, but it’s not a realistic, or even practical, way to go about dressing.

The reason it’s not realistic is because dressing for your body type is much more personal and specific than that. It’s not so much “dressing for your body type” as it is “dressing for your particular body, whatever the type might be”.

If you had two men who were tall and thin, prevailing internet advice about dressing for their body type would put them both in the same category. But what if one of those men had a longer torso and shorter legs compared to the other? What if one of them had narrower hips and broader shoulders? Those men could look very different, so advice on how each should dress should be different, as well, since it should be tailored to them, specifically.

The beauty about classic menswear (formal and casual) is that there are things that, for the most part, look good on everyone.

A tailored jacket in moderate proportions flatters every man since it makes him look tall and strong. Beyond that, though, there are some small considerations that need to be taken into account based on the individual’s body.

Sure, a man who is five feet tall and one-hundred pounds probably can’t get away with as wide a trouser-cuff width as a man who is a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier.

Fine.

But you can’t say he shouldn’t wear cuffs on his trousers at all simply because he is short.

See what I’m getting at?

What I love so much about menswear is how easy it is. Of course everyone has different proportions, but, broadly speaking, every single man looks good in a suit and tie, a sport coat, an overcoat, tailored trousers, a leather jacket, jeans and a t-shirt, and a pair of hefty boots (not all at the same time, obviously).

The discussions regarding body type are “in the weeds”. And unfortunately, that advice contributes to well-meaning guys feeling insecure about themselves because they feel like they should or should not wear certain things based on the general look of their bodies.

Don’t listen to that advice! It’s too broad and, because of that, it is not applicable to you!

Whenever I get an inkling to question some silly advice that’s floating around the internet ether, I turn to the sartorial luminaries of yesteryear.

Take, for instance, Peter Lorre, James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, and Edward G. Robinson.

Now take Jimmy Stewart, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, and John Wayne.

Now consider Sydney Greenstreet, Alfred Hitchcock, and Sebastian Cabot.

These men have very different bodies but they all look good in THE SAME classic menswear staples.

Did they probably need to get things nipped and tucked here and there to adequately serve their specific physical needs? Absolutely! But that’s no different than my tailor taking into account the fact that my left arm hangs lower than my right.

It has nothing to do with my “body type” but has everything to do with my particular body.

Here’s another example of what I’m getting at…

Both Frank Sinatra and Jimmy Stewart wore fedoras, but they were of very different proportions. Sinatra was much shorter than Stewart so his fedoras sported shorter crowns and narrower brims than Stewart’s did. Sure, he might have looked silly if he were to wear Stewart’s fedora (which, on him would be oversized), but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t wear fedoras AT ALL simply because he was short. He just needed to make an adjustment given his particular body, regardless of his body type.

See what I mean?

One of the biggest problems with clothing advice on the internet is the sheer amount of it. It makes it hard for regular guys to discern what’s important and what isn’t. If I, for instance, see content discussing whether or not someone who is under five-feet-ten inches should have two-inch trouser cuffs, I, at this point in my sartorial journey, can recognize that that article is probably just full of hot air. Many well-meaning guys, though, might take whatever that article says to heart, despite that the advice is probably junk.

As long as clothes fit properly and have non-extreme proportions, they’ll most likely good on every man.

Again, the great thing about classic menswear, whether it’s formal or casual, is that it’s REALLY hard to look bad in it. Are there considerations one needs to make when dressing one’s body? Sure. But there aren’t sweeping rules governing who can where what based on their body type.

Another problem with the “body type” advice on the internet is the fact that it’s always telling guys what they CAN’T wear. It’s so negative and sucks all the fun out of menswear.

Instead, I find that discussing what you CAN wear to enhance your body to be a much more productive conversation.

Tall, skinny men can wear rougher textures, thicker materials, DB jackets, and pleated trousers to help fill out their frames. Notice how I DID NOT say that since tall, skinny men can wear rougher textures, etc, larger men can’t. I didn’t say that because that would be untrue.

Portly men can wear simple, dark colors which are visually slimming. Just because it works for heavier men doesn’t mean that slighter men can’t do it too.

Naturally v-shaped men can wear softer-shoulders jackets while hippy men can wear more structured jackets which will give them the illusion of a v-shape. Now, can those men swap jackets and still look good? Yes, probably! Will we all have opinions about what looks better on each of them? Definitely! But those opinions will be based off each man’s individual body, not their body type.

All of this advice takes how a man looks and says “Here is what you can wear that will make you look better”. It’s positive. It’s not restrictive. It’s saying “You CAN wear this” instead of “if you look this way, you CAN’T wear this” or “you should stay away from this”.

Honestly, the stuff that you should stay away from is true for pretty much all men. Like I said before, classic menswear is so cool because it’s so easy. It’s basically a cheat code for looking good all the time regardless of your body type.