“I’ve been quite a late developer on the clothes front, but I’ve suddenly realized it is one of life’s joys.”
– Benedict Cumberbatch
Easy way for skinny guys to look bigger
Today’s post might sound like common sense, but it’s something that took me 18 years to learn.
If you’re a skinny guy you need to make sure that your clothing fits.
Like I said, this sounds pretty obvious. However, I see a lot of guys who wear outfits that are way too big for their bodies.
A few weeks ago I was on the phone chatting with a friend. We ended up joking about how high-fashion in Iowa consisted of not being fat and wearing an outfit that wasn’t three sizes too large.
This problem isn’t limited to college kids in the Midwest though. Last year I met Odd Future frontman Tyler, The Creator. If you’ve ever watched an Odd Future music video you’ll know that Tyler is pretty buff. But when I met him the dude looked like a twig. He was in a t-shirt that was about six sizes larger than it should have been.
Hip-hop and pop music has made baggy clothing somewhat cool. Baggy shirts are great to wear if you’re famous, but the average guy will always look stupid in them. This is especially true for men who are skinny.
If you’re huge you can, kind of, pull off some looser clothing. If you aren’t you’ll just look ever smaller.
An actual example (using me)
The following two pictures are both of me. Each one was taken earlier today. The first one was snapped right after I woke up. In it I have bed head and am still half asleep. The second one was taken after I went to the gym and got a haircut.
In the image above I look fairly buff. I obviously don’t look like Arnold or anything, but I still look like a guy who works out.
This picture was taken right after I got home. I’d just been lifting and was actually more pumped up than I am in the first photo. However you’d never know that because I’m drowning in a shirt that’s way too big for my body. It looks like I have pencils for arms and a giant gut.
Buying normal clothes is not that hard
That big yellow shirt that is way too loose for me actually cost more than the black v-neck in my first picture. The v-neck set me back $5 at Burlington Coat Factory. I also have a Calvin Klein v-neck
The same thing goes with dress shirts. I own a lot of “nice” collared shirts that cost me less than $50. Because they actually fit people think that they look good. The stuff that I buy on sale generally looks better than a lot of the expensive and “edgy,” but ill-fitting, stuff that other people like to wear.
Next time you go clothes shopping look for some smaller shirts. You obviously don’t want to wear skin-tight outfits, but form-fitting material is going to improve your appearance greatly.