After seeing the inside of men’s closets for close to a decade, I've seen some common themes emerge.

One of these themes is that men love to buy something "exciting", items I call "spicy"

You know - loud colors, lots of patterns, contrast cuffs, tons of details, etc. Most guys think, "Wow! That’s fun. That’s stylish - It has to be - look how interesting it is!"

For some reason, it’s insanely difficult for men to walk into a store and buy something like a plain white shirt.

"That’s so boring!" They’ll say.

(And in a way, they’re right.)

So, they’ll reach for the loud, fun, spicy shirt because they think, somehow, it will solve all their style woes.

But they take it home and suddenly realize the shirt doesn’t really pair with anything, and so it sits in the closet unworn, next to all the other patterned and colored shirts already owned. The same cycle will continue the next time they go shopping.

The problem?

The man is looking at the shirt in a vacuum - As if it exists on its own and won’t be interacting with other items he already owns.

Instead, what he should be doing is thinking about how the item he’s potentially purchasing will support the rest of his closet and add to the wardrobe as a whole.

Your wardrobe is like a team. An ecosystem where items are actually dependent on one another.

Think about it like how you might stock your kitchen pantry. You wouldn’t buy all the exotic spice you can find, but fail to buy butter and salt on account of them being "boring".

Just as acid and fat are needed in cooking to balance spice, "plain" clothing items are needed to balance the "exciting" stuff. An overspiced outfit looks terrible the way an overspiced dish tastes terrible.

To help you further, let’s put a number on it - At least 50% of your items should be "plain". This means no color outside of grayscale and no pattern.

Think that’s too much? It’s probably not enough. Here are the first results when you search for "Men’s Style" on Google. Notice all the plain black, gray, and white tees; the white button-down collar shirts; the plain gray jeans, and wool trousers. These items balance the more exciting stuff.

Go evaluate your closet and take inventory of your “spice stock”. I’d imagine you’ve got a little too much. However, I also work with plenty of clients that are so afraid of a bit of heat they have nothing exciting at all. If that’s you, add a little color and pattern to the wardrobe to round things out.

It’s okay to experiment, but remember, spice is to be used in dashes and pinches, not scoops and handfuls.

Hope that helps.

X Patrick



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