6 Bad Style Habits That Are Ruining Your Style

Your personal style plays a factor in telling people and the world who you are. Are you aware of some bad style habits that might be ruining your style?

I believe that a great style lets you say great things about yourself before you even open your mouth. As someone who is very interested in fashion, image, and style I can’t help but notice the fashion and style mistakes that men make which are completely ruining their style.

We all know some of the basic rules of fashion and most of the time, we observe them correctly. For instance – Never Wear A Brown Belt with A Black Dress Shoe. You see…stale! Everyone knows that. So that’s not really the type of style mistakes I’m talking about today.

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Today, I’m talking about bad style habits that a lot of men have held for a long time such that even when they’ve grown up and learned the basic fashion rules, they still refuse to break those style habits, thereby completely ruining their personal style.

So here are 6 bad style habits that I see common among a lot of men, even some well-dressed men. Actually, there are more bad style habits, however, let’s start off with these common ones. Shall we?

BULKY WALLET OR BULKY POCKET

Now I had to include this bad style habit in this piece ‘cos it’s something I witness all the time.

You are at the counter in a supermarket waiting for your turn to make payment, the guy waiting in line in front of you deeps hands into his pocket, struggles a bit and brings out his wallet from his pocket … you could hear him pant slightly.

Bulky Wallet?

Did you stuff a whole brick in there?

Now, this completely ruins your style!

Here is what you are going to do. First, go buy a slimmer wallet and then spend a day in a week to rid your bulky wallet off irrelevant things – yeah you know what I’m talking about: those tiny papers, receipts, business cards, debit/credit cards.

Only keep one or two debit/credit cards which you frequently use and keep the rest in a safe place at home. For your business card, get a simple card wallet.

PS: For those who are fond of putting their phones in their dress pants pocket thereby creating the bulge, desist from this bad style habit. Either insert the phone in your inner suit jacket or just hold it in your palm when you walk.

HAVING SWEAT MARKS ON YOUR CLOTHES

Having visibly sweaty armpits or sweat stains on your clothes can be annoying and really embarrassing!

I do see some dapper dressed gents, wearing neatly ironed dress shirts but [sadly] with sweat marks underneath their armpit area.

That is so gross and a real turn off for me and I’m sure for a lot of you too.

Asides for health reasons (which is also not a valid excuse for sweaty armpits), forgetting to use a good deodorant or antiperspirant before leaving the house is usually the cause.

A good deodorant or antiperspirant can be used to control sweat and odor in our underarms. Deodorants should be worn to cover up underarm smells, but if you sweat a lot, you definitely need an antiperspirant to slow down the production of underarm sweat. There are some products that perform both functions such as this Dove men+care amongst many others.

WEARING DRESS SHIRTS UN-TUCKED.

A dress shirt is known as a formal shirt which has rigid collars with collar stays and they come in either barrel or French cuff. They are the primary type of shirts worn with suits and ties and they are usually too long to leave untucked.

But I see a lot of people wearing their long dress shirts with jeans, chinos or dress pants untucked. Which is very wrong!

You should always tuck in your dress shirt when wearing formal pieces, and avoid wearing long dress shirts for a casual setting [so you don’t have any reason to untuck it].

Now let me also mention – there are some style of modern dress shirts that can be worn in casual setting – the length is usually cut lower and the tail of the shirt is usually above mid-crotch.

PS: As a general rule, if the tail of your shirt is above your wrist or stops mid crotch, you should always leave untucked. Anything below, you should definitely tuck in.

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WEARING ATHLETIC SOCKS [WHITE OR BLACK] WITH DRESS SHOES.

A lot of men still believe that any kind of socks goes with dress shoes. Now that’s one of the bad style habits they learned growing up which they refuse to give up even after learning that it’s wrong. Well, in case you didn’t know, athletic socks are meant to be worn only for sports occasions or to the gym.

When it comes to dress shoes, wear traditional dark colored cotton or silk socks or any other form of dressy socks that come in different varieties, such as colorful, polka dot, funky and fun types.

Now, you should also avoid all forms of white socks by all means when wearing a dress shoe (even if it’s not athletic socks).

 NOT PAYING ATTENTION TO THE SHOES YOU WEAR

It is totally impossible to be well dressed in cheap shoes.

Even today, you can still tell a gentleman by his shoes. In fact, a fashion authority says you CANNOT always tell a man by his clothes, but you can invariably judge a gentleman by his shoes.

Anytime I meet someone who is well dressed, after looking at the way they are styled, the next thing that grabs my attention is their shoes. And, most of the time I’m always disappointed.

Most of the time, it’s either the shoe is not clean (which indicates laziness), warped or out of shape (which also indicates not paying attention to details) or the shoe doesn’t just match the outfit they are wearing (which indicates lack of style).

You should always keep your shoes clean, well shined and free of dirt at all times. Invest in pocket shoe shiner if need be to ensure you get it right all the time.

Invest in good quality shoes; there are at least 3 shoes every gentleman should own.

WEARING SOCKS WITH YOUR SHOES WHEN WEARING A NATIVE ATTIRE (AFRICAN TRADITIONAL ATTIRE)

There is no excuse for wearing socks with your shoes when wearing native wears.

Some people might say – How are they going to survive all the sweat, stink and perspiration on the feet without socks. I would say go for No Show Socks, not Ankle socks.

There are several no-show socks brand in the fashion market that place a big emphasis on comfort and style. Find them and buy them if you must wear socks with your shoes when rocking native wear attire. Also, avoid wearing your native attires with dress shoes or any other form of lace-ups men’s shoes.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

If you have recognized yourself in some of the bad style habits we’ve listed here today, you should take time and fix these bad style habits so as to improve your style.

Like the saying goes – Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak. Your personal style plays a factor in telling people and the world who you are and, your clothing has a strong effect on both the wearer and the observer.

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