Shopping And The Body Type 2 - Short, Small Sizes For Men

August 7th, 2001

SHORT, HEAVY MEN - Clothes should also elongate but work to de-emphasize breadth.

Jackets
1. Straighter-cut coat.
2. Two-button single-breasted better than three-button or double-breasted.
3. Besom pocket over flap.
4. Side vent over on vents.
5. Sleeves need to taper down to cuff, cannot be too wide at hand.
6. Fabrics should be dark and smooth, such as fine worsteds.
7. Dark solids, medium-width striping, and herringbones de-emphasize bulk.

Trousers
1. Reverse pleat on trouser keeps front-flat while breaking the expanse of its width.
2. as long a rise as comfortable, fit on natural waist not below protruding stomach.
3. Cuffs assist the transition of the full-cut trouser to the larger-scaled shoe.

Accessories
1. Long straight point collars.
2. Solid ties; patterned ties; ties with stripes or prints with movement.

3. Welt-sole shoes for a more substantial platform; no lightweight, dainty footwear.

Since most people aspire to look like some idealized version of themselves, selecting clothes based on a particular body type is as old as fashion itself. Whereas I believe that familiarity with the geometric principles that downplay girth or emphasize height or breadth is helpful, such information should be viewed as a guide rather than dogma.

I have seen the most well-dressed men wear clothes in stark contradiction to the accepted dictates of fashionable physiognomy. I can recall one portly, older gentleman looking so debonair in his large, plaid, hefty tweed sports suit simply because it was cut to perfection. I am told that no other group of men would parade down Savile Row in the thirties with more panache than the contingent of Brazilian diplomats, most of whom were under five feet seven and all of whom wore their soft-shoulder, double-breasted suits with cuffed trousers. Proportion in dress in the foundation of all classic dressing. The truly stylish man knows enough about the rules to know how and when to break them.

From Style and The Man by Alan Flusser