Xavier Richards

1. Fit is King: The most dra­mat­ic im­prove­ment you can make to your style is to make sure every­thing fits im­pec­ca­bly. Most guys wear clothes that are too large. Make sure every­thing you wear is al­most hug­ging the shape of your body – with­out be­ing too tight. Bad fit is an epi­dem­ic; cure your­self!

2. Keep it sim­ple: You want a wardrobe that looks great on you, but don't over­do it. Don't wear more than three pieces of jew­ellery or more than three colours. Don't dress like a rock star un­less you're in a band. If you want to be flashy, a sim­pler but styl­ish look would be to sport a black, striped dress shirt with a white blaz­er, a dark pair of jeans, a dressy belt, and your sharpest pair of dress shoes. You could al­so add a flashy watch or a sim­ple ac­ces­so­ry like an in­ter­est­ing neck­lace, but noth­ing more.

3. Change the way you see ca­su­al: Ca­su­al doesn't have to be bor­ing. Have fun with col­lared shirts, or take some in­spi­ra­tion from those who ap­proach ca­su­al a bit dif­fer­ent­ly.

4. Pay at­ten­tion to your sup­port­ing pieces: Some sweaters are lean; oth­ers are big and chunky. The first rule of thumb is that your top and bot­tom halves need to match. If you're wear­ing a big, chunky, rugged fish­er­man knit sweater, your bot­tom needs to be rugged, too. Don't wear a fish­er­man's sweater with a beau­ti­ful silk-and-wool suit pants. In­stead, wear it with some­thing as ca­su­al like car­gos or jeans, or dress it up with a Har­ris tweed blaz­er.

5. Nev­er go shop­ping alone: Most of the time, it's tough to trust the sales peo­ple be­cause they usu­al­ly work for a com­mis­sion so shop with a friend who will give you their hon­est opin­ion. Al­so, read about shop­ping on a bud­get.

6. Stay a notch above: Don't over­do it to a fault, but dare to take some risks. It's al­ways bet­ter to be a lit­tle bit over­dressed than un­der­dressed in any set­ting. All you have to do is think about where and who you're go­ing to be with and just step it up one notch. But make sure you're not bet­ter dressed than some­one who is more im­por­tant in a cer­tain set­ting, like your boss.

7. Nev­er un­der­es­ti­mate the pow­er of de­tails: The last thing on is usu­al­ly the first thing no­ticed. So mind the de­tails in­stead of throw­ing to­geth­er the main parts of your out­fit. 'De­tails' can in­clude a scarf, a sub­tle pock­et square, or the way you tie your tie knot.

8. In­vest in a su­perb pair of shoes: If it's one thing that women will no­tice, it's your footwear, es­pe­cial­ly how clean and sharp they look. It's easy to wash and press the rest of your clothes to keep them look­ing new, but most guys dis­re­gard their shoes. Show that you're a man of taste by get­ting a great pair of shoes and keep­ing them in pris­tine con­di­tion.

9. Fash­ion Tees with lo­gos: When you're go­ing around with a big lo­go on your shirt, you risk look­ing like a walk­ing bill­board. Lose the lame shirt and go for a clas­sic v-neck tee or some­thing art­sy.

10. Dis­re­gard trends: Be­ware of buy­ing some­thing just be­cause it's 'in' right now – stick to what you tru­ly like. A lot of peo­ple rush to get in on the lat­est trend and end up with a bunch of clothes they don't wear. It's bet­ter to learn to build a ver­sa­tile and time­less wardrobe first – then bring in your own twists with some of the new fash­ion. This one tip will save you so much mon­ey!

11. Don't be a suck­er for brand names: Be­fore you de­cide to pur­chase an item, ask your­self if you are buy­ing it sim­ply be­cause of the brand name or be­cause you love the qual­i­ty and style. Ask your­self, "Would I buy this if there was no lo­go on it?"

12. Con­tin­u­al­ly cul­ti­vate your im­age: In­vest more time and mon­ey in­to your im­age. Cul­ti­vate your fash­ion sense. Your style is a huge mode of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, and is worth car­ing for as much as your ed­u­ca­tion, ca­reer, and re­la­tion­ships. Os­car Schof­fler, long­time fash­ion ed­i­tor of Es­quire, once said, "Nev­er un­der­es­ti­mate the pow­er of what you wear. Af­ter all, there's just a small bit of your­self stick­ing out at the col­lar and cuff. The rest of the world sees what you drape on your frame."

13. Ask for re­al feed­back: Most of your friends and fam­i­ly aren't go­ing to go out of their way to tell you what looks bad. You have to ask for it. In fact, ask any­one and every­one you trust to tell you the truth. Ask your hair­styl­ist, ask your best friend, ask your moth­er!

14. Up­grade your shave: Even if your fash­ion is gold­en, an un­kempt beard can be an at­trac­tion killer. Achieve a per­fect shave by try­ing a shave brush and old-fash­ioned dou­ble-edged ra­zor.

15. Ex­per­i­ment with style: The on­ly way you'll re­al­ly learn is if you go out there and try new things. I make an ef­fort to try some­thing com­plete­ly out of my com­fort zone when­ev­er I'm at a store... many times you'll end up lov­ing some­thing you nev­er thought you would. If you make mis­takes, life goes on. Many guys are afraid to ex­press them­selves through their style.

You don't have to be one of them.