Clothing for a man of “a certain age”

I may be a slob but I’m not a jeans at 62 sort of slob!  I only have outdoor trousers and dress trousers.  Nowt else for my legs bar a sarong 🙂

Aren’t all trousers “outdoor” trousers?

Softshell I assume?

I pray you never wear the dress trousers without a jacket and outside formal affairs.

Softshell yes

I do wear the dress trousers ( meaning proper trousers that are pressed – not tuxedo trousers with a stripe) without a jacket on occasion yes.  Plain brightly coloured t shirt or jumper.  But never with an untucked collared shirt 🙂

Oh you poor deluded fool TJ. Let me introduce to untuckit.com.

It is highly desirable to wear a collared shirt untucked … they’ve started a company specifically for this revolutionary style of dress.

As someone “long of trunk”, I’m all for it as shirts (especially short sleeved linen jobs) have all tended to be a bit short to comfortably tuck in.

Vive la revolution!

You don’t approve of jeans tj, yet you wear tee-shirts!Surely there for 20 year olds.

Plain is fine – not band Tees or logoed ones.  Preferably nice bright colours

What’s wrong with a band t-shirt?

Ok in your 20s.  Sad as anything in middle age and beyond.  Nothing says sad like a band tee shirt on an older man – especially as its usually a band that were big 20+ years ago 🙂

It was amusing when you started this thread and there have been some enlightened and comic answers. Now you’re just sounding like a judgemental prick. But hey – you know how difficult it is to convey humour on a forum 🙂

I just bought a pair of Birkenstock sandals. My partner’s daughter’s comment was “they’re really nice but he’s not going to wear socks with them is he?”

So if anyone knows where I can get a pair of 80s neon towelling socks just to prank her, let me know. They’ll go great on holiday with my budgie smugglers.

(This is the second time I’ve written this today; apologies if the first one was on here too, my memory is also of a certain age)

At 50, I’d rather wear a band t shirt from time to time than ask what to wear on an internet forum 😂😉😘

It seems you have 2 extremes of dressing, not bothered through to dapper, so the idea of dressing up isn’t entirely foreign to you.

And don’t be such a fussy Duffy about your own age and what you can and can’t do at certain ages – I think the whole idea of getting a new wardrobe goes completely against that kind of attitude.

Your current wardrobe is a reflection of your attitude to clothes, therefore to change your wardrobe you need to be open minded to change. If you’re going to close down everyone’s suggestions then this whole exercise is pointless.

@cougar I thought socks with crocs / sliders was the thing ATM

Nothing says sad like a middle aged / old man that doesn’t try anything different

Oh I agree 🙂

Ah well – there might be photos to come 🙂

@cougar I thought socks with crocs / sliders was the thing ATM

Crocs? Give me some credit, I haven’t -completely- given up on life. 😁

Joking aside, I find Crocs a bit weird. I thought they might be perfect for camping but they’re an odd, uncomfortable texture and they snag on my toenails unless the nails been aggressively pruned. I couldn’t give a Malteser of shites about judgemental strangers’ opinions on my sartorial elegance, I simply don’t like them.

(… hey, maybe if I put socks on first?)

Also, “socks with Crocs” reminds me too much of Randall’s video suggestion in Clerks.

Oh, I’d have thought that @brant would be all over this 😀

I make stuff up. Then try to get Ed to sort it out. We’ll try and get this moving next week.

Loving the PWEI T shirt!

Socks and crocs are great on campsites.
PWEI were great in Manchester last week as well.

So if anyone knows where I can get a pair of 80s neon towelling socks just to prank her, let me know. They’ll go great on holiday with my budgie smugglers

If you are going to put a pair of socks down your ‘budgie smugglers’ to impress her just be sure to put them down the front not the back

” Its not really for peacocking or for others but for me to feel good about myself.”

Sounds like a very worthwhile pursuit. I would ignore ‘fashion’ as that’s a status thing for anxious millennials.
Style is something else and never goes out of fashion, If you are unsure where to start just look at style blogs not by big media but real people or try instagram and you might see stuff ‘oh i quite like that’.

Keep it simple and start with a few quality items and some cheap every day basics like linen shirts and merino jumpers from Uniqlo etc. Scotland has some really good clothing, obviously not cheap but some of the best cashmere comes from from there.

Learn about levels of formality and what does/doesn’t go with what. No 2 piece jackets with jeans and trainers!??
Aim for the ‘sprezzatura’ look not the trying too hard look.

I’m quite envious as i’m 3 months in to a DIY home refurb project and skint so been wearing kneepad trousers and old t-shirts and not worn any decent clothes for a long time.

I’ve just had a lightning bolt moment. The answer to your question, TJ, is “buy shit what fits.” Beyond that it’s gravy. Ill-fitted several-piece tophat and tails suits can hang just as badly as £4.99 supermarket jeans and a tee-shirt.

We are – I think – not wildly dissimilar of build? I started buying fitted tees rather than sloppy ones and (in my head at least) the difference is vast. Slim-fit dress shirts (like I often wear shirts outside of weddings and funerals) from the likes of Charles Tyrwhitt actually fit rather than either hanging open at the neck or looking like a yard sale from the Winter Of Our Discount Tents.

Ok in your 20s.  Sad as anything in middle age and beyond. Nothing says sad like a band tee shirt on an older man – especially as its usually a band that were big 20+ years ago

Yeah, that’s me, sad as f***. Seeing as I wear band tee shirts from bands that were around 30-40 years ago, that I actually bought at their gigs, and who are actually still relevant, and often still recording/touring, then so what. What is a bit sad is seeing people a lot younger than me wearing band tee shirts that they could never, ever, possibly have seen, like Led Zeppelin, Nirvana or Ramones, that have come from Burton’s or Urban Outfitters or some high street retailer.
The fact is, most people who I meet, and who then find out my age, are pretty shocked because they always guess nearly twenty years below my actual age, because I don’t dress like someone from the fifties. I certainly don’t wear fleeces with howling wolves, or dream catchers, or other ethnic tat on, like I often see people significantly younger than me wearing, or a football team strip, although I have considered a Dukla Prague away team shirt, but that’s a musical in-joke. Well-fitting Japanese selvedge denim is perfectly acceptable, the only people who seem to have a problem with people over thirty wearing jeans, tee shirts, and stuff like that are snobby writers in GQ or the Daily Mail.

The next gig tee shirt I’ll be buying is one for Peter Gabriel’s I/o tour next month, which will go nicely with the shirts I bought for his tours in 2013 and 2003, and I’ve got one from back in the 70’s, when he first went solo, but I was a lot slimmer then, and I could get away with a Medium, not an XL…

Honestly, I’m far past the point of giving a rat’s ass about other people and their opinions about what I wear, I dress for myself and for comfort, like I was wearing a black tank-top with grey cargo shorts this afternoon, and desert army boots, and nobody gave so much as a look.

Now, if I was actually going out for a meal or to something a bit special, then I’d make an effort, but even then I’d be a bit subversive, I’ve got some very nice black trousers that are actually from a skateboard company, and some plain black Etnies skate shoes that look like ordinary black suede shoes. Those, with a plain white tee and a fine check shirt with a black wool jacket I can scrub up ok. The rest of the time I’m coming up short on the number of shits I couldn’t give for anyone else and their opinions.

Nothing says sad like a band tee shirt on an older man

You know who else has rules about what clothes a man should wear? – Jacob Rees-Mogg. I’ll bet you never thought you’d share an ideology with the haunted bassoon, eh?

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day 🙂

I’ve just had a lightning bolt moment. The answer to your question, TJ, is “buy shit what fits.” Beyond that it’s gravy. Ill-fitted several-piece tophat and tails suits can hang just as badly as £4.99 supermarket jeans and a tee-shirt.

I think your right, getting the size right so it hangs off you properly makes a lot of difference.

What is a bit sad is seeing people a lot younger than me wearing band tee shirts that they could never, ever, possibly have seen, like Led Zeppelin, Nirvana or Ramones,

Today I am mostly wearing…

I’m 49 but a dyed in the wool Ramones enthusiast!

Even made this marquetry pattern 😂

Ok in your 20s. Sad as anything in middle age and beyond. Nothing says sad like a band tee shirt on an older man

You sound awfully concerned and judgemental about other people’s choices. I thought this thread was about your choices.

Well said, see zed.

If you are going to put a pair of socks down your ‘budgie smugglers’ to impress her just be sure to put them down the front not the back

Nickfrog – its more that the humour did not come out in the posts.   I don’t care what others wear but somethings I will not wear.  I don’t want to look like I am trying to capture lost youth but neither do I want to look like I am ready for the care home 🙂

Having not worn logoed t shirts nor jeans for the last 40 years I personally would look really odd to those who know me if I started now.

I do believe the vast majority of men dress really poorly tho.  Look around at any social gathering at what the men wear

I will also add in that most of my male friends said ” ask a woman” and none of my female friends suggested denim 🙂

I don’t care what others wear

and

I do believe the vast majority of men dress really poorly tho

The problem is though TJ you’re essentially labelling as badly dressed, the very people whom you’re currently seeking advice as to what to wear. The whole thread smacks a bit of cake-ism, does it not? you’re saying  “Tell me where to go to shopping for clothes, but also at the same time, I don’t want to wear any of the clothes you wear, because I don’t like them”

It’s never going to be a massively successful pitch.

Email sent to Brant – I don’t know who is being braver 🙂

Did anything ever come of this?  Would love to see the result, on video…

Brant said he would get back to me this week.

I did not expect this thread to be taken so seriously nor to gather so many posts.  I expected to have the micheal taken out of me.  I expected a few bits of good advice amongst the pisstaking. ( which I got) I didn’t expect to upset folk and sorry if I have

None of this was supposed to be taken seriously

I will also add in that most of my male friends said ” ask a woman” and none of my female friends suggested denim 🙂

The problem is though TJ you’re essentially labelling as badly dressed, the very people whom you’re currently seeking advice as to what to wear. The whole thread smacks a bit of cake-ism, does it not? you’re saying “Tell me where to go to shopping for clothes, but also at the same time, I don’t want to wear any of the clothes you wear, because I don’t like them”

I’ve got it.

TJ, you need to install Grindr on your phone. “Rangy faux-Scotsman familiar with Ramsbottom seeks similar for sartorial advice. Loves a good, long ride without jeans, partial to a tandem.”

WCPGW?

None of this was supposed to be taken seriously

Just get that printed on a t-shirt and move on

I will also add in that most of my male friends said ” ask a woman” and none of my female friends suggested denim 🙂

They’re protecting themselves – they know they couldn’t hold back their urges if they saw you in full double-denim! 🙂

You know TJ. He wouldn’t want to upset the status quo.