Dressing for a Late Morning to Lunch Launch Event - How a Larger Man's Clothes Should Fit

I usually overdress to media launch events. When I say I overdress it's because almost no one, with the exception of the hosts or a few others would even throw on a sports jacket. I usually come dress like this.

I wore a linen sports jacket by Tagliatore,

tailored wool & linen dress trousers by my tailor, a ready to wear light blue dress shirt and a pair of Fratelli Rossetti unlined suede fringe slippers. No socks.

No goodyear welted shoes as felt I wanted something super light on my feet that day.

Anyway, let's take the opportunity to look at how larger men should dress. I will not deal with the style or construction of the jacket or what materials to wear and other tricks to wear in warm weather but I would just like to concentrate on how a larger, more stocky man should dress.

Let's start with the jacket. 

Do NOT wear too short of a jacket. The skirt should cover your rear end (bum, buttocks). The front should reach the crotch area if viewed from the front or the whole silhouette should be a nice 50:50 split between your torso and your legs. The length allows you to 'hide' unflattering bits if you know what I mean. Unlike Kim Kardashian, too big a derriere on a man isn't something flattering. Actually, if you have a flat rear end, that jacket could also help cover it up.

So this brings me to the fit of a jacket. Since a jacket helps flatter the body of its user, it should fit well. There should be no pulling at the button point. No 'X' should fully form all of the time. It should also be tailored to fit but not make it tight until you cannot feel comfortable moving your arms around. 

But the sleeves should be cut slim so that there is no sign of extra bulk in the arms. It actually helps if it is tailored closer to the arm especially from the elbow downwards. You can see in the photo above that the jacket arms fit closely but not snug till you cannot be comfortable.

This Tagliatore jacket has a nice cut to it. It is cut with a lot of drape (this is a tailoring term to it). This drape cut actually nips the waist in (at the button point) but the chest actually swells out. It makes me look like a person with a smaller waist and a huge chest. Couple this with the classic Italian extended shoulder line I look like an Olympian body builder wearing a jacket. So the jacket actually helps and accentuates the look. 

Jacket lapels with a high notch also help. It keeps the eye focused higher up and makes you look slightly taller rather than just broader. The lapel width is also important as too small a lapel would make the total look a little less balanced that with a larger lapel. It balances off the large chest area and keeps proportions.

So - Slim Sleeves, Slightly extended shoulders, a slightly larger cut on the chest area, and a jacket skirt that actually covers the butt is what a larger man needs. But the jacket must fit without any extra fabric. Large swathes of fabric on a large man makes the man look larger rather than smaller. This also is quite similar to shirts and formal batik shirts. Make sure the length is correct and make sure it isn't too tight or especially too loose. 

As for trousers, taper the ends. To cuff or not to cuff isn't an issue. You have to make your silhouette as neat as possible. No excess fabric at the end of the trousers - no pudding at your feet. Alter them so that they drop with just a half a break in the crease of your trousers or have no break at all. You want the line clean as possible and it also has to be tapered at the end. You cannot have a large opening just because your thighs are huge. Your thighs may be large, so only that area should be at large as necessary (but of course, not more). The part at your ankle is small. Obviously and the opening should be tapered down from the waist, thigh and knee area downwards. Trousers should be cut so that it just falls right to the cuffs without any bumps or extra lines on it. It keeps a person's shape clean and neat. 

Also the waistband sits close or at the natural waist. At the belly button. It makes the legs look longer than they are. Highwaisted trousers help with proportions too.

Another great tip when wearing a dress shirt is that if you are not wearing a tie, make sure that the shirt collars actually frame your face. Do not let it lay flat over the lapels of the jacket. When it is straight up like in the photo above, it actually keeps a nice vertical line and frames the sides of your face. You do not add to the width of your features with this. In fact, these days if I wear a collared shirt without a tie, I usually make sure it is one with a button down collar so that it sits upright and not lay flat on the shoulder blades. Makes things neater too.

Its all about proportions actually. Once everything sits in a nice proportionate silhouette, a larger man would look better. And lastly, if  you are larger than life in terms of size, it is always good to put on an impression that you are well groomed. People with take more notice of you actually.  

By the way, I was wearing this outfit at the Malaysian launch of the new Volvo XC60. Two variants are available - the XC60 T8 Twin Engine Plug In Hybrid and the T5 Petrol. The T8 is very impressive and just as premium looking inside and outside as its larger sibling, the XC90. Massive amount of horsepower too - about 407Hp AND a whopping 640Nm torque. Prices start at RM298,888+++.