Finding Your Style Through Inspiration 3 Tips To Create A Signature Style By Choosing A Brand

Hi. I’m Carl Centeno.

I’m the founder of this style blog. Today, gentlemen I’m going to give you three tips on how to develop your individual style through inspiration. Guys, one of the most common questions I receive is, Carl, where do I start? Where do I begin? I am overwhelmed by the number of options. I know I want to look better, but I have no idea what that looks like. And so, guys these three tips, you know, and there are many ways to be inspired. You know right now, I’m going to talk about one particular way, but you can go find inspiration through travel. I know when I go to London or I go to Kiev, I’m inspired by the architecture, by the people, by the food, but that’s not the one I’m going to talk about, you can also talk about celebrity inspiration and that, there are some great options out there; Cary Grant, Alain Delon, Justine Timberlake, John Newman. These guys have a lot of style, but the problem is is that where are they getting their clothing from? It’s not easy necessarily to find that, so I’m going to go back and I’m going to say, you know, if I was talking to myself a decade ago and I’m just starting off on my own style journey, what advice would I give the young Carl. And, straight up, it’s going to be to find a brand that suits your lifestyle and imitate it. Basically, start to buy into it and the three tips I’m going to get into or going to talk about how do that, how to use a brand to your advantage so that you can make smart buying decisions so that you can build an interchangeable wardrobe, so that you can look great and get what you want out of life. Sound good? All right, guys, all the examples everything I’m using here today is from Ledbury from all of the clothing I’m wearing to the clothing I’m going to be showing you. At the end of this, I have a game and I want you to go to their website, I want you to put pieces together; shirts, jackets, ties, trousers.

Finding Your Style Through Inspiration 3 Tips To Create A Signature Style By Choosing A Brand Photo Gallery

Let me know on the comments three pieces that you would put together and why it would look good on you and I’ll make sure to get back to you. I’m going to be responding to all those comments and give you guys feedback. So, a little bit of an exercise and I think that that is the best way for you guys to learn, for you guys to – to really pick up this information. So, ready? Let’s get into it. So, number one you have to have a vision. You have to have a picture in your mind of where you’re going, what you’re going to look like. Guys, this is going to be different for every man out there, but the ability to put this together, you know, it’s really never been better. Ten to fifteen years ago you would have had a, you know, just comment to magazines, pay money for that. Nowadays, you can simply go on to – you can go on Instagram, Pinterest, where else? You can go, you know, Flickr, Tumblr, Facebook, and you can grab pictures, put them into a folder and start to build inspiration board. Guys, this is very, very important. I know it sounds very like a high in the cloud. Emotions are what drives, you want to look better for a reason.

You want more out of life, you want to, you know, make more money, you want to have a chance with that girl that you’ve been trying to talk to. Guys, use that emotional component to build a powerful board. Now, I really like finding a brand that suits you, Ledbury a great example. As, I’m going through and I’m looking at their catalog, I’m looking at all the pictures, I’m looking at all the clothing, I see pictures of guys, well, I really like that rugged type of masculine. I really like that type of feel. And so, I’m looking at their pictures I’m looking at the guys wearing sports jackets, I wear sports jacket, they’re wearing, you know, the shirts, ties, I’m like, this is a good, you know, but find a brand that suits you and take those images, join, you know, a lot of these brands they’ve got catalogs. Ledbury is a great example, just go to their website, give them your address, you get this physical catalog that you can go through, you can tear out, and they’ve also got a lookbook online so you don’t have to give them anything you can just simply go check it out. But, I like the physical catalog because there are times I’m unwinding in the evening and I just want to be able to go through. Another great magazine is The Rake, you can go grab Esquire. Guys, I’ve talked about this in another post, but you want to have a way to be able to tear this out, however you want to build up a board. In my office, I’ve got notes, I’ve got boards all over my walls because what you surround yourself with is going to have an effect on – on what drives you that’s why having this vision, having these lookbooks, these catalogs, you know, all of these is so important. Okay? So, point number two is you’re going to take the plunge.

At this point, you’re going to assemble one to maybe two to three outfits. So, you know, like I said everything here I got from Ledbury and the advantage of sticking with the brand is that a lot of their clothing compliments each other. So, these trousers right here, look at this, pretty nice combination. I can lighten it up with this look here. I could probably bring in a very dark brown. So, what you want to be looking and put together probably two pairs or trousers, three shirts, one jacket. If you don’t really wear a jackets, maybe then bring in sweaters or up the number of shirts or maybe bring in a tie. I do always, you guys know I love recommending jackets. But start to piece together those outfits and wear them, make sure that this is right for you. This is very important, you’ve got to practice. If you don’t wear these clothing, it’s a costume and costumes don’t feel comfortable, you need to make this become a part of you. Does that make sense? So, again, the advantages of sticking with one brand not just that the clothing works with each other, but the fit.

So, all of this is right off the rack, I have not adjusted everything. I’m like, oh, this is a 38 jacket, this is a – what was it? A 16 in the neck, you know, what is this? A 33 maybe a 34 in the length of the shirt. I think it’s a pretty good look. I could wear this and I could feel – I mean right off the rack. So, right there I know, hmm, I’m going to save money on tailoring. You’ve got to find the right brand for you, but when you do, it’s like magic, all of a sudden it’s like this stuff fits and I know it’s going to be harder for some of you really big guys for some of you really small guys, you can go to this style blog. I’ve got more resources on that for a really hard to fit individuals, but for some of you guys who are maybe like me, 5’9”, I’m 165, 178 lbs depending on the day, you can probably find a brand that just suits you that nails it and once you do that, again, magic. So, point number three is, okay, you’ve spent a bit of money, now, you’re either going to double down or you’re going to move on. And, you may find the brand just doesn’t suit you, it’s just you try the stuff on, maybe the fit’s off just the entire fit of their line or maybe you find you disagree with their philosophy. So, what do I mean by this? I kind of hinted at it earlier on. The philosophy of many companies is going to be quantity or it’s going to be quality. I know a lot of companies try to say that they are everything.

Very few companies are very, very few and it’s very hard to sustain that before competitors come in, but most companies are going to be the quality point or they’re going to be at the quantity point. I can tell you that Ledbury is at the quality point. These guys both of the actually named Paul and they decided, hey, we are going to make some of the best shirts in the world, they’ve since expanded out of shirts, but they focus on quality. Quantity, you’re going to have to find other brands, yes, the prices are going to be a lot lower, but you’re going to sacrifice. I mean that clothes is going to fall – it will fall apart much quicker. You’re going to possibly have to get them adjusted more just to understand that that is – it is always a give and take, but if you find your brand that is perfect for you, then double down. I look at my wardrobe, it is made up of probably just a few companies, more than half of it. Yeah, I get a lot of clothing and I try out a lot of things, but when I find a company that works for me, I’m not afraid to go out there and buy three shirts because I’m like, wow, I’ll have these shirts for the next five to ten years if not longer. Those are my three tips. I think that is more than enough to get started. Focus on that emotional component. Now, to the exercise.

So, I want you guys to go over to Ledbury, very beautiful site, you’re going to be inspired by it, you’re going to be able to see all the clothing. And you’re going to – I want you to write in the comments, write down a shirt-trouser combination jacket, you can throw in a sweater. You know really try – try to choose three items and maybe throw in a tie and say, Carl, this is what would look good on me and this is why. Pay attention to your complexion, think about your built, think about your environment. But, guys, I think this exercise is going to help you start to get, you know, a bit more inspired and that is the goal of this post, to inspire you so that you start dressing better. Take care, gentlemen. See you in the next post.