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The New Year has arrived and, for many people, it is a time for resolutions that will improve their lives. A new wardrobe is just such a resolution. It’s a well known fact that if you’re dressed well you feel more confident and attract all kinds of female attention.

How To Dress According To Your Size

The first thing you need to know in order to look sexy this year is how to dress appropriately for your size. There are certain no-no’s and what I like to call ‘best-dress practices’ for different builds of man. If done correctly, you too can look hot! Let’s look at the different types of guy and see if we can come up with some sort of fashion strategy:

• The thin guy. Choosing the right clothes for a skinny bloke is quite difficult. It’s more about the size and fit of the garments, rather than the style and appearance of them. If you’re thin, you don’t want to be wearing tight clothes because this will only make you look thinner. At the other end of the scale, if the clothes are too baggy they will just look poorly fitted and you will come across as a skinny guy pretending not to be skinny!
  
  The aim is to find a balance between tight and bulky. The look you’re trying to achieve here is svelte rather than malnourished!
• The big guy. You can take the emphasis away from the fact you are a bigger man by wearing dark, solid colours, or pinstripes. Don’t wear patterned t-shirts because they will highlight your width, which then highlights your weight.

  Don’t wear clothes that are too tight! The key tip here is to keep it simple with plain, dark colours.

• The short guy. Don’t wear long jackets. This will emphasise your lack of height. You want to appear as tall as possible and this can be done with vertical lines. A pinstripe suit will give you the visual appearance of someone taller.

  Avoid bright, busy patterns like the plague!

• The tall guy. The advice here is pretty much the opposite of a short guy’s fashion. Don’t wear vertical pinstripes because guess what? It’s only going to make you look taller.

  Well fitted trousers will make you look less lanky and, if you can, try to find clothing with horizontal stripes as this draws the eyes attention away from your height.

Ready For The Looking Sexy Part?

Okay, we’ve established our fashion strategy, now it’s time to look at the different trends and styles for looking sexy in 2008!

Smart Casual (Geek Chic)

This look is very much in at the moment and is quite popular with celebrities such as David Beckham, Brad Pitt and Justin Timberlake. The palette is neutral and earthy tones which is both sexy and sophisticated. I’m a big fan of this look, having dressed this way for sometime now.

The style combines a jumper (sweater if you’re American) or cardigan, with a dress shirt and jeans or dark trousers. You can then take the look that extra step further with a brown leather belt and leather strap watch. If you’re a shorter man, you can wear pinstripe trousers. This look suits skinny guys and big guys alike. Even the tall men can get in on this! Check out the following links to achieve this look:

Ralph Lauren Long Sleeve Pima Crew Neck Sweater - $48.99
Ralph Lauren Core Classic-Fit Broadcloth Blake Shirt - $79.50
Levi’s 505(tm) Regular-Fit Jean, Clean Light - $40.00

Laid Back Rocker

Distressed t-shirts, novelty shirts (tuxedo t-shirt pictured) and band shirts are still very much in at the moment. Try overlaying a distressed rock tee with a stylish cardigan. Perfect for keeping you warm in the winter months. This look is ideally suited to big-buckle belts, baggy jeans and canvas shoes.

Other great distressed shirts you can get include:

Green Flogging Molly shamrock t-shirt - $16.99
Rolling Stones flag tongue t-shirt - $17.95

Corporate Cool

This look will suit any type of guy if worn with enough confidence and attitude (tall guys might want to stick with a plain suit). The pinstripes make you look tall, slim and attractive. Women love confidence and this look exudes cool.

You can get the suit in the image from Ralph Lauren (yes, I’m a Ralph Lauren fan-boy!) for $239.99.

While this look may be too straight-laced for a night on the town with the lads, you can most definitely combine elements from both the smart casual and laid back rocker to form a hybrid fashion trend. Why not mix some casual grey wool trousers (pants) with a distressed rock tee and a suit jacket to finish it off? If you make sure that the colours match, there’s no reason you can’t come up with a totally unique look that oozes sex appeal.

Accessorise Yourself!

I’ve mentioned briefly the power of accessories such as a decent belt or watch. Enhancing your look with fashionable accessories is what separates the average from the sexy!

Here’s a quick checklist of must-have fashion accessories for the modern man in 2008:

A top quality belt – I’m a massive belt fan! I just can’t have too many of them. I’ve got subtle black leather belts, distressed brown leather belts with giant buckles, canvas belts, red belts and even a pink pyramid stud belt (hey, I went through a punk phase!). The most popular look right now is the distressed leather style.

Also, if you’re a complete geek like me, then this Nintendo belt buckle is just a dream come true!

A sexy watch – A good quality watch is almost certain to strike the eye of anyone you meet, and it can make or break your look. I prefer the thick leather wrist strap style with a nice big face.

My favourites are the Fossil Hardware and Degrade watches. They are very affordable and look fantastic!

A wool hat – Beanie visor hats are extremely fashionable and very popular around this time of year. Perfect if you’re hungover from all the New Years festivities and don’t want to do your hair!

Go Get Ya Sexy On!

Hopefully you’ve taken some great ideas on board here and can now form your own personal fashion strategy for 2008. All it takes is a little planning, a few well thought out styles, and a bucketload of New Years confidence and you’ll be making Justin Timberlake look like an average Joe!

If you think I’ve missed any of the latest fashion trends out of this article and would like to enlighten me, then please drop a reply in the comments. (If you post three or more comments, you’ll get some linklove with a do-follow link back to your site/blog in all your comments)

For weekly fashion tips and advice, I’d recommend you head on over to Smart Geezer and See Jack Shop for all the latest and greatest in men’s fashion.

Oh, and before I forget, make another New Years resolution today and subscribe to my RSS feed for all the latest fashion advice from Just A Guy Thing. If you like dressing well and looking good, you’ll be in 007 heaven when you read my next fashion & style article. (hint, hint!)