040: The One Piece You Need to Elevate Your Business Casual Look

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Announcer: I'm Not A Gentleman is a production of chaceandryder.com.

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You know, it's funny, man. When I was first getting into classic, well, not, not even before I really got into classic menswear when I was still part of the fashion crowd, um, I used to be a big fan of Tom Ford and a lot of the advertisements, they would have some bold suits, man, and that used to just really speak to me, you know what I mean? I was like, man, I would love to have this suit, you know?

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And thank God I couldn't afford those suits. You know, so I would just save those pictures and look at them like, man, one day. By the time I could afford those suits, I mean, those are sort of like five grand, so I don't even know if I can afford those suits, to be honest with you. But that's besides the point, man. But by the time that I got to a point where I could maybe get a suit that's similar to those, but maybe it's not quite Tom Ford.

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I came to my senses like, nah, this is way too bold and peacocky. That's not me at all. I'm not really into those bold colors as suits, but some of them do work well as sport coats. You know what I mean? Yo, what up? Welcome to I'm Not A Gentleman, the show designed to help you look stylish without following trends. I'm your host Vladimir Arrishay from chaseandrider.com and your favorite menswear YouTuber's favorite menswear YouTuber.

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I've helped dozens of clients and hundreds of students and viewers feel more confident by looking at best and always making a great first impression. So this episode is going to be about a few pointers that you can apply when it comes to dressing, business casual. And the way that I came up with this idea is earlier this week, I was doing a one-on-one with one of the guys in my membership, the Classic Man's Wear Hub.

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We just call it the hub for short. And, um, he was telling me he wants to start dressing more business casual, and he's not exactly sure where to start. So right now all he really has all suits and he wants to know how can he wear more sport coats and blazers going forward? So I was like, yeah, this is going to be a dope podcast idea. Even though I already spoke about business casual before, but obviously everyone doesn't hear every single episode that I put out.

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Also, there's going to be some new wrinkles to this one. So stay tuned and let's talk business casual. Intro!!

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Intro music: Bag in that bag in that bag again, whoa!

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So welcome to episode 40 of I'm Not A Gentleman, AKA the Mike All-Stat episode. And this is no exaggeration, man. If you guys don't know who Mike All-Stat is, go do your Googles right now. Post the podcast and look up Mike All-Stat from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, man.

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Running back.

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That dude was the truth and nothing but the truth, man. Talking about running cats over, nobody wanted to tackle Mike Allslat, man. And Mike is a rare breed, man. You don't really see too many white running backs. You know what I mean? And he was definitely one. I don't recall if he started off as a fullback or not, but eventually he became a featured back. And I'm no Bucks fan. I'm a Giants fan, but that boy was a problem.

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Problem. So shout out to my cost that man episode 40 the mic all start episode So yeah, I mean like I was saying we're gonna talk about business casual. I feel like it's not that complicated You just have to know No certain things and That's what I'm planning on doing with this episode is to make it easier for guys to do the business casual look and Funny enough man while I'm recording this on Sunday night

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One of my guys in the in the hub, we have a group in the hub, not a group of space because we have spaces where you can do different things inside of the membership. So we had a space in the hub where you can post what you're wearing. It's called what I'm wearing today. Shout out to Starform. Definitely jacked that from them. But yeah, so in the what I'm wearing today space, one of the guys just posted a picture.

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I asked him if he wanted some feedback and he said, yeah, of course. So I was already in front of my camera. I had the camera on. Uh, I was working on some stuff in OBS. So I was like, yo, let me just answer him via video instead of.

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putting it in writing, you know, because I felt like I had a lot to say about what he had on not that he was like really bad looking or anything like that. He actually looked very well put together. Him and I worked one on one before, um, prior to him signing up to be a founding member of the hub. And by the way, you're going to be hearing me speak about the hub a lot, probably in the next couple of weeks. It is taking a lot of my time. I'm fully dedicated to the hub right now, just myself and about 20 guys in there, which are the founding members.

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So it's not really open for anybody to join until we officially open the doors next month in April. But we're just building in there right now. The guys who signed up, they're just helping me build the website, giving me feedback. And we are really already having some good transformation in there. So definitely keep your ears to the streets, man. So you can hear when the opening date is going to be. And also soon I have like a wait list so that you can get on there.

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And then as soon as the doors open up, you can sign on. But yeah, I recorded a quick five minute video and told them my thoughts on what he was wearing and how we could do it better. And so I'm going to talk about some of those things as well, because it was based on business casual also. But yeah, let's get right into it, man. So when I'm talking about business casual, I'm referring to when you're not in a suit, you still in tailored clothing. So you're wearing, let's say.

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Out trousers, sport coats, a blazer. And a lot of guys are kind of stuck when it comes to that. I know I was. So all my pictures from back then between 2016, 2015, well, 2015, 2016 to about 2018, probably, there aren't any pictures of me doing that business casual sort of look because I didn't know what I was doing.

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Actually, 2017 is probably when I started doing it, like, you know, slowly doing it. And that's because I always thought that it was very hard to do. Because when it comes to a suit, it's just one piece, man. You don't really have to think about much as far as combining it. Yeah, you have to think about a tie and those types of things, but I'm talking about, you don't have to worry about what color trousers I'm going to wear with this jacket. And this is exactly where guys get stuck at. The cheat code to me is all about the trousers.

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I feel like once you have the trousers down, then everything else just becomes easier. And before we even delve into different sport coats and blazers and stuff like that, one thing that you always got to think of is the classic menswear uniform. The classic menswear uniform is a navy blazer and grey trousers. You can never go wrong with that.

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So this is where every guy should start.

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Navy blazer, gray trousers.

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Once you have that, then you can start branching out into other combinations. But that combination is undefeated. You can wear that for the rest of your life. And that's how I started to get my feet wet in the business casual look. And that's what I always recommend. A couple of things to keep in mind with that look. You kind of want it to be like, material wise, you want the materials to be

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to work well together. So you don't want to wear fresco trousers and a flannel sport coat or flannel blazer. You kind of want them to be in the same ballpark as far as the season, right? So you can definitely do four season kind of fabric for both, or you can do seasonal fabric depending on what season that you're in, but you kind of want them to pair well together. So something like a Hapsack.

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blazer with fresco trousers in the summer. Once again, undefeated look. But yeah, that's something that everybody can do. You know what I mean? So I was still there. But let's talk about more fun stuff. I know that's why you guys are really here. The cheat code for that look really starts with the trousers. Once you have the right trousers,

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then the sport coats are a breeze. And let me tell you what I mean. My wardrobe is curated in a way where most pieces work well with each other. So I definitely buy trousers that are going to work well with most colored sport coats. So let's just stay with a solid sport coat for a second. So let's just talk about a solid blazer, right?

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We were talking about Navy Blazers before, so let's stay on that color. So I have khaki trousers, I have medium brown trousers, I have medium green trousers, I have all shades of grey, so I have medium grey, that's probably the one that I wear the most. I have light grey, I have charcoal, I have cream trousers.

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So I have a few trousers. Now, all those trousers that I just named, they all will work with a Navy sport coat or blazer. Now, as I was saying, the gray is the one that's considered the menswear uniform, usually the medium gray. That's the one that you see the most. But all those will work, you know what I'm saying? So sometimes when I wear my Habsack blazer, Navy blazer, with khaki trousers, It's a killer look, man.

10:50
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And once again, that's something that anybody can do. So once you have the correct trouser colors, then you are well on your way. The problem is I think guys overthink it. You know what I mean? So just to give you a quick example. So my guy that I was talking about in the membership who posted his picture into what I'm wearing thread, he's wearing a brown, a dark brown blazer, or should I say sport coat. He's wearing a dark brown sport coat. And he was wearing Navy trousers with them. Well, not Navy trousers really, Navy chinos. And

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If you just heard what I just mentioned, as far as the trousers that I wear as our trousers, I didn't name Navy. And that's because Navy to me is too serious of a color. And usually it looks like it belongs on a suit more than a sport coat and our trouser combination. There are exceptions. I have seen some guys do it well. The exceptions would depend on the material that the trousers are made of.

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the material, the more that you can pull it off. But even then to me, it's never the best option. There are always options that are going to work better. You know what I mean? But things happen, maybe it's like laundry day, everything's in the cleaners, and you only have that navy flannel trouser, and that's what you wanna wear. So it can work, but there are always other colors, in my opinion, that work better. So the question that my,

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We call them Hubsters, it's out of the hub. So the question that the Hubster had was what color should he wear then with his dark brown sport coat, because that's where he kind of like got stuck and he pulled out the bluchinos. I think like a medium green would have been a killer combination, because there aren't any better combination than green and brown. So this is something that's deeply rooted in nature. So those colors just work.

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You know what I'm saying? So there are colors that just work really, really great together. When you think of pink and brown, those are two great combinations. I'm talking about like sport coats and out trousers here. I'm just saying in general, you know, green and red. But yeah, green and brown is a killer combination, man. So that's what I probably would have reached for first. You know what I mean? And that's not to say you can't wear it with a medium gray. You definitely can. You know what I mean?

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To me, that would be my first option, simply because that combination can never go wrong. But yeah, man, it's really simple. It's really the color of the trousers. That's what you have to make sure that you have all the basics. And once you have those colors that I just named, by the way, cream also would have been another option for that dark brown blazer. Keep saying blazer, it's a sport coat. Cream would have been another killer combination with that. That's my recommendation. Make sure that you have your trouser colors.

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like you have the right colors and then you can pretty much pair them with any sport coats. So typically it's cool to start with solid colors when it comes to your sport coats. But if you really want to have fun, that's when you start wearing some really nice sport coats that have a lot of different patterns. You know what I mean? Because I'm not a fan of suits with crazy ass patterns. That's just not me. I do like a Prince of Wales suit. Actually, I love a Prince of Wales suit.

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I do like a chalk stripe suit. I do like a windowpane suit, but I'm not really a fan of a lot of bold kind of patterns. I think those work better as sport coats. And it's funny, man, when I was first getting into classic, well, not even before I really got into classic menswear, when I was still part of the fashion crowd, I used to be a big fan of Tom Ford.

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in a lot of the advertisements, they would have some bold suits, man. And that used to just really speak to me. You know what I mean? I was like, man, I would love to have this suit, you know. And thank God I couldn't afford those suits. You know, so I would just save those pictures and look at them like, man, one day. By the time I could afford those suits, I mean, those are like five grand, so I don't even know if I can really afford those suits, to be honest with you.

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But that's besides the point, man. But by the time that I got to a point where I could maybe get a suit that's similar to those, but maybe it's not quite Tom Ford, I came to my senses. Like, nah, this is way too bold and peacocky. That's not me at all. I'm not really into those bold colors as suits. But some of them do work well as sport coats. You know what I mean? But I don't really have much of a

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cheat code with that. It's more, you know, you get what you like, man. There are countless fabrics out there. So if you look at a lot of companies, sometimes their sport coats are more expensive than their suits. And you say to yourself, how could that be? How could one piece be more expensive than two pieces? And that's because those fabrics are sourced from some top males. And a lot of those males put a lot of time in coming up with those fabrics and those pattern combinations.

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So you can look at spot codes and see what tickles your fancy, if you will. I never used that term before on the podcast and it's probably my last time using it. Cause that's just not a term that's in my vocabulary. I don't know what just happened here, but you know what I mean. You know, browse the different catalogs online and see what you really like and just go for it, man. You know what I mean?

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your trousers are going to make sure that they're subdued. All the trousers that I just recommended are pretty much plain trousers. Although in some cases, like with tweed, you can definitely do like a tweed that's like a herringbone as your trouser. And I have worn chalk stripe trousers before, but I've worn those with more like casual, you know? I mean, I'd wear a chalk stripe trouser.

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with sneakers and probably a sweatshirt. But I don't really do it with a sport coat, if that makes sense. Shoe wise, that's a big one, man, because I'm one of those guys, I don't do oxfords unless I'm wearing a suit. I find it a little bit out of place with business casual. Like everything else though, there are exceptions and I've definitely seen it done well, it's just not for me.

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I do have a ton of oxfords and I only wear those with suits. One of the exceptions I would say depends on what type of material that the oxford is made of. So if it's suede or grain oxford then yeah. But I still find other options are going to work better such as loafers and monk straps,

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But yeah, I don't do Oxford's with my business casual because they're always better combinations in my opinion. Another thing I don't do when it comes to the business casual look, I don't wear a tie. And those things are subjective and they're just the way that I do things, you know what I mean? So I can only tell you about what I do. Once again, it's another thing that I've seen other guys do well.

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So I'm not saying that don't do it. I'm just saying I don't do it. A tie to me is what makes something formal. So for example, let's say you're going out after work and you're already in a suit. What most guys will do is take their ties off because they're going to stop for drinks or whatever. And that's a way of making the suit more casual, toning down the suit, you know? So a tie to me is very business-like. I love ties though, really love ties.

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but I don't wear them if I'm doing business casual because I'm doing business casual. If I want to wear a tie then I'll wear a suit. Once again, that's just me, you know what I mean? So when people ask me my opinion, I'm going to tell you exactly that. So you don't have to follow the way that I do it, but that's just the way that I do it, you know what I mean? But yeah, man, this was the episode on how to do business casual. I know this is a short episode, that's because this isn't really that complicated.

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You start with the trousers, you make sure you have solid trousers and you make sure that you have colors that are going to work with most sport coats and you just go from there. Now of course some colors work better with some sport coats and like I was saying my guy had on a dark brown sport coat and I think that it would work very well with green trousers and also cream trousers because cream is kind of like in the brown family.

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So I think that it'll work really well with that But like I was saying it'll go with gray trousers as well What I wouldn't do is pair it with something that's dark because you kind of want like a darker and A lighter color kind of you know I mean and that's why I was saying the security guard look aka the classic menswear uniform I feel like it works better when you're wearing it with the medium gray trousers as opposed to

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charcoal trousers because they both work, but the combination of the darker jacket and the lighter trousers work better to me than the charcoal. But it works. I've done it. It just doesn't work as well to my eyes. So I always like to have balance there. So if the jacket is dark, I want the trousers to be a little bit lighter and vice versa. So just want to make sure all your bases are covered with your trousers.

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And that's going to allow you to pretty much wear most color sport coats with them. So I hope that was useful to you guys. And if you have any questions, you know where to find me. I'm on Instagram at Chase That Rider. And that's probably where I'm most active. And of course, when the hub opens up, then you'll have pretty much unlimited access to me.

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inside of the hub, man, we're really building something special and I can't wait to open the doors so you guys can see what we've been working on since last month. Once again, transformation is already happening in there, man, we're having a good time. So keep your ear to the streets to hear more. So thanks for tuning into episode 40 and come back again next week for another five episode of I'm Not A Gentleman. Peace.

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Outro music: Back in that bag, in that bag, again
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Tell 'em to watch it...