042: 5 Overrated Accessories and What to Do Instead

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

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So when someone sees it, you definitely can't miss it. You know what I mean? And, um, that's not me. I don't want to walk into a room and bring a ton of attention to myself. It happens anyway at times. Cause most of the places that I step in, not to toot my own horn, but I'm really the best dressed guy there. So eventually the attention is going to come. But not because I'm forcing it.

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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 Riché from chaceandryder.com and your favorite menswear YouTuber's favorite menswear YouTuber. I've helped dozens of clients and hundreds of students and viewers feel more confident by looking their best and always making a great first impression.

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Welcome to episode 42 of I'm Not A Gentleman, aka the Jackie Robinson episode. Now we could have gone multiple ways with number 42. Um, I can think of a few guys, namely Ronnie Lott, one of the hardest-hitting safeties the NFL has ever seen. Um, being from New York and.

01:30
Born in the Bronx. When I hit 42, I think of Mariano Rivera, the closer. And just to be clear, I'm not a Yankees fan. I'm a Mets fan, if anything. I'm not a huge baseball guy to begin with, but I'm just saying, people assume that because I was born in the Bronx, I'm a Yankees fan. I'm not a Yankees fan. Just to put that out there. Somebody else, you can also think about when it comes to basketball.

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an old-school guy would be James Worthy. Or if you're thinking about new school guys, a guy like Kevin Love, which I feel is very underrated. But yeah, you can think about number 42 and for it not to be Jackie Robinson. So not much needs to be said after that. In this episode, we go and talk about some accessories that I feel are overrated. And I'm going to tell you what to do instead.

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Intro.

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

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So yeah, man, in this episode, we're going to talk about five accessories that I felt are overrated accessories and, um, they can do some serious damage, man. So we're going to tell you what they are and also tell you what to do instead of those accessories. So without further ado, man, let's get right into this episode. Accessory. Number one is a tie bar.

03:06
I just never really understood the whole tie bar situation. And don't get me wrong, man. I've rocked them. So when I say I never understood them, I'm not saying that I've never, I've never used them. That would be a flat-out lie. Actually, one of the gifts for my gooms men, um, that I gave them when I got married was a tie bar. So, uh, I've definitely used them. Probably the worst money I've ever spent. I remember I bought one, um,

03:35
I want to say it was a quarter-inch length because back then I was wearing a lot of skinny ties. So one thing that I knew back then is I didn't want for my tie bar to be the same length as my ties. I forgot exactly how wide it was, but it wasn't wide at all. And I think I paid $175 for it. After tax and shipping came to almost 200 bucks.

04:05
And that was from the company Tom Brown. I spent a lot of bad money, man, in menswear, but that one has to be the top. That's not to say I didn't get used out of it. I used to wear it all the time, but looking back now, $200 for a tie bar. Nah, man, that was a horrible decision. But yeah, I've definitely rocked them, but I don't really understand them.

04:30
They don't make a ton of sense to me. Number one, ties are so beautiful. So why would you want a piece of metal going across your tie? It just doesn't make sense. You know, now I understand that people wear them because they don't want their ties to move and I'm guilty of it. Sometimes I'm sitting at my desk recording a video and then I'll look when I'm editing and my tie is kind of to the left, you know.

04:53
So I get it, but it doesn't bother me that much for me to wear a piece of metal to keep it in place. You know, so we are definitely a useless accessory in my opinion. Like what would you want a piece of metal right under your face? And let me actually, let me let me reiterate or let me clarify. It's not so much the tie bar. That's the problem is where guys wear it.

05:23
So what would I do instead? If it really bothers you that much that your tie is not staying straight, you can use a tie bar, just wear it all the way at the bottom, like closer to your waist so that it's not seen in the V section. By the V section, I'm referring to the part that's visible when your jacket is buttoned and you see your shirt and your tie.

05:50
I'm referring to that part. You don't want the tie bar to be there. So if the tie bar is that important to you, or rather if your tie moving is that important to you, then I would say, yeah, you can wear a tie bar. Just put it all the way at the bottom. That way that your tie is clipped to your shirt, but nobody can see it. I think originally that's where it was meant to be worn anyway. And I wanna blame Mad Men for this insanity of people wearing it as an accessory. It's not an accessory. It's just there to...

06:20
keep your tie in place. So yeah, number one, the tie bar, I hate it. Number two, and this one might be controversial, but cufflinks. I hate cufflinks. I hate French cuff shirts. And probably the reason why I hate them is because a lot of guys, when they wear them, the cuffs are usually so big that the jacket sleeves,

06:48
can't even go all the way down. So they usually get caught in the French cuff. And then all you see is the French cuff and the cuff links. Yeah, I'm not a fan. Now that's not to say guys shouldn't be wearing cufflinks. I think if you're wearing a tuxedo, of course, you have to wear cufflinks. There are no other options. So yeah, you reserve those for tuxedos, but cuff links with a suit.

07:15
And what should I say? French cuff shirts with a suit. I don't know. That's not me at all, man. So what should one do instead? Well, that's easy. You can just wear barrel cuffs with buttons. You know what I mean? And if you like cufflinks, maybe try mother-of-pearl buttons. You know, those are solid buttons that are very nice.

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But yeah, man, just cufflinks and French cuff shirts. Stay away from those when you're wearing a suit. Just save them for your tuxedos.

07:52
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09:02
Number three, you gotta laugh about this one, man. It's colorful striped socks, man. What's the deal with those, man? And I understand guys wanna be different and bring attention to themselves, but there are better ways to do it. Colorful striped socks are not the move. And by the way, it's not the colors that I have a problem with.

09:30
So let's just get that out of the way because I wear burgundy socks 90% of the time, or probably 80% of the time, the other 20% I wear money-green socks. So it's not the colors I beef with it's when you wear all the colors at once. So striped socks definitely bring a lot of attention to your feet and

09:56
You guys know my biggest pet peeve is when guys wear light brown shoes with dark suits and it's for the same reason. You're just bringing all the eyes to your feet as opposed to bringing all the eyes to your face. The worst part about it though, the guys who wear colorful striped socks, they usually wear really ugly shoes. I mean, if you want people to look at your feet, why aren't you wearing nice shoes then?

10:25
You know what I mean? It sounds like common sense to me. Maybe I'm bugging, you know? So yeah, man, you guys need to stop that. Solid color socks, yes, that's cool. A really subtle pattern, like a pin dot. That's cool too. But yeah, striped socks with a million different colors, yeah, no.

10:54
Kind of look clownish in my opinion. And how do you rectify it? Well, just like I just said, I would do solid color socks. We can do them in whatever color you like. And if you do like patterns, then you can do like a very subtle pattern. But that's pretty easy. But yeah, chill with the colorful striped socks, man. All right, let's talk about number four. Well, number four is definitely controversial. And that's a bow tie.

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I'm not a fan of bow ties at all, but they are necessary. So just like I was saying cufflinks, you want to save them for tuxedos. I feel the same way about bow ties. Bow ties should only be worn with tuxedos. Now the reason why this is controversial is because I believe in individuality. We don't all have to look the same. You know what I mean? So most guys wear ties. And if you want to be a little bit different,

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I can understand bull ties. It just to me, it brings too much attention to itself. You know, so it's not for me. At the same time, if I was advising someone and they're telling me that their thing is bull ties, I wouldn't try to talk them away from it. You know, because I feel like you should be able to have your own swag, your own vibe, whatever that is, you know what I mean?

12:21
So it's not a mistake, but it's like the way that I dress myself, I don't, I don't like to bring too much attention to what I'm wearing. And that's not to say I don't get a ton of attention. I do, but it's not because one piece is screaming over the rest. And I feel like bow ties kind of do that because less than 2% of guys probably wear bow ties instead of ties.

12:50
So when someone sees it, you definitely can't miss it. You know what I mean? And that's not me. I don't want to walk into a room and bring a ton of attention to myself. It happens anyway at times, because most of the places that I step in, not to toot my own horn, but I'm really the best dressed guy there. So eventually the attention is going to come.

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but not because I'm forcing it. And I feel like with a bull tie, even though you might not be wearing it to get attention, but that's what happens when you wear bull ties. It just brings a ton of attention to it. And if someone comes to me and they're like, yeah, I wanna start dressing well, where do I start? I usually tell guys, you know, buying some nice ties or wearing some nice ties is a great way to start, you know, because they usually one size fits all, I'm gonna have to try them on, but...

13:44
If somebody already has their own style already and both ties is part of it, more power to them. I wouldn't try to change that. Just want to make that clear. It's just not for me. How do you rectify it? Well, just wear regular ties. That's, that's simple. I'm a big regular tie proponent, and by regular ties. I'm talking about neckties, um, big proponent of that. So I would say just wear regular ties, man.

14:13
And if you're curious about the type of ties that I recommend, I did make an episode on the ties that I really love, the three tie style that I recommend. And go back to episode 23 and you can hear my thoughts on ties. So yeah, episode 23 is a good episode to listen to for that. All right. So that was number four. Let's go to number five. And this one is a bi-fold wallet. I don't want to say why guys still use those things.

14:43
Typically they are so bulky and you can kind of see them sticking out out of somebody's pocket. I don't like a ton of things in my pocket to begin with. So the last thing that I want is to have something bulky in there. You end up putting a ton of things in there that you won't even need. Those be having receipts from like 2002. Come on man. What are we doing bro? What are we doing man?

15:10
So what do I recommend instead? This one is easy, man. You can do a card carrier. So maybe something with like five or six spots at most. Put your credit cards, debit cards, driver's license. I don't really know what else you would need. You know, you don't have to carry receipts in your pocket. This is 2024. What are we doing? If you, the type of guy who likes to carry cash with you,

15:38
then you can have a money clip so you can have both of those together one in each front pocket you don't need a bi-fold wallet it just gives you the opportunity to put more crap in there so these are the five accessories that I feel are overrated and what you should be doing instead so if you feel like I'm missing one because I'm sure I am or you disagree with my list um shoot me an email

16:07
VR at chase and rider.com. Once again, VR at chase and rider.com. Or you can highlight me on Instagram, man. Chase that rider. I'm very responsive on there. But yeah, that was my show for today, man. And by the way, I know I've been missing on YouTube lately. And all you guys have seen on YouTube are just the podcast episodes. But I will be recording YouTube videos again. Actually, I just edited a video last night.

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I gotta put some final touches to it and it'll be out in a day or two. So definitely still check out for me on YouTube, turn your notifications on so that you can know when I drop something new in there. I'm going to try to be a bit more active on there. So thanks for tuning into number 42 and come back again next week for another fire episode of I'm Not A Gentleman. Peace!

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