How to stay stylish, even when you’re on a budget

For one reason or another, dressing well is often associated with the ridiculously wealthy, those who have the extra cash hanging around to invest in a wardrobe fit for a prince. But I’m here to push that theory completely out of the window. The wealthy can afford expensive clothes, but expensive doesn’t always equate to decent, does it? A velvet Rolls Royce might be expensive, but it’s certainly not decent (and before you say anything, it does exist because I saw one driving through Mayfair last week, no word of a lie).

The trick is to be realistic, and to actually invest time and effort into your wardrobe rather than thinking that it should be as simple as walking into a shop and picking up the first thing that you see on the rack – because it’s not. Every gentleman deserves to dress well, and although this shouldn’t be a complicated process, we’re here to give you a few simple pointers.

Shopping on the high street seems to divide the masses right down the middle. The snooty (no offence if this applies to you) often stick their noses up at the prospect. And while yes, some of the clothes are outrageously awful (yesterday I saw a bright green and red tie that said “meet me under the mistletoe” on it (the retailer shall remain unnamed), that doesn’t mean that every single item on the high street needs to be lumped in the same bracket.

The beauty of shops like Topman or H&M is that they are always have the best basics, at the most affordable prices. In our eyes, unless you have a serious wad of disposable income, there’s absolutely no point in spending through the roof when it comes to basics. T-shirts and sweatshirts in particular are great to buy from the high street. They’ll be good enough quality to last you a few seasons and will undoubtedly save you money in the long run.

One thing that the high street is notorious for is jumping straight on the trend bandwagon before most of the catwalk shows have even finished. Trends have a tendency to hang around for absolutely no time at all, which makes them a complete waste of time and money.

You need to be more self-assured than to just wear what every single other person in the country is wearing: a gentleman should take the time to get to grips with his personal style and dress sense without having to look to the masses for inspiration. Yes, gentlemen like David Gandy, Oliver Cheshire and Beckham are the perfect people that you should be looking to, but you should never feel the need to completely emulate someone else’s style. In this vain, stick to neutral colours and avoid anything with a logo or a slogan. You’re too old to be dressing like Bieber – and he looks ridiculous most of the time anyway.

Before you head out to start shopping for your new life as an impeccably-dressed gentleman, make sure you know not only the type of thing that you’re looking for, but also the best place to head for that particular item. For example, Zara is great for outerwear and trousers, Topman is fantastic for t-shirts and sweatshirts, and Uniqlo is perfect for functional yet stylish basics. Once you know which shop has the perfect fit for you, the complexity and stress of shopping is suddenly removed.

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, but the best way to gain serious style points is to add accessories. The devil is in the detail, especially when it comes to how you dress. You can be wearing the most expensive jacket in the world, but if you’re wearing a hideous scarf or the wrong type of beanie, you’re going to completely ruin your outfit.

The best thing about accessory shopping is that you really can save serious cash. If you shop at the right places, you’ll find that most of the time you can get a decent hat, scarf or bag for under £100, which means that you can afford to create a really great stash of pieces to use again and again. Don’t skimp when it comes to buying accessories, because they really will make all the difference. A word of warning though: make sure to not overload them all in one outfit – a beanie will look much better worn alone then it will with every single accessory in your closet.