How to stay sharp when you work in the City

While there may be benefits to wearing a suit everyday (less thought required in the morning, a constantly sharp outfit on hand and looking like a gentleman at all times), wearing the same thing every day can definitely get repetitive. A new season is the perfect time to reevaluate your sartorial sophistication and we’re bringing you the best ways to sharpen up your look and stand out from the city crowd.

GET YOURSELF A PROPER SUIT, Becoming a gentleman starts one way and one way only: acknowledging that you need to invest in your look. We’re not saying that you need to spend every penny you make on your wardrobe, but you do need to start taking your look seriously and that starts with getting yourself a proper, well-made suit. You’re wearing it everyday, so it’s important that you invest well. We’d always recommend heading to Savile Row and getting something tailored especially to you, but if that’s out of your budget then we’d highly recommend J.Crew, Gieves and Hawkes and Richard James.

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SMALL CHANGES FOR A BIG MEETING, Every gentleman wants to come away from a meeting feeling victorious and while we can’t promise that looking sharp is going to win you the client you’re after, it’s definitely going to help your cause. First impressions count and if you look scruffy and miss-matched, you’re going to struggle to be taken seriously. If you know that you have a big meeting, we’d recommend that you try and mix it up a bit compared to what you wear everyday. Even if the changes are as small as wearing a different tie to normal (try Oliver Sweeney – more on this later) or arriving to your meeting in a silk scarf (Brioni have a great selection), they are still important.

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MAKE ACCESSORIES YOUR BEST FRIEND, If you want to make a genuine difference to your look and to stand out from your peers, you need to get familiar with accessories. This doesn’t have to be a daunting prospect, gentlemen – all you need to do is to invest in a couple of fantastic pieces that are going to uplift and sharpen your look. Start with these: a great briefcase (you can’t go wrong with these 5 choices), an out-there pair of socks, a killer jacket (Whistles have a great selection) and slick pair of shoes. Read this to help you on your way.

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IT’S TIME TO UPDATE YOUR SHIRT SELECTION, If you’ve owned the same 5 ties for the last 5 years of your working life, it’s time to make a change. First of all, you need to up your selection – if you have a couple sitting on your desk on rotation, people are going to start to notice. You might think that no one is going to look twice at a tie but we promise you, they will. It’s also important that you have an honest conversation with yourself and ask if that bright, motif-based tie is actually a good thing for you to own. You’re a gentleman, so start dressing like on and head to Tom Ford to help you get there.

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AND YOUR SHIRTS…, Nothing is going to set a great suit off better than a good shirt. Tired shirts look, well, tired and trust us when we say that one of those can be spotted a mile off. Getting yourself a proper selection of shirts fit for a gentleman is guaranteed to get you one step closer to being the most city stylish man you can be. We always think a gentleman looks best in lighter colours like pale pink, pale blue and white and we would recommend Hugo Boss.

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SOCKS, Socks are something that – more often than not – are overlooked. You may have always thought that you have to wear the same kind of dark, subtle socks and we are fully aware that dressing this way can become pretty mundane. Hear us out before you throw the “I’m not allowed to wear coloured socks at work” excuse, because Quiet Rebellion are bringing you a way that you can spice things up.

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