While flipping through an online Men’s Magazine called D’Marge the other day I was surprised at the gushing over Jon Hamm’s clothing but found fault in his white apple watch band when combined with the suit. Personally, I was offended by the whole look that he is going for. Now of course Jon is free to wear what he wants and I am sure he wouldn’t care what I say, but the article got me thinking about where it has all gone wrong lately and I think I know what it is that has collapsed so dramatically in men’s styling. It’s what I call mish mash combinations, a trend where you can combine anything you want without considering the theme. If you look at the picture on the left with Jon Hamm as Don Draper it is perfect. Everything makes sense. It is simple and stylish, mature and sophisticated. The picture on the left is a combination of so many things. His hair looks unwashed, the glasses look like he is a professor, the beard screams “I can’t bother/ageing hipster”, the jacket is too gaudy with those pinstripes that are way too thick, the jacket is certainly too tight, it’s too short, the pants are barely hiding anything if you know what I mean and his shirt is tight around his neck.

Sure the Apple watch band kills it, even more, it could be easily solved with a nice dark, silver or brown leather band, but right now it screams “I just got back from a squash game”. Personally, I prefer traditional watches when dressing up. They just look more adult, and whilst I get people love the smartwatch, this particular one just doesn’t look good with a suit.

Dressing well is all about the entire ensemble, it all has to make sense and nothing looks more juvenile than a man who seems to throw as many things together with little thought for the whole package. My tip is to envisage what you are going to wear in advance of your event and make decisions based on this and then combine to make the perfect outfit that makes sense and has a solid mature theme.