Michael Bastian's 10 Rules of Style for Men

My guy friends who visit my blog say I don't have enough men's fashion posts. I will try to include a few more just for them.

This article can be found in the April issue of DETAILS magazine with Ryan Seacrest on the cover. Michael Bastian is an up-and-coming fashion designer and former fashion director of Bergdorf Goodman.

1. When I moved to New York, I’d see Wall Street guys who wear beautiful suits all week and then decide, I’m gonna be that all-black guy—just on weekends. I went through this moment where I thought, Okay, I need “going-out” clothes. But that doesn’t work.

2. If you invite someone into your home, it’s your job to make them feel welcome. They can burn your house down, and it’s your job to not make a big deal out of it. I really believe that.

3. Unless you’re playing the piano at a bar, you don’t wear black tie every night. It pops up and it’s like, Oh, what do I do? But you can break up black tie now—wear the jacket with a pair of chinos or wear the pants with a T-shirt in the summer. Then it’s not a leap at all.

4. Men fall into patterns with their clothes. If they got the date they wanted to get wearing something, they don’t deviate much from that. We’re all a little Pavlovian that way.

5. Kanye West does his own thing. What I love the most about his style is that he wears every designer in the world, but you don’t see the designer—you just see him.

6. I was at Bergdorf Goodman for five years, and I really paid attention to how guys shop. I respect the drama inherent in shopping and get why guys might be afraid of that.

7. I’ve got this enormous Land’s End rolling nylon duffel. And I know exactly how much can go in it. The only thing that throws me is how to pack my Dopp kit.

8. If guys step back and are just honest about what they think looks good on them, it’s really hard to lose. You can spot guys who take on personas that are not theirs.

9. A friend of mine who grew up in Italy once explained to me that while little boys in America go to the park with their dads on the weekends, little boys in Italy go to the tailor with their fathers. So from a very early age it’s normal for Italian men to pay attention to clothes.

10. There are fewer and fewer guys who have to wear a suit to work. So there’s this weird thing happening where the cool guy actually wants to wear a suit, and he doesn’t have to. The suit becomes a choice, not a gun held to your head.