For years, “dressing on the basis of the body” was thought as a feminine necessity, but it is important that also men learn to understand their body type and shape to dress themselves better. This surely boosts self-esteem – as it is universally known that an outfit with the right fit makes you feel that you can achieve anything – and the perception of others about you reflects in your own self-confidence.
Whether someone has a splendid physique or not, every man can benefit from learning to pick out clothes for his wardrobe that suit his body the best. But what are the most common proportions and body shape types? Are there any categories? Well yes. Most men fall into one of the following 5 types of male physique: trapezoidal, inverted triangle, rectangle, triangle or oval.
Once you have defined in which category you fall into (be careful not to cheat!), it will be easier for you to understand what to look or avoid while building a wardrobe.
Here are some series of tips on how to dress according to your body and how to choose the right kind of clothes for you.
The trapezoidal shaped body is usually characterised by wide shoulders and hips, but a relatively narrow waist. The legs usually have a rather straight shape and a standard circumference.
Because of the upper and lower parts of the body are well balanced, this type of silhouette is rather simple to dress. Generally, most men’s clothing is adaptable to this form, provided that everything is balanced in proportion.
Easy: you can wear a jacket with the shape and the customisations that you prefer, as long as it is in line with the design of the trousers. In fact, the clothing for a man with muscular built or the clothing for a tall but rather thin man allows you the wearer to try an infinite number of jacket-trousers combinations and experiment with the patterns and colours of the fabric.
For someone with rather short legs, customising trousers or chinos with a cuffless bottom is a good idea, it will make the image of the body seem more slender.
Similar to the trapezium shape, the V-shaped body or inverted triangle is characterised by broad shoulders and narrow chest, hips and waist.
With a V-shaped torso, it is very important to pay attention to the imbalance between the upper and lower parts of the body.
If you belong to this category of men it may be that you are an athlete or that you indulge in a lot of sporting activity, and you might be looking for men’s clothes for muscular legs or bodybuilder clothing. If this is the case, the first tip is about the upper part of your look: you should always prefer a classic blazer. The shirt-like shoulders and the unstructured shape of this jacket will better harmonize your proportions, giving you a strong sense of comfort. To customise your trousers choose a medium leg hem, so that the fabric does not get stuck in the calf area.
Wearing belts will help you to emphasize the waist and hips part, giving a sense of balance to the look. In this case, you will need to customise the waistband of the trousers with simple belt loops.
Even if you are tempted to emphasize your shape with a pair of trousers or skinny jeans, be careful as they will draw attention to the disproportion of the lower half of the body. Opt for rather a simple slim cut trousers.
The rectangle physique has broad shoulders almost equal to the waist and the hips. The ideal clothing for this form should have the purpose of visibly widening the shoulders while narrowing the lower torso, so as to create the illusion of a more trapezoid shape.
With this kind of physique, the best thing is to draw attention to the upper part of the body. How to do that? Well, first of all, you can start by wearing roll-on jackets with light padding, these two little details will help you get a trapezium shape. A double-breasted jacket in a patterned fabric (combined with plain-coloured trousers) will help you do the rest.
For the lower part of the outfit, choose pants with a slim fit and a classic narrow leg hem. Avoid pleats and lapels, so that the trouser line accompanies the ensemble of the suit but does not characterize it too much.
The type triangle body shape has narrow shoulders and chest than the waist and hips, this makes the lower part of the torso look larger and can create the illusion that you have slanted shoulders.
With the shape of the triangular body, you should concentrate on improving the imbalance created by the lower half that appears larger than the upper body.
Jackets in dark colours with single-breasted fastening and classic lapels that are not too large may be matched with button-down shirts, will tend to taper the shape of your chest.
For the lower part, focus on trousers that can help you slim your figure: go for a regular fit and a medium leg hem. If you do not have very long legs, avoid trousers with cuffs, they tend to weigh down the whole look.
As the name suggests, this body type appears somewhat round, particularly at the abdomen area. This often results in narrow looking shoulders and thin towards the lower part of the leg.
In this case, it is more important to concentrate on the try making the appearance of torso length more and shoulders a little broad in order to make the rest of the body look more defined.
If you have wide hips or if you tend to put on some weight on the belly area, you may be more comfortable with pleated trousers. It is definitely the best solution in terms of comfort, even if this cut does not tend to improve the figure.
Make sure that the legs of the trousers and the sleeves of the jacket are of the appropriate length, if the contrary happens that would make the limbs seem shorter and would take away the balance out of the look. Another trick to add some visible length to the legs and emphasize the upper part of the chest is to wear tight pants (with a slim fit and with a narrow leg hem) and customise the jacket with a single-breasted fastening.
As for the fabrics, wear vertical stripes and pinstripes that will noticeably lengthen the shape of the body. Instead, avoid bright coloured belts, as they would only draw attention to your wider part of the body.