Introducing Michael

I personally like more clothes that I think most people would consider to be conservative. Spencer jokes and says that I dress like a Republican [I promise I’m a Democrat and voted Biden/Harris!], but it’s what I feel most comfortable and confident in. By “conservative” I think I just generally like the “clean-cut” look a lot. I like to tuck my button-up shirts in because I think it looks sloppy otherwise; I don’t like clothes that have huge logos on them, or ones that have their brand name in large bold lettering; I avoid clothes that have big designs or patterns on them too. Personally, I think my personal fashion/style is comfortably boring, haha. I also really didn’t have a huge need to buy a lot of clothes either because when I worked as a firefighter/paramedic, I wore a uniform.

I don’t think my friends would say much different about the way that I dress; and I think that they would agree that I like to look clean-cut if/when I do dress to go out. Otherwise, I dress for comfort!

Well, for starters, my group of best friends are primarily women – so I don’t do much leading, inspiring, or joining in that group of friends, much less in any other group of my friends. I also think that my style/fashion choices are influenced by context, such as who I’m going to be around/spending time with and where I’m going (i.e. is it a casual brewery, fancy restaurant, or nightclub?). I think if I were to categorize my friends into groups, they would fall into one of four groups: (1) best girlfriends, (2) firefighter friends, (3) gay friends, (4) miscellaneous/colleagues. 

With my firefighter friends, Spencer and I often get complimented (especially by their wives) about our choice in clothes/outfits. To us, wearing what we normally wear is just our baseline and we don’t really go out of our way to dress to the nines because we don’t find ourselves going to places like nightclubs with them so much as we do find ourselves going out to local restaurants for dinner or to a local brewery or bar for drinks. I hope my style just says to people: “This guy isn’t a slob.”

Truthfully, I don’t have a single individual who inspires my choice in style – but I think that GQ showcases some of the styling choices that I like to emulate. GQ, although admittedly more dressier than casual, still definitely gives off what I feel is a “clean-cut” and “professional” gentleman’s look.

Chris Evans

Bradley Cooper

Ryan Gosling

These guys definitely embody the quintessential clean-cut gentleman’s look that I would love to emulate for myself. I don’t think “inspiring” is a word that I would use to describe how I feel when I think of, or view, these celebrities; however, I think that the image they’ve created for themselves, and the image that their team of stylists have helped them to hone, is definitely one that appeals to me.

My gosh, if I could have any one of the above three guys’ wardrobes, I’d be elated! Closet envy is a real thing! Imagine all of the amazing clothes and accessories that those guys must own, haha. Think about how much it must have cost in order to build up that kind of variety of a wardrobe! It's unfathomable to me given the simplicity of my closet that I’ve kept up with for the last decade.

(1) GQ Magazine, (2) Pinterest – huge fan, always has pictures that I can look up as some sort of frame of reference for a particular look if I’m going for it; for example, I was recently in a wedding where the bride whose party/side I was part of wanted me to wear suspenders. SUSPENDERS!?! I’d never worn suspenders before, but was determined to make them work, so Pinterest helped me see how I could wear them and make them look decent! (3) The models on the websites of the clothes that I shop for, i.e. Express, JCrew, BR; seeing how the clothes are worn on the models when I decide to purchase them gives me ideas on how I could choose to wear it...

I would say a solid 80%/20% professional to casual, respectively. I don’t buy a lot of new clothing, nor do I work particularly hard to keep up with what’s currently “in season" or "in style.” A lot of the clothing that I wear is largely, I would say, professional – so much so that I find it difficult to pick out things to wear on a casual night out or day out for fear of looking like I’m about to go into the office, haha.

“Looking professional,” to me, is wearing clothes that are fitted and not too baggy. In carrying out this look for me, I like to tuck my button-up shirts into pants, which are generally fitted and also not baggy; the pants that I wear don’t really require a belt because they fit fine without it, but I choose to wear a belt as an accessory because I think it looks better than not having a belt – especially with tucked-in shirts.  To keep it simple, and to avoid drawing much attention to myself, I think I tend to play it safe – which probably largely influences the way that I dress day to day now that I think of it!

A good pair of chinos/khaki pants! Those are staple. I love pants that are nice and fitted that hug my thighs that also have a little bit of room/stretch to them. I will always have a few pairs of chinos/khakis that I rotate through because I think they’re so versatile – you can wear them out to the office or wear them out casually. 

I also like a variety of different colored and simply designed/patterned button-up shirts. Having a handful of those to rotate through and pairing them with any one of the chinos/khakis that I own helps to give me a handful of options from which I can mix and match without feeling like I’m constantly wearing the same outfits over and over.

I grew up extremely poor so spending a ton of money on clothes never made very much sense to me. I think I can accomplish the look and feel that I’m going for while shopping on a budget and purchasing clothes that are on sale. When I was younger (middle and high school aged), my older brother would take me shopping at Marshalls to buy a few outfits for the year; and to this day, it means so much to me. He worked really hard not only to help provide for our family, but for him to spend his hard-earned money on buying me new clothes for school meant so much to me – especially now having worked and learned the real and true value of a dollar. I think this also set the stage for my buying habits because I learned that I could buy nice clothes at an affordable price – and it never meant a lot to me to have the newest or most name-brand-recognizable brand clothing. 

With all of that said, I still shop at Marshalls and really enjoy going to the outlet malls where I know I can get discounted clothes and still accomplish the look that I’m going for. I like going to (1) the J Crew factory outlet, (2) Polo Ralph Lauren outlet, and (3) Banana Republic Factory outlet. I also signed up for the sales alerts online, so I like to buy clothes that are on clearance and when they’re like 50-75% off. Recently, I got some really incredible sweaters and coats/winter clothes from Express from their clearance section that I know I’ll be able to wear later this winter – all at 70% off of the original prices.

These stores are sort of what I imagine as the quintessential “clean-cut” look that I really enjoy. I like that they all have factory outlets as well, which cheaper clothes that I’m able to purchase without feeling like I’m spending a ton of money.

I don’t really like to be bothered or approached when I’m shopping for clothes – or when I’m shopping in general. I like to take my time and casually look over things without any help or suggestions while I’m in the physical store – so, with that said, the store environment doesn’t really mean or do a whole lot for me. I want to be able to approach someone in the store if I need the help but don’t like being approached first, haha. I simply enjoy the clothes that these stores make available and the look that these clothes give off.

Other than what I’ve mentioned [J Crew Factory, Polo Factory, and Banana Republic Factory], I also enjoy shopping at Express. They have a ton of sales all the time – and even though they sometimes don’t have my sizes, I’ll occasionally get lucky and be able to find my size in the clearance section of what’s being advertised as on sale. I think Express brings a different feel to the mix in that I think I like to wear Express out more casually than the other stores previously mentioned. The other three stores often lend themselves to professional setting/office wear for me.

I don’t know much, if anything, about designers or the stories of the stores that I choose to shop in. To be completely honest, I don’t know that I’ve spent any time at all looking into learning about any of the brands’ histories or stories! Having purchased clothes from them, however, many of which I still have and have stood the test of time, I know that these brands are particularly reliable and long-lasting which makes having to shop for more clothes a less frequent obligation. 

J Crew

Express

Banana Republic

Polo Ralph Lauren 

Chubbies

If I am teaching or presenting, looking “put-together” and polished definitely plays a role in helping me feel more confident when I’m speaking in front of a large group of people or classroom – simply because all eyes are on you when you’re the lead presenter or instructor. Sure, wearing certain types of clothing gives me a more confident attitude in that context, but it doesn’t influence the actual way in which I teach or perform any other duties of my job outside of that context of being in front of people.

1 – Fit

2 – Quality

3 – Comfort

4 – Practicality

5 – Design

1 – Fit

My first priority would be fit, which I think goes hand in hand with comfort; but for the sake of listing them from most important to least, I’ll differentiate the two. I like clothes that are “fitted,” but not so tight that they hug and outline all of me. I like it loose enough that I can feel comfortable in it because too tight clothing makes me feel super self conscious about my body fat.

2 – Quality

I always try and assess whether the fabric of the clothing feels decent. While I have zero frame of an objective reference from which I can say, “Oh, this is absolutely high quality vs. terrible quality,” I almost feel like there’s this innate sense that we all have when we touch clothing/material in our hands just from experience – right!? I think many of us can feel the difference in cheaply/poorly made clothes versus that of finer/more dependable material? I still have button-up shirts from over 8 or 9 years ago that I have no problem wearing and that are still in great shape even after all these years.

3 – Comfort

I like to wear things that are both comfortable and which I feel comfortable wearing/in. Clothes that are fitted but not too excessively tight or baggy. It never made sense to me to wear something that isn’t comfortable or that induces physical discomfort; moreover, it doesn’t make sense to me to wear something that one wouldn’t feel good about themselves while wearing it.

4 – Practicality

I like to buy clothes that are versatile in that I can wear them on different/many occasions as opposed to strictly designating it as a one-purpose or one-event type article of clothing. For example, chinos/khakis can be versatile for me in that I can wear them out casually or to the office.

5 – Design/Simple Design

I don’t like clothes with huge graphics or words/lettering on them. I usually go for clothes with small or even non-existent logos, usually simple/plain in pattern and design. I like solid colors and I like darker tones as opposed to bright flashy colors.

• 1 pair of Clark’s brown leather Wallabees (Spencer absolutely hates these shoes and hates when I wear them); I, on the other hand, love them!

• 2 pairs of workout/running shoes: Nike and Brooks

• 1 pair of Aldo dark brown dress shoes

• 1 pair of black tuxedo shoes

• 1 pair of light brown Ecco slip on shoes

• 1 pair of black/grey Aldo slip on casual shoes

• 1 pair of dark brown Clark’s casual (I don’t want to call them boots, but they’re more of a casual dress-up looking shoe)

• 1 pair of rainbow brand flip flops

• 1 pair of Vibram 5-fingers shoes that I once used to run/hike in but no longer use to do so; instead, I use them as my grass-cutting shoes

• Casual shoes – 60%

• Dress-up shoes – 20%

• Athletic shoes – 20%

You’d typically find me in either my casual brown shoes that I would typically wear into the office that are somewhere in between casual and dress-up, or in my brown leather Wallabees because they’re so comfy; or my rainbow flip flops.

I have really wide, flat feet; so something with some arch support and comfort takes a lot of priority for me, and then it's about how it looks. Like my clothes, I like for my shoes to be simple in design as well. Nothing too flashy or fancy, just simple, easy on the eyes, and comfortable!

I’ve owned a lot of shoes from Clark’s and Aldo throughout the years.

They’re probably my favorite brands because they’re affordable, comfortable, and they usually last me for a while. They’re simple looking, are of decent quality (such that it has lasted me for years), and just simply appeal to me for no other reason other than they’re nice shoes that serve their function well and don’t look bad.

Clark’s has an outlet store as well (common theme here). I’ve never really had to decide on what shoe stores are my favorite(s), but now having to do so, I’ve come to realize that I do like Clark’s for that reason (that they have an outlet) and are affordable/comfortable/look nice!