I hope you had a great weekend! Does this scenario sound familiar?

You're running late, rushing to get dressed. You grab your trousers and shirt and realize they're both wrinkled. Do you:

A. Spend the next 30 minutes finding something else to wear

B. Say, "no one will notice" and put it on anyway

C. Get out the iron and ironing board and resign yourself to being late

D. None of the above, use a quick method to get out wrinkles while you go about eating breakfast, showering, etc.

Tick tock, tick tock.... Ding!

Hopefully you chose "D". Here's how you do it.

Shower Steam Method:

Place your garments on hangers, preferably plastic (wood hangers can warp and metal hangers can rust), and hang them in the bathroom while you shower. Be sure not to hang them so close to the water that they'll get wet, especially silk. If you have a way to keep more of the steam in the room without it becoming a fire hazard, please do so. Once you're done showering run your clean hands over the garments to help loosen the wrinkles. Again, if it's silk you'll want to make sure that your hands are completely dry. For other garments that won't stain from water, it will help if your hands are damp.

If you've already showered but still have other things to get ready, you can follow the same method and even turn the water heat up to create more steam.

The Dryer method

First read the care instructions and make sure that the item is dryer safe. Then throw the wrinkled garment(s) in the dryer along with a damp... not dripping wet...damp color-safe cloth. I like to use a white washcloth or sock. Also add a dryer sheet, or (Bonus product tip!!) if you are opposed to dryer sheets, for example we don't use them for our son's clothes, you can use dryer balls. We use Dryer Max Dryer Balls that we bought at Target. This is also an eco-friendly solution.

Run the dryer on medium heat for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove promptly and, if you have time, hang until it cools down.

For both of these methods you can spritz a light mist of water on the garment (except silk) prior to steaming, if the garment is very wrinkled.

There are other ways but these are the two that I have found to be most effective while remaining time efficient.

Have questions? I want to hear them!! Click on the comments link and ask. You can also email the question by emailing me at: jodi@stylesuccess.net.

By the way, the second installment of the "Sharp Dressed Man" and the new Fall Style Preview will arrive in e-newsletter form to your inbox. So if you haven't already, be sure to go to my website at: www.stylesuccess.net and click on "Add me to the mailing list!"

Thanks and have an amazing and wonderful week!!

Style incarnate

The truth is that I’ve been promising/threatening to write this blog for a while but I’ve procrastinated. There is so much I want to say but couldn’t figure out how to focus my thoughts. However after recently suit shopping with a friend I decided to stick to the ins-and-outs of a proper suit. “What’s the big deal”, you say? “Men’s business attire is pretty straight forward”, you say? Well, did you ever see a grown man wearing a suit so big that you wonder if he shrank? Or a tie so short you wonder if he’s channeling Jackie Gleason or Bozo the Clown? The dos and don’ts of men’s business attire have been established over centuries and, while subject somewhat to trend, most of the rules are pretty clear-cut. I will do my best to give you the "Cliff Notes" version of those rules and to keep it short and to the point (well, to the point anyway), I’ll stick to bullet points.

First… the basic, basics of getting dressed

- Your belt and shoes should be the same color

- Your socks should be the same color as your pants

- Your tie, when tied, should end at the middle of your belt buckle

- When wearing your jacket, button as follows:

3 button suit: top button = sometimes, middle button = always, bottom button = never
2 button suit: top button = always, bottom button = never
1 button suit: button = always

- Your shirt sleeve cuff to extend ½” past your jacket sleeve

- Undershirt is a must

- Shirt should be ironed and shoes should be polished

- To freshen up your suit hang it in the bathroom while you shower and the steam should loosen any wrinkles

Second… fit

Suit jacket – there are so many things that go into a properly fit suit jacket. This is just a sampling of some of the key points to look for.

- creases running horizontally between the shoulders when you’re standing still mean the jacket is too tight

- vertical creases running down the center of the back when standing still indicate that the jacket is too big

- if the back neck of the suit is buckling away from the body then it’s too big and should be altered

- the jacket should be long enough to cover the seat of your pants (on this point there is much discussion and most people will tell you that the length of the jacket is in relation to your arms. I disagree with this method since not everyone’s arms are proportional to their body and can end up making the suit seem poorly balanced.)

- the sleeves should be ½” past your wrist bone, or ½” shorter than the length of your shirt sleeves, which leads me to…

Dress shirt – in my humble opinion the #1 biggest mistake made by American men. Why is it necessary to be swimming in a shirt? Why? But I digress…

Shirts are measured by neck width and sleeve length. Here’s how you to determine your size, you’ll need a tape measure. Don’t have one? Here is a printable one from eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/sizing/tapeMeasure.pdf?ssPageName=csameasuring

- Neck width – measure around the neck just beneath the Adam’s apple, add ½” and there ya go.

- Sleeve length – with arms comfortably at sides, measure from the center of your spine where it meets your neck, along the shoulder and down the arm to your wrist bone and add 1”. That’s your sleeve length. If it comes out in between sizes then round up.

- The shoulder seam of the shirt should align with your actual shoulder, not past it.

- For the body of the shirt your “off the rack” choices are limited unfortunately, but generally if you are a thin guy or have an athletic build then look for shirts that say “fitted” or “tailored”.

- A barrel cuff is the regular button cuff and the French cuff requires a cuff link. This is purely a matter of personal taste.

I think that’s enough for now. In the next entry I’ll cover pants, shoes, accessories etc. Here’s a hint of things to come… yes, the pants should be flat front!

Is this too much information? Not enough information? Click “Leave a comment” and let me know before the next installment. Thanks!!

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