By Donte Alexander Doss
“I don’t follow trends; I set them.” This statement is the basic tenet in which I believe and follow to always remain stylish. But what is style? How are certain pieces of attire deemed stylish? Style is defined as “a distinctive appearance or the design of a particular form.” Style is in essence setting one’s own fashion from their individual ideas. 
No successful designer or style architect has ever attempted to create successful ideas based off of others. Every successful designer has done “their own thing”, designing and creating ideas that were unique and even pushed the envelope from traditional normalcy. For many years, men’s fashion took a backseat all while great ideas and designs were born but quickly died. However those days have long since gone; now men’s fashion is revered and marveled like never before. Everywhere one may look, men’s fashion is displayed on all multimedia on every platform across the globe.
With the vast plethora of designers exhibiting such creative ideas for men and our wardrobe, every man with an open mind and wallet can become the fashionable gentleman they desire to be. All it truly takes is searching through ideas to create a look of their own. It’s one thing to step in a room full of suits with something similar but it takes true distinction from the standard to be stylish and stand apart from the crowd. Any and every “suit package” I’ve worn had distinct elements, some quickly noticeable and others closely seen because of small details.
Whether it be a lapel flower, a pocket square, a faint shirt pattern, fancy-patterned socks, even a bowtie or ascot rather than the traditional necktie, I always sought to soar above the “stuffed suits” that may have surrounded me.
Discovering and displaying one’s own style is synonymous to putting pieces of a puzzle together – you search for pieces of the “suit package” that fit together to complete your puzzle. The first thing that is always noticed is a suit tailored to the man in whom it adorns. Secondly are the accessories that accentuate his suit. For me as a man, there’s truly nothing like wearing a nicely-tailored suit. The key to remember is if a haberdasher (tailor) is out of your budget, just having a seamstress or suit shop mending the suit to your exact measurements makes a world of difference. We’ve all seen that one guy who shows up with a suit that’s too big and too long, dragging and hanging like a bed sheet. What it really takes to make a suit “fly”is having it tailored to fit you and only you. Never should suits be worn like comforters because they should be worn as our “Sunday’s best”. Find a local suit shop in your area and let them know you’re looking for something different that closely accentuates your style but also takes you a bit out of the box. Remember that “less is more” but also the “difference is in the details”.
Whether it be a lapel flower, a pocket square, a faint shirt pattern, fancy-patterned socks, even a bowtie or ascot rather than the traditional necktie, I always sought to soar above the “stuffed suits” that may have surrounded me.
