I can guarantee that in guiding the transition from styleless nerd to put-together geek, these next few posts will be the most valuable ones I will write. These are the ground rules. These are the simple things that if abided by and tweaked, my work is done. The transformation will be so nearly complete, all that will be left is details.

I’m sounding like the Fairy Godmother throwing around words like transformation. I would write my own relevant lyrical rendition of that song she sang, but it turns out all the lyrics work just fine, considering most of them look something like this: Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.

The biggest problem men today have with the way they dress is that their clothes do not fit. I work in the restaurant business and see men stroll in day after day wearing suits that are at least two sizes too big. (For a pictoral example, hearken back to the picture in my last post of John Hodgman from Apple’s “Hi, I’m a PC” campaign.)

And the problem is not just with suits, it’s everything. Shirts are too big, jackets too baggy, pants too long. Geeks! Nerds! Men! You dramatically underestimate how much better you will look, and how much better you will feel, if you are wearing clothes that fit you. I am a tall man, and a myth I see perpetrated among my fellow gentle giants is that loose fitting clothes will make them appear smaller, when in fact the opposite is the case. And small men wearing baggy clothes look like stubble-faced children.

Geeks! Nerds! Men! You dramatically underestimate how much better you will look, and how much better you will feel, if you are wearing clothes that fit you. – Brandon

Let’s take pants for example. Your pants should not be a shapeless mass of cloth covering your legs. They should fit snugly, but not tight, and they should only break once as they’re hitting the top of your shoe. IE. If you’re stepping all over them in the back to the point where they shred into bits, they don’t fit right. Here are two examples of pants you should buy and pants you shouldn’t, taken from the same website (Lands End Canvas), worn by the same model.

Bad: (The key word to avoid with fit – roomy)

Good:

Need to confess to some of these poor practices? Let us know on twitter @codesketch or talk back on Hacker News.