Help with finding your style.

To supplement our previous post and the post on finding your style, we've added a few sites, blogs, and forums to the sidebar that we've found to be good resources. We hope you find them useful, as well. They include:

• Put This On, which provides solid general advice on men's style and useful recurring features like their eBay roundup.
• Dappered, which offers tips on affordable men's style, including links to sales and recommendations for particular sale items.
• The Style Blogger, The Midwestyle, Unabashedly Prep, and Tetino-tête, which all focus on look ideas and are good places to visit for inspiration.
• Ivy Style and Social Primer are "trad" or "Ivy League"-focused blogs that have fewer look ideas but more thoughts on the history of that style and etiquette for gentlemen, respectively.
• Three forums from Ask Andy About Clothes (AAAC): the fashion forum, the trad forum, and the deals and steals forums. Useful for general style questions and information. Obviously, the trad forum is focused on the trad style while the fashion forum has a more general outlook. The deals and steals forum has information about sales and coupons.

Now, none of the sites we listed traffic in "out-there" looks (at least, not regularly), because we're interested in focusing on classic men's style here in the Midwest. Of those listed, you'll tend to find more daring looks on Style Blogger and Unabashedly Prep.

A note on influences.

Before we begin making specific recommendations regarding items of clothing, we thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge our influences for the sake of "full disclosure." While we don't strictly follow a certain identified men's style, we are probably most often influenced by the "trad" and "preppy" traditions. A paragraph from the article linked in the last sentence helps explain why trad influences our choices:

All of which helps explain the current appeal of American “trad,” short for traditional: an Ivy League–inflected style that’s managed to retain an old-school sensibility without seeming dated or costumelike. Trad is, quite simply, a safe haven for sartorially selective gentlemen amid the ever-growing chaos of department stores and runways.

In the more conservative Midwest, trad-influenced clothing choices represent a safer way to upgrade your daily wardrobe. Many trad looks may be considered "normal," albeit dressier, which makes it a great option for a blog focused on upgrading your daily business dress from the short-sleeve polo shirt and your casual wear from t-shirts and cargos. Preppy is often thought of as an Ivy-influenced style that is more fashion-forward than trad, so it may be a better choice for those of you looking to stand out a bit more.

That being said, we don't limit our influences to trad and preppy and wouldn't recommend you do, either, unless you're certain you're content with those styles. Our recommendations for finding your own style include sources that will present you with options far beyond those found in the trad or preppy traditions, so consider them as you continue to develop your personal style.