BROKE ASS WARDROBE:

Lookin good when your bank account doesn't.

I've decided to gear this towards guys. When it comes to fashion, most women just seem to know what they're doing from birth. I don't quite understand why, but they just do. Any girls that need help are probably the "tom boy" type so this advice will work for them anyway.

    One thing I always try to make clear with people who are down on their luck or low on funds, is that it's NOT the clothes that make the man, it's the man that makes the man. If you don't beleive in yourself, nothing else is going to work. You have to keep your head up no matter how hard it gets. Dressing up in an attempt to build your confidence will only serve as a temporary solution for a serious problem. Yes you'll feel better looking good, but looking good is an attitude, and the clothing expresses that attitude. Before you go breaking open your piggy bank take a second to stop and think about who you are. Once you understand that it will be easier to decide on what style of clothes are right for you.

So, who are you? Are you a tough guy? Are you a pretty boy? Are you a blue colar simple guy?

    How do you answer these questions? Look at your hobbies, if you like building cars and other hands on "honest work" then maybe you're more of a "blue colar" kinda guy. If you prefer watching boxing matches to watching football, have a tendancy to accidentally on purpose bump into people at the bar, maybe you're more of a tough guy. Is it possible that any of these personalities are wrong, immoral or otherwise bad? Only if they're not really you. You can be anything, provided it's genuine. If you're a badass pretending to be a pretty boy, that's bad.

To sag or not to sag?

    On the subject of being genuine I thought it nessecary to bring up this one point. With the influx of ghetto fabulous lifestyle and everybody and their mamma talking with some dirty south slang regardless of where they are from. It's hard for some people to decide what works for them. The fear of going against the grain and not fitting in can be nerve racking to some. My only comment on this subject is that if you look in the mirror and what you're wearing just doesn't fit your personality, try something else. Once again, the attitude is what makes you who you are. Worry about whether or not the clothes fit in with your personality instead of everyone else. If your clothes don't fit you, but the clothes fit in with everyone else, you'll just look like a wannabe and wont get any respect anyway.

So who are you?

    Realize that the most important part of looking good is feeling good. That is why we're almost getting philisophical about it. If you were rich then you could go out and buy hundreds of dollars in clothes and even if they weren't for you, it'd be no problem. You could just throw them out and start over. But we can't do that, we have to get it right the first time. Okay, with that said, back to the question. Who are you? Go make some faces in the mirror, do you look better smiling, squinting, mean, happy, curious? Find how you are comfortable and build around that. When I was younger I would dress like a skateboarder one day, a pimp the next, a tough guy the next. I was trying things out, it takes a little time, but you're always happier and able to have more fun with it when the clothes fit the man.

You don't need a lot of money to do this:

    I know what you're thinking, that you need namebrand clothes to catch anybody's eye. This is totally not true. Looking good is looking good, no matter what it is. I have a friend who has literally been with more then 200 hundred women (i've seen him meet about a hundred with my own eyes) and he wears clothes that he bought at WalMart. He doesn't have one popular name brand on, ever.

     Use of color, texture, and style is all that matters. Go to a thrift store, find colors that look good on you, textures and styles that fit and buy them. I have a great wardrobe that I always get compliments on and I spent about 200 dollars on the whole thing. Unlike other people who spend 200 dollars on two shirts and a pair of pants, i have like ten shirts, and 8 pairs of pants. But I know what looks good on me, so it works.

    Okay, so did you see any colors that caught your eye? If so use those as a basis for when you go out shopping. Salvation Army, Berlington Coat Factory, Old Navy, with creative combinations you can get an outfit out of a small amount of money. Search by color first, then texture, then style. A good way to deal with color is to group everything into "cool colors" and "warm colors". Blue, green, purple, those are cool. Red, yellow, orange, those are warm. If you have a cool colored shirt, either go with black white or another cool color for the pants. At least in the begingin anyway. The reason for this is color is something you can't force, either it's a color that works for you or it's not. Then you go to texture because that's another thing you can't control, but is a little more flexible then color. Then by style, style is something if need be you can change it. Hell I cut stuff up all the time and make new things out of it. Look at these pants I made for 20 dollars:

    Why do clothes matter so much? Well, people see you as a blank slate when they first meet you, they then size you up based on what you show them and make a conclusion about what kind of person you are. So if you dress in a way that is congruent with who you are, you wont confuse people as much. Trust me it makes your life easier in more ways then dating.

Dressing in themes:

    Once you've pegged your personality, you can start to understand what type of women will be attracted to you. This is a powerful tool when picking out clothes because you can come up with fantasy themes. Maybe you're more of a simple guy and don't want to dress up all crazy, maybe you just love working on cars. Well you'd be surprised how women react to a V-neck white t-shirt with the little sleeves rolled up an inch. If you throw in a pair of jean overalls with the straps undone for that "i just banged the hell out of some girl like there was no tomorrow and she loved it" look. Women go crazy for that. Say you're a little shy guy... how can someone with so much holding them back dress in an aluring way? Simple, dress up like a corruptable innocent. Wear things that show off what's good about you, but walk around like you have no idea you're turning women on. Touch them softly on their lower back and look them deep in their eyes and say "excuse me" as you walk past them, and then look over ur shoulder to give a quick glimpse back and look a little confused, curious, and intrigued at the same time. As if you don't know what that steamy look they're giving you is about. This works great with older women. It's all about matching the clothes to the attitude. See what I mean?

Messing with your clothes

    Okay, if you're going to do things like what I did above with the letters, or if you want to paint something on a pair of pants, or maybe draw a picture on a shirt. You have to make sure that A: you know what the hell you're doing. If you can't paint, practice before you go wasting money on actual clothing. And B: you have to keep the rest of your clothes in mind. If you don't have anything that goes with blue and you paint a shirt up all blue and what not, what the hell are you gonna wear that with?

Splurge for a magazine:

    Buy an issue of GQ magazine. Or whatever you see on the shelf that has people that dress in a manner that you like. If you don't want to spend the money then spend an hour skimming through magazines without leaving the store. If you're into the "punk" look GQ obviously wont help you, but I'm sure there's magazines that will show people dressed up in a way that appeals to you. Whatever your style, do your best to stay on top of what's new, what's hot and what's not. Try and pick out three "looks" that you like. Take the pictures of the looks you're into with you when you go to the stores we talked about before. When you look at something don't say "okay those are armani pants, that's a Calvin Klein shirt" instead say things like "okay those are straight cut black pants, made from an almost shiney material, that shirt is like a burgandy color" you get the picture. Look at the substance of what it is that you like, forget the name, find things that have the qualities you are looking for at the PO' FOKE sto's.

Some Tips

Keep it simple. Wait till you get good at dressing yourself before you start getting crazy with what you wear. Just get yourself some shirts in basic colors, grey, black, blue, whatever looks good. Match it with either white or black pants. Do stuff that you know will work, and don't be afraid to ask women what they think you would look good in. A great idea for a date is to tell the girl to come with you to help you pick out clothes. Then refer to the dating articles I've got listed on the site to find out what you should do. If you've got the money, get the book "Kill The Crap In Dating: For Men" it'll show you how to behave on the date in an attractive way. The "date" won't start out as a "date" but as you keep making her laugh and teasing her and being sexual, she'll quickly start to want your body. If anything you'll end up in the dressing room together with your shirt off... you figure out the rest.

Accessorize: Sunglasses, ties, bandannas, bookbags, chains. Whatever fits your style, use it to bring certain colors out that aren't easily noticed and tie everything together. When you do this it shows that you are able to view the "whole package" and that is powerful. If you are wearing black and red, see if you can find a chain anodised in red or black, or red and black instead of just bare metal. Otherwise you'll need some bare metal elsewhere to bring it all together.

Quality over cost: It's more important that you pick a piece of clothing because it looks good on you then it has the proper brand name. One thing I do is cut off all of the brand names, even if it's a good brand name I'll cut it off. Women ask me why I do this and I say " I don't like brands" I get this "rebbel" thing going for me but it also takes the interest off of what brand clothes I'm wearing and puts it on ME and why I cut off brand labels when few others do. This gets the girl spending her time wondering about me instead of wondering about my pants. The more she thinks about me, the more she wants me.

Shop around: If you see something you like, pick it up and walk around the store, see what else is available. Pick out six outfits, but only buy the best three. Wait a week to generate more pay and then go out again with a fresh head and do it over. If you get an idea of something you want to wear, don't settle for something that isn't it- just for the sake of not coming home empty handed. It's fine to spend a few hours looking even if you don't buy anything. One, it clears your head, Two, you get some time to yourself or with a girl you like, Three, it gets you out of the house and used to being around people and in public, the list goes on and on. No matter how you feel about society, you need to be a social person if you want to meet sexual partners because most people ARE social creatures. Besides, if you buy an outfit that you weren't really sure that you liked. You will have worn it for a while to see and then you can't return it. You'll only end up getting bored with what you bought and wasting money.

Try them on once again at home: The second you get home, try everything on again, see how you look under different lighting, leave the tags on. If you get home and realize you look like crap. Take it all back. I bought a vivid black pair of pants, and this cool white shirt, and at the store it looked awesome. I got home and I looked like a pissed off busboy. Just return it if it doesn't work out.

And remeber, anything you can do for the price of gold, there's a way to do the same thing paying with silver. You just have to be creative.

Broke Ass and STILL high class

-MidnightSun-