back with another video back with another banger hey y'all hi so a few weeks ago on my video about how to make your wardrobe match your lifestyle I got a comment and a comment on that comment and I just could not stop thinking about this is the original comment from jube it says I feel like it has been my life's goal to move from unpolished casual to Polished casual and it is just so hard to find good Basics and that comment had 32 thumbs up when I last checked then Sarah P responded to jube's comment yes this I live in jumpers jeans and t-shirts I can't ever seem to elevate that look no amount of tucking accessories or Footwear helps so I assume it's the cut color Fabric and style choices I'm making that make me look frumpy at 38. face palm Emoji so both of these commenters want to have more polished casual looks in their wardrobe what I called level four of formality in that video but they somehow can't get there I think the problem that these two commenters have is rampant thousands of us are out there trying to buy polished looking clothing then ending up with disappointing wardrobes of floppy pilly unpolished clothes no matter how hard we try the world is Awash in clothes that are masquerading as polished online or in the store but because their manufacturers have cut Corners with materials or construction those clothes look frumpy as soon as you get them home or as soon as you've washed them once so in this video we're going to talk through the culprits that Sarah suspects color cut and fabric and I'm going to give you my personal take on how to zero in on clothing pieces that will continue to look polished instead of frumpy and actually elevate your casual Wardrobe from formality level 3 to formality level four if you are new here and you find yourself enjoying this I hope you can that are subscribing and now let's go ahead and get into the meat of this video okay so color cut and fabric and I'm actually going to address Garment Care as we move through the video because I think that that might be a possible fourth culprit let us start with fabric for a polished look that stays polished over time what you want are sturdy fabrics and this starts in the store with just judging the basic physical properties of the fabric it might sound simple but how thick is it how thick is the fabric thicker Fabrics retain their shape better and this is especially true of knits so if we're talking about elevating the jeans and t-shirt uniform a lot of that's going to hinge on how polished a t-shirt continues to feel as you wash and wear it over time a thin drapey gooey t-shirt might feel luxuriously soft in the store and might even look kind of fancy in the store but just based on its thinness it's more likely to look and feel sloppy after you get it home for upscale t-shirts I would say look for that thick almost structured Jersey cotton that doesn't have very much stretch cost makes a couple of t-shirts out of that fabric a really good one this season that I can think of I'll link that down below and in fact I'll link as many examples as I can think of for these kinds of things down below because I know that some of you are just like where do you find it so let's talk about knitwear when it comes to thick versus thin thin sweaters they can often be actually really expensive especially if they're made of cashmere and those kinds of things look really good in the store especially around the holidays build as super polished Workwear but with a lot of that stuff after two wears the neckline is stretched out the shape is sagging and it just looks unpolished as a rule heftier chunkier knits are going to retain a more polished feel because they are sturdier so in the moment use your judgment is the fabric stir dirty or delicate what is it going to look and feel like after it's been washed and worn a couple of times and of course it's not all about thick versus thin some Thin Fabrics are exceptions and have a lot of sturdiness especially when they're made from natural fibers which we'll get to in a second but using a bit of imagination and some experience that you have that you might not even realize that you have with garments that you've already owned you can usually predict if a fabric is going to descend into sloppiness after you get it home it's just a matter of taking the time to make that prediction while you are in the shopping moment and you can get additional information about the likely Destiny of the fabric from the fabric contents tag on the Garment I'm a big fan of cotton wool and linen Fabrics those are such sturdy Fabrics that they are the ones that tend to be the exceptions to the thin versus thick rule linen jersey knit for example is a really sturdy fabric brick even though it can sometimes be thin a lot of t-shirts are polyester cotton Blends that's the kind of thing that will pill pretty much right away a lot of sweaters are 100 acrylic or contain acrylic that's basically just plastic it's like a yarn made out of fibers made out of plastic those are the sweaters that will look good for maybe a few wears and then they'll start to look just irretrievably dingy and somewhat misshape it and it's because those plastic fibers just start to kind of fall apart and they take on stains and don't wash well rayon which is also called viscose and you often find it in a woven fabric so a fabric that doesn't stretch it feels like maybe it could be cotton then you check the tag and it says 100 rayon or 100 viscose that is technically a natural fiber but it doesn't have the structural Integrity of cotton so those are the blouses and the dresses and the joggers the jogger pants that are going to become incredibly wrinkly get twisted hems and seams and just look 1000 times worse as soon as you wear them and wash them for the first time this is a rayon woven blouse that I have the only one I just love the print and the colors so much that I couldn't pass it up but it just never looks good it gets these sort of yucky wrinkles that in theory I could iron out but the Fabric's so thin that even the ironing wouldn't make it feel or look like a sturdier or like a higher quality fabric here's the back of it and then even if I ironed it it would wrinkle right away as soon as I started wearing it and again it's these sort of big awkward wrinkles rather than like a natural relaxed creasing in linen or cotton to be really thorough I'll have to cover fabric content in a dedicated future video I love natural fibers but it has to be said that some synthetic fabrics are extremely structurally sound and use materials like plastic and elastane cleverly to their advantage specifically so that the Garment will pop out of the wash looking absolutely brand new every time I'm thinking right now of the aritzia sculpt knit tops that are made out of nylon they are synthetic 100 synthetic but they are thick and structurally sound and they always look Ultra polished and clean so you have to use your judgment on a case-by-case basis but the bottom line is that if you're struggling with this issue I advise you to tune into the question of fabric sturdiness and probable longevity when you are shopping go for thicker Fabrics avoid acrylic knits and avoid rayon and viscose wovens like the plague polyester and nylon technical Fabrics or technical type Fabrics can work but those thin gooey Blended knits that contain synthetic fibers will generally let you down over time lastly regarding Fabrics a note about Garment Care no matter how you slice it the dryer is hard on fabric and will age your clothing more quickly nothing turns a polished casual T-shirt into an unpolished casual t-shirt faster than putting it in the dryer the dryer Fades colors it softens crisp edges and it weakens the fibers of fabric it might seem extra at the outset to hang all of your t-shirts on hangers to dry but that is what I do with all of my polished casual clothing I also store them that way hanging on hangers even the T-shirts instead of folding them into drawers which creases them so even if you're out there buying structurally sound clothing made out of great Fabrics the way that you're washing and storing them might be what's turning them into faded wrinkled versions of themselves okay next up let's talk about color I love this one I love color and questions of color this might be a little bit subjective and some of you might disagree with me but all I can do is tell you what I think and here's what I think I think that a sophisticated use of color can come in one of two forms it can either be nuanced and muted or super saturated when a garment Falls in between into this kind of semi-saturated Realm of half-hearted color then that garment usually lacks the je ne sais quoi of polished fashion I'll give you an example let's actually look at the aritzia sculpt knit tank that I was just talking about this is an inherently polished garment it already has everything else going for it but to me some of the colors look more polished than others the nuanced muted neutrals are all chef's kiss camel brick taupe beige and of course solid black and bright white the ultra saturated bold colors also look very polished magenta cobalt blue red orange with black slacks and a blazer or just with a nice pair of jeans fantastic but then there are these sort of half-hearted colors a watery teal a dingy yellow those colors remind me of something from an LL Bean catalog in the 90s and it's not because I'm against teal and yellow as colors for some people maybe your best color is teal and I'm not trying to take that away from you it has to do with the execution the level of saturation a much Bolder teal or a more nuanced teal could look Polished in fact I think that the softer mint shade in this tank arguably a more nuanced and muted teal does look more polished if you are struggling to get to formality level 4 in your wardrobe my advice is to stay away from those flat mid-toned colors the colors that don't have have any Nuance but also aren't bold I honestly think of them as the catalog colors forest green pool blue Heather Periwinkle that kind of wimpy version of fuchsia and that doesn't mean no green no blue no Periwinkle no fuchsia whatever the color is that suits you the color that you feel best in the color that you want for a certain garment either go for the statement version of that color or the really nuanced Blended version of that color in my experience those pieces will always look and feel more upscale and it must be sad that solid black and solid white as long as the Fabrics are sturdy will always look and feel upscale but a note on Garment Care when it comes to color one of the most reliably polished colors for a garment is bright white there is nothing like a bright white tea tank or button-down to Skyrocket you to formality level four but my friends if you wash those bright white garments with anything other than other bright white garments even beiges and Grays they will lose that ineffable quality of Polish Rajiv Surendra has a great video up on YouTube about washing your bright white clothes with bluing to keep them bright I will link that down below if you are failing to isolate your bright whites or God forbid washing your darks and your lights together making everything subtly muddy this could be contributing indeed it could be the main factor contributing to your wardrobe's unpolished feel and finally cut the cut of the Garment there's a lot to be said about cut and preference or cut and body type like which cuts of clothing you really like wearing and what you look and feel your best in but for this video I'm going to stick to what's Universal and what's relevant to creating a polished look and that is for first and foremost garment structure just like with Fabrics train yourself to spot structural elements in garments that are sturdy every little aspect of a garment can either be weak and flimsy or it can be sturdy sturdiness will always give the cut of a garment a cleaner look and it will also contribute to the garment's longevity so for example with t-shirts thicker wider bands on the hems and the collars are going to be sturdier and those will also make the piece look a little bit more structured and a little bit more upscale hems on trousers how wide are they how clean and sturdy are they on the inside of the Hem is it messy or is it clean the plackets on button-downs are they flimsy are they going to get all squashed up and wrinkled in the wash or are they double layered and sewn down flat so that even after washing they will lie flat again here is a disappointing structural element on a t-shirt can you see how the seam is kind of puckering there and for comparison here is the same seam on a different t-shirt that is lying incredibly flat and perfect this is what I mean by a thick sturdy Edge on something like a tank top a lot of tank tops have a ribbed edge like this that is either not finished with an extra piece of fabric at all just fold it over or much much more slender than this and this one is so thick and sturdy here is some terrible puckering on a hem the Hem of a garment here is a trouser hem the bottom of a pant with a beautifully finished interior seam you see that everything is folded and tucked in the inside looks just as good as the outside this is that same rayon blouse that I should probably never have bought look at that this kind of puckering and these sort of twisted up hems that'll just never ever look good super thin and flimsy we see that a lot on woven rayon and viscose garments even expensive ones even ones that are made by high-end Brands because the wool woven fabric itself is just so thin and flimsy and the weave doesn't have a lot of strength it's a little slippery it's difficult to sew up a garment from a cheap fabric like this and have it all come together cleanly and look good and even if it looks okay to begin with as soon as you wash it it all starts to fall apart you might not be a person who notices these tiny details on your own clothes or on other people's clothes but you are noticing an overall sense that your outfits just never look crisp and it could be because you're buying clothes that just aren't cut and sewn super well not noticing it in the moment but noticing the cumulative effects later and the other rule of thumb for cut that I will give for those of you who are really wanting as much guidance as possible because it's not always true or universally true but I think that it could help some of you is that when you are aiming for polish and sophistication Simplicity will never fail you and what I mean by that is that when you make making your choices when you're out shopping it might help you to err on the side of fewer details for example a pocket tee generally looks less formal than a t-shirt with no pocket in my opinion designers will often ruin what could have been a really elegant piece just by adding a little random detail like colorful piping or contrast stitching probably designed to draw your attention in the store and make you go oh that's cute but really what that detail is doing is causing the piece to be destined for level three outfits when without that detail it could have been formality level four so to maximize polish my advice is to shop for garments that are both structurally sound and I would say boldly unfussy so that is basically it I will link everything I discussed down below and I'll also link some of my favorite shops for polished casual Basics so before I go I have one more thing I want to say and that is this there are whole clothing stores in which you won't find anything that meets these criteria whole stores lots of them these days we find terribly made clothing at every price point so we especially find it in shops where all of the clothes are really inexpensive and that's because the things that cause a piece of clothing to look polished and stay that way quality Fabrics well-designed colors and sturdy structural elements cost money fast fashion is cheap because most of it is not good stuff and I think that the bloating of the clothing Market with that kind of stuff is what is at the root of this issue for most people but that doesn't mean that you have to have a big clothing budget to buy well-made clothes it helps and if you do have that flexibility I recommend investing in fewer nicer things but if you know what you're looking for you can find them everywhere and at every price point I have found gems in the past sometimes even in places like h m sometimes they happen to use 100 cotton fabric for something it just happens to have a great design and last for years but by far the best places to find clothing like this on a budget are thrift shops and consignment shops that's why I love thrift shopping and Consignment shopping so much and why I'm always talking about it you just have to know again what to look for and I hope that this video has helped some of you with that thank you so much for watching I really appreciate you spending this time with me again I hope you'll subscribe if you haven't done that yet and don't forget to take extra good care of yourself so that you can be the most effective version of yourself as you do your work in the world foreign foreign