THE BULKY MAN

Overweight men can look thin

The easiest way to fit in and look great when you're overweight is to lose weight with the help of a proper exercise program and diet. Not only will your clothes fall better as a result, but it will also boost your confidence, as well as your motivation to dress and look better. Until you take the initiative to lose weight, here are some simple fashion tips that can help you look thinner and feel more confident

Stay away from horizontal stripes

If there's a little more of you to love, particularly in the stomach area, avoid any kind of horizontal stripe. While you're at it, avoid diagonal stripes too. What you should wear with pride, however, are shirts and trousers with vertical stripes. Vertical stripes draw the eye downward, elongating your silhouette and visually slimming it. Pinstripe suits are the perfect dress-up clothes for you, especially paired with a crisp black dress shirt underneath. Pinstripe dress shirts will also look great when mixed with dark jeans or black trousers. For casual wear, try to find a pair of dark corduroys with slim stripes that are made from thin material.

Avoid double-vented jackets

The slits in the back of your jacket are referred to as "vents" All jackets should cover your bottom. However, if you have a larger behind that makes you feel a bit self-conscious, stay away from blazers and jackets that are double-vented (the ones with two slits in the back) as this cut will draw attention to your posterior. To camouflage a wider rear, go with single-vented jackets or jackets without any vents. If you already own a double-vented jacket that you love, a professional tailor should be able to sew up the slits for you at a fairly minimal cost.

Go monochromatic

A shirt and trousers in two extremely contrasting colors -- like black and white -- will break you in half and make a large middle stand out. Choose tops and bottoms that are identical or similar in color to create a cleaner visual impression and to look 10 pounds slimmer instantly. And, of course, choose all black for the most slimming effect, but add some colored accessories to avoid looking like you have a funeral to attend.Wear a beltA belt will nip in your waistline and make it appear slimmer. Just be sure not to make it so tight that you have a belly overhang.

THE SKINNY MAN

Help, I look like a skeleton

Loads of men and women envy their skinnier counterparts that can eat as much junk food as they want without gaining an ounce. People tend to forget that being too thin can be just as problematic as being overweight. It's hard to find clothes that fit and complement their thinner bodies.The most efficient way to solve the problem is to join the gym and eat more food that will add muscle mass to a bony body. But in reality, it's not always that easy and many men are destined to remain skinny. So the next best thing is to just work around heredity.

Avoid monochromatic looks

If you wear a solid color from head to toe (especially black), you'll seem even thinner than you are, so break up your look by wearing a few different colors in your outfit. Fortunately, playing around with the colour palette should be fun and you'll get to experiment with a lot of different looks.

Choose fitted shirts

Loose-fitting, untucked shirts will billow around you and make you look like the mainsail on a mast, so you'll want to choose something more fitted instead. While you should avoid skintight shirts because they will accentuate your bony upper half, do choose slim-cut shirts and learn how to layer them to fake a bit more mass.

Avoid round-toed shoes

If you're really tall, shoes with a round toe will make you look disproportionate. To balance out your shape, go for square-toed shoes. When it comes to dress shoes and city shoes, finding square-toe shoes should not present a problem. If you're at the gym or playing a sport, however, square-toe shoes will be harder to find, so just avoid anything with an overly round shape.

Choose lighter colours

Lighter colors will make you appear slightly larger, so choose whites, creams, light blues, light grays, and pastels to visually bulk you up a bit.

THE SHORT MAN

Wear a small rise

The rise in your pants is the distance between the crotch of your pants and the waistband. Shorter men should wear the smallest rise in their pants that they can get away with because a really long rise will make you look like you have a negative butt, as well as making what you've got in front look nonexistent. In contrast, a short rise will visually elongate your legs and avoid making your crotch and bottom area look baggy and empty.

Opt for square-toed shoes

Pointy-toe shoes are only OK when you're taller and your pant leg can cover most of your shoe. If you are smaller, however, long shoes or really big, bulky ones will make you look like less of a professional and more like a joker. Square-toe shoes are best for you.

Wear heels on your shoes

Although you should avoid wearing overly bulky shoes, you should buy shoes with a substantial heel. Dress boots are a great option for shorter men, and there are so many great styles available nowadays that can be paired with everything from jeans to a suit. To really give yourself added height, wear your dress boots with a longer pant leg that comes to the floor to disguise the heel.

Consider accessories

Clever accessories, like a great necklace, tie or hat can keep people's eyes on your face, making them less likely to pay attention to your stature. Of all your accessory choices, a hat is probably best as it is a fantastic way to provide the illusion of an extra inch or two of height.

Avoid really big prints

On smaller bodies, giant prints will overwhelm. One way to add quirk to your closet with prints is to choose small prints, like a graphic black and white print or small checks. So if you're shorter, have fun with your wardrobe by keeping your prints proportionate to your body.

Choose a slimmer neckti

Slimmer to medium-sized neckties will avoid overwhelming your frame. Large ties should be avoided if you are short because they will make your body seem disproportionate by comparison. If you are very short, you might want to check out ties that are both slimmer and shorter.

THE TALL MAN

Why would tall guys actually complain? Surprisingly, very tall men have a hard time finding things that fit well. Also, when they aren't properly dressed, they often appear clumsy and awkward. Therefore, to avoid looking gawky, read these simple tips and spruce up your personal style.

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• Avoid wearing very fitted suits and jackets, because you don't want to advertise stick thin arms and legs.

• Make sure your top fits comfortably around your chest and shoulders.
• Steer clear of baggy clothing; flapping fabric is very unattractive.

• Your pants should be worn over your hips. Also, be sure to wear high-rise (a longer distance between the crotch of your pants and the top of the waistband) pants.
• Make sure your trousers fall freely on your shoes and avoid revealing your socks.
• To avoid looking like a lollipop, don't wear blazers or jackets with big shoulder pads.

Hopefully, these tips can help you look and more importantly feel better. Who knows, once you start noticing the difference, you might even start following fashion trends a little more. Please feel free to e-mail me any tips that I haven't listed at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

HOW TO TIE A TIE

Don't you wish you could find already-tied ties, that you can simply Velcro around your shirt collar? Putting on a tie is considered a dreaded task for some men, but it really doesn't have to be. Just follow these simple directions and you'll know exactly how to tie a tie at the start of the day in no time.

Mix and match

The first step is making sure that your tie matches your shirt. This goes beyond knowing which color ties go with which color shirts; you don't need to look like you're auditioning to be the host of Who Wants To Be a Millionaire . For a crash course on matching ties with shirts, just know that solid ties should be worn with "busy" shirts and shirts that have patterns. On the other hand, if you want to wear a funky tie to work, wear it with a solid shirt. Just remember not to mix patterns with patterns -- that's for those of you who have already mastered Fashion 101.

How to tie a tie

Don't leave yourself less than 5-10 minutes to tie your tie. Give yourself enough time in the morning to properly tie and readjust it if it doesn't look right.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Use the help of a mirror to assist you in tying your tie. You'll need a mirror to measure whether the tie is the right length and if it falls properly on your shirt.

Tie it up in 6 steps

	Step 1: Button up your shirt all the way, including your collar. Flip up your collar and place the tie around your neck. You want the wide part of the tie to hang twice as low as the thin part, and it should hang on the side of your dominant hand -- depending on whether you're right or left-handed.
	Step 2: Take the wide end of the tie, and wrap it around the thin part once, a little bit below your neck. Think of the wide part as the longer part -- so the long end goes around the short end once.
	Step 3: Once you wrap the wide end around the thin end, slip the wide end through the knot that has formed.
	Step 4: Tuck the long, wide end through the knot.
	Step 5: Pull on the thin end and the wide end, from below, to tighten the knot.
	Step 6: Hold the thin end with your non-dominant hand, and with your dominant hand, slide the knot up to your neck -- be careful not to choke yourself in the process.

Going to great lengths

The wide end should hang lower than the thin end, covering the thin end. You don't want the wide end to hang too low; a good rule of thumb for measuring a tie's proper length is making sure the bottom tip of your tie touches the upper part of your belt (or your pants if you are wearing suspenders). Although this is the traditional length, it varies from country to country. Put your collar back down, and use the mirror to check if the tie and the knot look right.

Take it all off

When removing your tie, don't pull the thin end through the knot to untie the tie. Remove the tie by doing these steps backwards, even if you're in an extreme hurry to get undressed because you have company -- doing so will ruin the shape of the tie.There you have it...6 easy steps on how to tie a tie.Until next time, don't get all tied up in knots -- with practice you should get the hang of it.