Find your own groove…

Greetings friends…

Now that I am in my 46th year of existence/existing on this beautiful planet, I’ve been thinking a lot about my legacy…(don’t worry, I’m not planning on going anywhere just yet!)

I’ve pretty much been doing the same type of job for over 25 years (yikes!) and in that time have seen many businesses go under, two recessions and still find the energy and passion to keep doing what I’m doing.

What drives me on?

Good question.

Thanks 🙂

Back in the late 80’s (probably before most of you were even born!), I fell in to the fashion industry.

As a young man, I’d joined the armed forces hoping to follow in my father’s footsteps, it all came to an abrupt end through injury, I got into retail as a stopgap.

That’s one looooonnnngggg stopgap!

I’m actually a big fan of khaki, just not all over!

There has been several occasions when I almost quit the industry, the aforementioned recessions (the first one was a lot worse and I don’t mean the one in the 1930’s!), then there was the time when shops first decided to open on a Sunday (yes, I really am that old, that I remember the days before Sunday opening!) and there has been times when I felt that I was probably ‘doing it all wrong’ because I cared too much about colleagues and customers.

In fact, I wasn’t doing it wrong, I was just working for people who really couldn’t care less as long as they made profit

I took a sabbatical, after 25 years, I took myself away from it and tried to find my own groove.

I loved fashion, style, shopping, writing, and prior to my epiphany had worked very closely with buyers and press teams to advise and showcase products.

I appeared on live ‘Google hangouts’ about men’s style and also wrote online magazine articles about the same, I’d really made a big impact with one of the high streets big players.

That said, it was also becoming quite apparent that despite all of my extra curricular effort, at store level things weren’t great.

Product quality was suffering and the cost saving exercise was really affecting the morale of my people.

Two years down the line and the very same company have announced a fall in Sales and profits, blaming lower footfall and excessive discounting on the high street (a bit of a cheek when you consider that they are one of the worst for constantly discounting and running offers!)

I have always been really interested in fashion, men’s style in particular has always intrigued me. Especially when you consider that in most cases, it’s menswear that has the biggest growth potential.

In the olden days there were no such words as ‘metrosexual’ or ‘hipsters’, guys definitely didn’t care about their skincare regime and bought clothes when the holes in their pants became obscene!

It’s interesting then to fast forward 20 years, and men’s skincare has gone from half a shelf to a whole aisle in your local pharmacy, and barbershops are popping up everywhere!

Dudes are really starting to think more about their appearance, whether it’s the way we dress or how we groom ourselves.

This guy has never even heard of Nivea for men!👆🏿

Now, you’ve probably guessed that I take my style quite seriously, or more that I’m serious about what I consider style.

I’m not a sheep.

I don’t follow fickle fashion fads (try saying that with a mouthful of wine gums!), I dress how I like, I’m not trying to impress, I’m not obsessed and to an extent don’t really care what people think about the way I dress (trust me, I get comments!)

So, where is this going?

I’ll tell you…

My style comes from loving what I do, it comes from years of experience, it comes from trial and error (yes, I even had a pair of boot cut jeans!), but mostly it comes from being comfortable with who I am and how I look.

Joking apart, I don’t have too many hang ups, we all have bad moustache days right?

Our ideas of what is ‘fashionable’ is primarily dictated by advertising and labels, the high street is awash with fad fashion, trends come and go in a flash, what was considered cool one week, is soooo ‘last week’ the next.

Charity shop chic? Wrong! This was taken at one of the high street behemoths prime locations! Seriously! Look at the outfits?!

Ok, some folk might consider the above image cool, horses for courses right?

Not for me…

My wardrobe is made up of items that I can wear year after year, ‘classics’.

I’ve also invested well too, I have bought a few ‘key’ items that can make your wardrobe versatile ( I’ll go into that more at a later date 😉)

What am I wearing?

I’m a big fan of Japanese denim and Japanese style, and also love the simplistic style of the Scandinavians ( I am a Norseman after all!)

You don’t have to break the bank and buy overpriced labels either, I’ll show you in my next blog how to achieve cool looks on a budget, I’ll also show you how to create a capsule wardrobe that will take you through a whole season!