Right before the holiday we worked with a personal shopping client to revamp his wardrobe into a tough, casual, and modern look. The subject? Yang Hu. The mission? Update his look so he no longer looked like an undergrad. Here were the results…

The Before:

Above: This was right before his haircut at Vain downtown. Notice how his clothes don’t fit well, bagging in unnecessary places. Fit was our number one priority, so we were determined to find cuts that made Yang look slimmer. The challenge would be to find the right silhouette for an inverted triangle body shape…

Below: But before we could start the hunt, we had to sift through his current wardrobe. Here is a photo of Travis stuffing everything into bags for Goodwill. In the end, we donated almost all of Yang’s wardrobe because of poor fit and a style similar to a middle-school-aged boy. The only items he ended up keeping were black denim, a charcoal gray button up shirt, his running sneakers, and two pairs of fashion sneakers. With everything cleared out, we were ready to get shopping…

The After:

Notice how much better his clothes fit. We made sure Yang went home with versatile pieces he could dress up or down and put together in no-fail combinations. So while we strayed a bit from the original intended aesthetic, Yang went home with a whole new winter wardrobe. Plus, a new haircut that is simple, easy to maintain, but sleek.

Overall: The first thing Yang said when he looked in the mirror to see his first full look was, “Wow, I didn’t realize how skinny I was.” This goes to show just how much shape can affect the appearance of weight. He was beaming, making faces in the mirror and chatting up a storm. The Verdict: Mission accomplished.

What do you think?

PS – sorry for the quality of the after photo. Our camera wasn’t picking up the low lighting so we used the owner’s camera.

We met with a client this weekend who is looking for a personal shopper to help him use style to get rid of his good boy appearance. He mentioned Johnny Depp being a style icon of his because he looks up to his nonchalant bad boy vibe.

Using Mr. Depp as a starting point, we realized no one better embodies this transition from good boy to bad than Zac Efron. After obtaining a squeaky clean reputation from the High School Musical franchise, Efron transformed his personal style to slowly phase out his good boy image. Now, he’s one of the most sartorial young male actors.

As the first step to consulting our client, we created the below mood board to give focus to our mission: embody a tough, modern, and casual aesthetic during our journey of transforming him from good-boy college student to an edgy and urban professional man.

We were chatting to some new bloggers recently and it wasn’t until we were talking about all of our most memorable photos snapped on the street that we thought to do a round up of some of our favorite looks from over the last 2.5 years. So here are the best street style looks from around the world. Click the image to see more looks.

Mind blowing detail down to the pocket watch and ring…

Lambs Ear is a local boutique in Fremont, known for carefully curated fashion finds for mostly women. While their jewelry and vintage pieces are lust worthy, we absolutely love its spread of shoes.

All of its collection from brands like A Détacher and Zeha Berlin is specifically chosen by owner, Angie Sorenson, based on craftsmanship, design and material. We find it great that it stepped into the men’s space by offering a select number of shoes designed by Zeha Berlin. It’s collection will set you back a few hundred dollars, but it’s impeccably made, is classic, and will make a statement. Here are some of our favorite looks from it’s current collection – which are your favorites?

To check out more, visit www.lambsearshoes.com.

Adria went to Columbus, Ohio last week for a marketing conference and came across this fashionable duo while eating lunch at the North Market. She noticed the gentleman’s sock first, hot pink glimpsing from underneath his pants as he got out of a car. They seemed quite alarmed to be stopped on the street (not used to it much in Columbus?), but we loved their pops of color paired with a very work-appropriate look.

A few weeks ago Nordstrom approached us with a secret project in Beta, asking if we’d be interested in testing it out. Of course we wanted to give our readers the opportunity to see this new project first, so here it is: The Nordstrom Style Card.

Essentially, it’s a program that allows readers to find similar items featured on their favorite fashion blogs. While we try to tell you where we purchase all items featured here on the EC, sometimes “thrifted” isn’t very helpful. Well, Nordstrom is here to help you recreate the look.

So check out our looks below and the items we curated from Nordstrom. Shop by price point and/or brand, click on items you want to add to your outfit, and purchase. It’s as easy as that. Click on the banner for both Adria and Travis’ looks to get started!

Now that you’ve seen it, what do you think? Tell us in the comments!

That online fashion world heavily favors women. Fact of life. From LOOKBOOK to countless female-focused blogs, where are men who crave style inspiration to turn to? We all know of the Sartorialist, but what else is out there? We’ve curated some of our favorite men-focused fashion portals that are full of swagger and class.

Mr. Porter
Website: www.mrporter.com

The awesomeness that is Mr. Porter’s fashion hub never fails to blow our mind. Not only does it sell clothes, but it has a thorough content portal that helps men bring their fashion A-game. Its Style Council is made up of fashion insiders who contribute advice and inspiration. It has a Tumblr and print newspaper that can be delivered right to your door. It provides style guides for different occasions and, in sum, is just all around awesome. It’s our favorite men’s destination on the web thus far, so if you don’t know it head over there immediately.

Street Etiquette
Website: www.streetetiquette.com
These men continue to impress; the look books are insanely refreshing. You’ve probably seen them all over the web by now, but their site never fails to disappoint. The style is full of layering inspiration for a prep look that will make the ladies weak in the knees.

Men’s Health Lookbook
Website: lookbook.menshealth.com
You wouldn’t think of turning to Men’s Health for fashion inspiration, but it has some great finds on its look book, ranging across lifestyle interests that can help any man live a sartorial existence.

Guy Style Guide
Website: guystyleguide.tumblr.com
We’ll be the first to admit we’re not a big fan of Tumblr sites (the UI is just RIDICULOUSLY bad in most cases!), but the Guy Style Guide brings a lot to the table via street style, product closeups, the runway, and fashion editorials. The aesthetic varies, but tends to lean toward the urban prep variety

The Urban Gentleman
Website: www.theurbangent.com
The Urban Gent has a lot to offer on its site, from how-to’s to fashion news. However, our favorite will always be the street style portion in which the founders share both their own photo shoots and carefully curated looks from across the web.

Boys Life Blog
Website: boyslifeblog.tumblr.com
This Tumblr has a very strong aesthetic, the type of men you’ll see donning the cover of GQ or the Sartorialist. The curator has an impeccable editor’s eye, making each look more lust worthy than the next.

Quiffs
Website: quiffs.tumblr.com
This is a bit more broader than the other Tumblrs on here, a bit more abstract, but still worthy of inclusion. It has a lot of variety in angles of shots, too, which can appease to a variety of artistic onlookers. You’ll see women’s looks in here as well, but it seems most of them are lewd, so it still speaks to the man audience :)

Aso’s Fashion Finder
Website: fashionfinder.asos.com
If you like looks of the hipster variety, you’ll love Asos online community of real people showing how they interpret fashion. While not as robust as LOOKBOOK, it is equally as real and definitely worth a gander.

Pinterest
Website: www.pinterest.com
You’d think this one would be a no brainer, but Pinterest seems to be still dominated by women. Just a quick “men’s fashion” search can bring countless boards to the table for your viewing pleasure. Some of our favorites include Kyle Newton’s Men’s Fashion board and Shawna Kitty’s When Men Dress to Impress board. However, there are countless boards so sky’s the limit.

Did we miss any? Tell us in the comments!