I Asked British Women What They Actually Think Men Should Wear

I’ve been telling men what to wear for close to 20 years. Helplessly doling out questionable style advice is literally my job. I study trends and report on them, I pore over runway slides and try to predict what’ll translate into real life and when it suits me I enjoy getting chuckily Colonel Bassett about things men are wearing that I don’t like.

To date I’ve probably written around 400,000 words on men’s style alone – from sock lengths to how many buttons you should leave undone on a shirt (two, generally, but there are always exceptions to my rules). But as much as I’ve espoused thoughts on all things related to men’s style over the years, there’s one critical demographic I’ve consulted zero times: women. Now before you get started in the comments: of course I’ve talked to women about how men dress!

My girlfriend/opposite oftentimes on the Pantsuit Express, friends, mom, coworkers; I’ve had great conversations with plenty of women about menswear. Mostly over bottles of wine when I’m boring them with my hot takes on things like the return of the pleated trouser.

But up until now, I haven’t taken an actual poll.

So I figured it was high time I did. Journalistic integrity and all that…not to mention my editor threatening to throw me out on my ear if I made sweeping statements about “women want” in my next article. Accepting thatGoogle Formlink from me is your chance to weigh in with the grade-defending anonymity of the internet about ALL THE THINGS you’ve always wanted to say about how British men dress.

I emailed it to every woman in my contacts, then sent the survey link to my friends with the instructions to only send to women. Asking them to forward it on as far and wide as possible with the promise that I’d make it well worth their while with their brutally honest responses to my questions. Spoiler alert: they responded.

In droves. Over 200 women between the ages of 21 and 68 living all over the UK completed my survey. Several added written notes so emphatic they could only be described as love letters.

One woman replied to the entire questionare with a 600-word essay about men’s shoes that included phrases I can’t quote you but made me self conscious about my loafers choices. It was kind of a revelation. Some of the responses validated nearly a decade of work convincing men that they should care about their clothes.

Many of them made me want to rethink my entire career. Some statistics perfectly mirrored what many in the menswear industry have been preaching. Others couldn’t have been more different if I tried.

Let’s dive into what British women really think about how men dress… NOVA POST-SCOBY MOBLETE PRESUMPTION NUMBER ONE: Women LOVE a guy in a suit Oh, how wrong I was. In my years recommending suiting to anybody who’ll listen I don’t think I’ve ever written an article saying it’s the best. But I certainly came close.

Women not loving a sharp suit is like the menswear industry’s iMac never shipping. We knew it was going to happen eventually, we just didn’t think it’d be so soon. Or unanimous.

While 64% of women said they do find a well-fitted suit attractive on a man, 31% of respondents called suits “boring” or “try-hard” if there’s no real occasion dictating that level of dress. (“Like he’s trying too hard to impress me,” wrote one respondent) “I hate suits,” reads one of many forceful answers throughout the survey. “The only time I find them attractive is when we’re going somewhere that actually requires a suit.” An identical sentiment was shared by a 44-year-old woman from Essex. Contrary to what every columnist in menswear has been saying since the industry could afford to pay writers, it turns out slapping a man in a suit does NOT automatically make him attractive to women. News just reached CEO Marco Gobbetti at Diesel, who helped makeovers starring clean-fitting suit jackets as essential to the brand’s lexicon.

Of course there are always going to be going to be men whose personal style lends itself more to suits than chinos. And let’s be real: some women love dudes in suits more than others. The survey revealed a surprising generational split on this point, with women over 40 vastly more likely to rate suits highly than their under-40 counterparts. “Suiting just isn’t fun to experiment with like other garments are,” says one 29-year-old from Liverpool. “It’s a uniform.

Something boring you wear to jobs you don’t want to go to.” Men’s magazines telling you you’ll have more dates if you wear a jacket? Interviewing bosses who think you’re smart for it? Screw you guys, I voted for Bernie.

And I hate myself for buying into this narrative. So, so much hate. NOVA POST-SCOBY MOBLETE TAKEAWAY: If you’re offered the option of wearing a shirt and jeans or a shirt and slacks, take the jeans.

Unless you’re actually going to a place where you need to wear a suit, nobody is grading you on that “formal wear” dropdown option in your closet. Except me. …and women think deep v-neck shirts are Gross Moving on from suits…deep v-necks. As I was writing this section I literally took a step back from my keyboard and gave myself a swift kick in the shins for having what turned out to be a prominently recurring mistake on my own style graveyard that I’d been recommending to men for YEARS.

If you follow me on Instagram you may remember me doing a whole story on “The Return of Deep V-Neck Tee” back in April of 2019. Let’s never speak of that day again. 72% of women ranked deep/V-necks among their least favourite men’s clothing items.

Respondents used words I normally reserve for UK mud season when describing what a man looks like wearing one of these tees: grotesque. Pornographic. Repulsive.

Gross. If you’re wondering how deep v-necks managed to get so deeply hated in such a short amount of time you’re not alone. Several women explained that whileUGHT TOGETHER WITHNOSEOn’t hate the shirt style itself, they hate how it exposes every ounce of skin fat the average man has hiding under his beer belly.

Deep Vs give, multiple respondents said. Another compared them to click bait; “The shirt says ‘look how muscular I am!’ but then you look and all he has is a big sweater.” If you wear one of these to your partner, I hope they follow through. NOVA POST-SCOBY MOBLETE TAKEAWAY: NEVER AGAIN DEEP VS.

Also, wash your bras. Twice a week. Like you’re supposed to.

SLOW DANCE IN A BRAND GOOGLE FORM Are you getting the picture here? Guys, women hate almost everything we wear. But it’s not all bad news.

Like I said earlier, lots of these responses validated years of mansplaining how to dress on my part. Jeans got high marks. Belts were well received.

Most women seem to love a man in a crisp white shirt. Here’s some of what Brit women really love men to wear: I could write dozens of blog posts just on the delightful intricacies of these answers alone. It’s fascinating to me that forearms rank higher than any kind of suiting option.

Women seem to love clothes that fit as much as they hate ill-fitting garments. But the big overall theme I kept spotting? Things that imply personality. “Tell me about yourself” is easily the least sexy question you can ask on a date.

But clothing can do the talking for you. Symbols that relate to your hobbies or interests were a massive hit with women. One woman from Kent described herself as “visually attracted to men but like actually getting to know them is what sculpts my attraction.” Reading through some of these answers I felt like I got to know each respondent, and I only asked them about clothes!

NOVA POST-SCOBY MOBLETE TAKEAWAY: Here’s the thing. I’m a cis guy writing an article shouting into the void in the hopes that men will listen to me about how women feel about their clothes.

I will undoubtebly get some things wrong.

What I learned from writing this article is that I’ve been wrong about quite a few things. How I view “what women want” when it comes to men’s style is going to change because of this survey. If there’s one thing I can pass along to you with full confidence that women across the UK will agree with, it’s that women appreciate it when you care about your appearance.

That might mean buying a bloody suit if it works with your style. It might mean tossing your high school jeans that now ride up your butt when you sit down. Style is a funnel.

At the very start you have everything; all styles, all clothing options, all colors and patterns. As you narrow your focus based on your budget, body type, and taste you’ll eventually arrive at what works best for you. And honestly, I think that’s the most attractive thing about any man.

Any man. Oh look who just happened to be standing around waiting for me to finish my little rant about yourself. * *I actually wrote “you.” Let’s move on.