As I mentioned in the previous post, my project today was to find an outfit for my friend and previous co-worker, Jon Abantao. And here it is!

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

This is the entire outfit. It completes with dark brown leather shoes.

Here's a closer look at the color of the parka, which is the centerpiece.

A closer look at the collar of the polo shirt. The collar is made of broadcloth (dress shirt material). Also note how the buttons and stitchwork match the parka.

And here in the back is the hood to the parka for cold San Francisco days and to make the back view more interesting!

(I would have modeled this outfit, except that one item only had an XL left in stock at the store. So this looked a lot better.)

Let’s look at the composition of this outfit:

• “Madras check” pattern hooded short sleeve parka (blue/navy/white/dark brown/orange)
• Straight fit color jeans (blue)
• Polo with broadcloth collar, contrasting buttons, and sleeve accents (white/blue/gray)
• Belt with a double hole design (dark brown)
• [not shown] Socks (blue, or none)
• [not shown] Leather shoes (dark brown, of which Jon owns a pair!)

I had a couple guiding factors in creating this outfit. First was to create an outfit that uses a bright color scheme. Second to make it suitable for San Francisco weather (pretty much cool all year round, with a lot of wind). Third to match with the shoes that Jon already has (because shoes can get expensive). Fourth to make it 100% Uniqlo, and thus 100% affordable.

After looking through tons of photos of Jon, I noticed that his wardrobe pretty much consisted of about 95% dark color clothing. And when I mentioned this to him, he said some of his friends had the same complaint!

So, when I got to Uniqlo to look for a suitable centerpiece for the outfit, the parka you see in the photo was the first item to catch my eye. Apparently, Uniqlo is currently promoting this “Madras check pattern,” and so that was the way to go. The challenge is to use what’s available, because in the fashion industry, that’s all you get!

There actually weren’t a lot of bright designs for the men’s line for the Madras check items. Of the two that there were, one was this blue, and the other was a pink/lavender design which isn’t really an entry level outfit for a guy! So, blue was the way to go.

If you look at the photo of the parka, it consists of the following colors:

• Blue
• Navy
• White
• Dark Brown
• Orange

And these are very important colors, because they set the color palette for Jon’s outfit! As the centerpiece off of which I build the outfit, the remaining clothing should somehow relate to parka. The reason is that each time you match a color, people looking at the outfit notice that association, and it creates a feeling of harmony. This is one way to create an outfit, and also the method I used for Jon today.

So! With the parka in hand, I needed to choose my next item. And since the pants section was right next to where I found the parka, I headed there.

One of the major factors in determining the formality of an outfit is actually how dark or light the pants are. (Fabric and shape are also important, but I won’t get into those this time.) The darker the pants, the more formal of a tone it sets. But since I was looking for a brighter theme for Jon, that knowledge put Navy and Dark brown out of the picture. Also, considering that the parka itself was of a more casual nature, it made more sense to choose a more casual color as well!

That left me with white, blue, and orange. In this case, the choice was easy because blue was the only option in the store. They had jeans that were off-white, but as a general rule: never put white and off-white together in the same outfit. (Thanks to my friend Cynthia for teaching me this years before!) There are, of course, exceptions. But these two colors actually don’t match, and don’t contrast enough to be comfortable to the eye when used together. So, whenever possible, keep them away from each other.

The jeans were a unique blue as well, so it made a nice touch to outfit as well. One key point here, though, was that the colors of the jeans accurately matched the blue color in the parka. If I had taken any old pair of jeans, they wouldn’t have had the same matching effect.

Naturally, the next piece I needed was the shirt. Again I had to choose the color, and my choices were (of the bright ones): blue, white, and orange.

Now, blue actually was not an option because by making an overly large percentage of an outfit into a single color (say, 80+%), you are no longer creating a matching outfit. Rather, you are creating an outfit with a dominant color and highlights! And while there are most definitely situations when you would want to create this type of outfit, the centerpiece parka determined that this was not one of them.

If you take a look at the photo of the parka again, there is not a single of the five colors that takes a very large percentage of the entire item. Even if you were to classify both the blue and navy as “blue,” it still wouldn’t come anywhere near 80+% (this is not a definite percentage, but an arbitrary one for now).

And by having that parka as the centerpiece, we try to create an outfit that fits it.

That leaves white and orange, but orange isn’t an option either!

If you look again at the photo of the parka, orange takes a very small percentage of the entire item compared to the other colors, which makes it a highlight! And by using orange as the shirt, it conflicts with it’s position as a highlight on the shirt. It can be somewhat difficult on deciding whether a color is minor enough to be considered a highlight, but a good guideline is whether or not you can see the color from afar. In the case of the orange on the parka, you don’t really notice it.

For the same reasoning, orange pants would not have been a good choice either, had they been available.

And that leaves white for the shirt. But it isn’t just because of the process of elimination that white is a good choice in this outfit. After all, what if there were actually white pants available? Then I could have chosen a blue shirt, right? Actually, yes. But you have to be careful about what blue you choose.

The shirt, and more so the collar (if there is one), is possibly the leading factor in setting the “brightness” of an outfit. By choosing white, it matches with the guideline I had of making a bright colored outfit. By choosing navy for the shirt, or even the blue of the jeans, I would have considerably darkened the feel of the outfit. If I were to choose a blue, it would have to be a very light colored blue. For example, the blue of the shirt or jacket I used when I created Sako-san’s outfit.

So yes, a good alternative would be a light blue shirt and white pants. Or possibly even better would be a blue shirt with a contrasting white collar!

But, the white polo shirt that I DID stumble upon for Jon was actually a spectacular one! Not only does it have a collar made of broadcloth (the material used in dress shirts), the contrasting buttons and button holes actually match the outfit as well!

If you look carefully at the photo, you’ll notice that the stitching on the button holes are blue, which are a great tie in to the outfit.

While the buttons are gray and don’t technically match, the areas on the parka where the white and navy/dark brown overlap actually look gray from afar. And since the buttons aren’t big enough to attract attention to the discerning eye, we they get points for matching as well! (You never thought you could pull cheap tricks in outfits, did you?)

Socks should actually match the pants to really show off the shoe,  so blue would be the color of choice. Although, anything except a color matching the shoes will work (including no socks at all).

And finally, a dark brown belt to match the color in the parka and also Jon’s shoes! (The belt doesn’t have to have holes, though. It just happened to be the belt with the closest matching brown.)

And that’s how this outfit was color coordinated!

But that’s actually not the end of it. Before choosing the colors, I had to consider Jon’s environment, San Francisco. It’s usually fairly cool there because of the wind, so I chose an outfit with long pants and two layers (the parka making the second layer). The hood was important, too, because it’ll help keep Jon warm as well giving the back view of the outfit some more variety.

A long sleeve parka isn’t a bad idea here, but unfortunately they didn’t have that option available. It’s also more geard towards Autumn, where the weather gets cooler as it heads towards winter.

Should the weather get really cold one day (as it does there) and Jon opts to wear a third layer, a coat in blue, navy, white, or dark brown will do the trick. Out of these, navy might be the best because it’s the only color that hasn’t yet been repeated!

Now comes for the fun part. How much did it cost? Here are the exact items that I used:

(Uniqlo items cycle out pretty quickly, so the links may not work after some time.)

• スキニーフィットカラージーンズ ￥3990
• ドライデザインポロシャツ（半袖） ￥1990
• ライトコットンチェックパーカ（半袖） ￥2990 (Jon’s color actually not shown)
• イタリアンレザーダブルホールベルト ￥1990

For a grand total of ￥10960, which as of today, is about $114 US dollars. I think not bad. You tell me.

And of course, if you could grace the comments with your thoughts, Mr. Abantao, it would be much appreciated!

He had a point, since at that time I hadn’t styled anyone but myself. But regardless, I told him with confidence that I could easily do it. So in response, he asked me to style him. He didn’t really have a clue about style, and he had always been wanting to upgrade his image somehow. He made a requirement that all the clothing be from Uniqlo (a brand somewhat similar to Gap in the USA), as he was a big fan of the brand. Another reason being that any outfit I made would be affordable. Lastly, the context for the outfit would be his workplace. Of course, I accepted his challenge.

So I did some research for ideas and then later spent about an hour on my own at the nearby Uniqlo trying on outfits until I was satisfied. And I was very satisfied. In one way because of the outfits, and in another way because I had begun to prove to myself that I could do what I claimed.

Sako-san was busy during that period, but about two weeks later, I finally brought him to the store an had him try everything on. He loved it. There were a couple issues with the jackets and hats not fitting him (jackets not tapered enough at the waist, hats one size only), but otherwise he was satisfied and bought everything. I took some photos while he was still in the changing room and had the jackets, and here they are (finally uploaded):

Later on, I’m going to post these photos on a separate blog dedicated to the styling that I do. But to briefly describe what I did here, these are two outfits based on the same concept. The colors are the spring 2009 trend colors: grey, khaki, navy, and light blue. Colors can appear once or twice in the same outfit, but never more than that. In particular, I used the Burberry Prorsum collection as a primary inspiration.

The experience was a great inspiration because of a couple of things that Sako-san told me afterwards. First of all, he really enjoyed the experience. As someone who didn’t know fashion, and now in his 40′s, this was very refreshing for him. Second, it was spectacular that this could all be done at Uniqlo on a low budget (everything in the photos together cost around 15,000 yen). And most importantly, this was something that perhaps only I could do. Not to say that other’s aren’t capable of doing what I did, but that they won’t. For maybe a reason as simple as just not having a reason to do it.

This idea came up in a conversation with Sako-san, Mami, and my other friend Lika, but they said I should keep doing what I did for Sako-san. Start a blog, call it something like “when times turn rough, turn to Uniqlo for fashion,” and start creating outfits based on Uniqlo clothing every day. Why? Because people are always looking for good fashion. Because people want to save money in tough times. Because Uniqlo reaches out to every age group. Because trends are extraordinarily powerful in Japan and if I can get a good thing going on a blog, I’ll have a huge following in no time!

THIS IS HOW I AM GOING TO DO STYLING MY WAY!

I have so many ideas swarming around in my head that it’s hard to get them all sorted out.

That’s the basis of what I’m going to do, but I’m going to reach out farther than that. So not only will I create outfits, but I’m going to approach customers in the store, introduce myself, and style them! Rather than accepting payment in money, I’ll ask them to let me take a photo, have them take one and sent it to me, and/or write about me on their own blogs!

For one, it’s a great way to directly increase the number of people who know about me, but it also lets me reach out to all different types of people! For example I can reach out to someone in their 20′s just as easily as I can reach out to someone in their 50′s! That’s what I want to do!

I don’t have to limit myself to Uniqlo, either. I can always move to a place like Gap or Zara as well to broaden the selection. Or, I can take one piece from a brand name store, and then coordinate it all with Uniqlo clothing! After all, that’s always an issue. To have a piece of clothing that you like, but not know how to coordinate it into an outfit. I think once I get to a certain point, I can even take requests from people who have that problem.

To tie this all into a career, eventually this should develop a lot of attention. I might get approached by an organization (such as Uniqlo), or I can use the reputation to start a personal styling business.

Oh man, I’m excited. Whatever the case, it’s time to get started. I’m going to pave my own path to turn my dreams into my career!

I don’t know if I’m going to be able to sleep at this rate, haha.