The days are slowly becoming shorter and one by one the leaves are turning golden. Yes, summer is coming to end and autumn is here to replace it. You can forget about the hot summer days and embrace the brisker season ahead. Prepare yourself for heavier fabrics, deeper earthy tones, and a lot of layering.

Other than the obvious swaps such as shorts for pants and jeans, t-shirts for knitted sweaters, and cotton for cozy wool, you must consider swapping your formal business attire too such as the linen and seersucker suits with equally stylish yet warmer ones. The fabric of your suit will make all the difference when the cold and windy season is here but at the same time, you will need to remain sharp and stylish.

If уоu'rе going to be attending a wеddіng thіѕ year, in a wedding, or hosting your own wedding, the chances are that іt'll bе a formal affair and уоu'rе gоіng tо want tо lооk уоur absolute ѕhаrреѕt.

Thеrе'ѕ nо dоubt that you're surrounded with рlеntу оf сhоісеs when it comes to wedding suits for men, but thе wide аvаіlаbіlіty means thаt thе women aren't the оnlу ones going to look their best on the big wedding day.

Depending on your role in the wedding, we are here to help you choose the right suit (as much as we can, before you come into the store).

If you want your next formal outfit to make a big positive impression, one thing is certain: you’ll need to pay attention to the details. Having a suit crafted from the finest materials is a great first step, but without nailing elements like fit and accessorization, even the most expensive garments can still look tacky or drab.

And when it comes to details, there’s perhaps no garment more important to get right than men’s dress shoes. Depending on the option you select, shoes can elevate the entire impression your outfit makes, or be a limiting factor that prevents you from achieving something truly great.

Fortunately, you don’t have to try to discern which dress shoes are the right fit on your own: so long as you stay within the major styles of men’s dress shoes, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding an option that looks amazing no matter your personal style.

That’s why this guide exists: in it, I’ll break down the major styles of dress shoes you’ll need to know about to build an outstanding formal outfit so that you can make the right decision every time.

Whether you’re getting ready for prom, an upcoming wedding, or any other kind of formal event, finding and getting the best mens’ formal wear can be a stressful experience for far too many gentlemen in the Greater Cincinnati area.

Suiting up is supposed to be fun, after all. An opportunity to dress to the nines and feel as great as you look at your next formal engagement should be something to look forward to, but when you’re feeling lost and confused while trying to find a suit option that’s appropriate, it can be an experience full of pressure and frustration.

Unless, of course, you opt to simply skip the nonsense and work with us at Blaine’s Fine Men’s Apparel.

We’re driven to offer our clients a formalwear rental experience that’s the height of convenience, taking advantage of innovative new technologies and our passion for excellent customer service to eliminate the guesswork and confusion for even first-time buyers.

Have you ever wondered how good you could really look if you tried your absolute best? Formal events are the ultimate time to show off your best attire and make a statement in a room full of people. How do you feel about going into formal events? Are you excited to bring out your fanciest suit and tuxedo?

If the answer is no, then please keep reading. Whether it’s a gala, black tie event, or a wedding, it is important to look good, but more importantly feel good. We believe the better you look, the more confident you are, and the more you will enjoy yourself at these events.

This is the one time a year for most people to go all out and really surprise their relatives, friends, and coworkers.

At one point, every man shopped for their fist suit, and frankly it can be pretty overwhelming if it’s your first time.

Whether you just need one great suit, or a collection of suits you can rotate throughout the week, we’ve come up with a guide to help you find the right suit. The brand, pattern, fit, and price point, are all going to be key elements we suggest focusing on when searching for a suit. Let us explain.

As far as frequently asked questions about menswear styling go, this is perhaps one of the most ubiquitous: how should I match my belt and shoes, again?

To be fair, it’s a good question. Belts are a too-commonly overlooked wardrobe essential that, when properly matched, can help create outfits that are simultaneously full of exciting contrast and cohesive as a whole. Improperly matched belts, on the other hand, can make even the most expertly tailored garments look sloppy and unfocused.

Menswear should be about helping anyone and everyone look and feel great in the clothes they wear, and without spending the requisite time on learning the fundamental rules of fashion like these, achieving great outfits is going to be near impossible.

Fortunately, you won’t need to spend hours (or even minutes) trying to drill this essential fashion knowledge into your head.

Once you understand the logic behind it, matching belts and shoes is simple enough for anyone to become an expert. For your reference, here are the rules to keep in mind when matching shoes, belts, and other leather garments and accessories in your wardrobe together.

The sport coat seems to have taken the spotlight in recent years. The reason I wanted to devote an entire blog post to sport coats, because I believe they are the most versatile garment in a men’s wardrobe. With fashion becoming more casual, the suit has almost been replaced by the sport coat. The sport coat is the perfect business casual garment.

Business casual, usually means business up top and party on the bottom. And by party, we just mean a casual pair of chinos. But a pair of chinos, make the world of a difference in comfort.

The sport coat can make any casual outfit appropriate for almost every occasion. Let’s say you just feel like wearing jeans that day, that’s a casual pant, but if you throw on a sport coat with it, you’re all of the sudden looking put together, and appropriate for whatever business you have going on that day.

Especially us Cincinnati men, blue jeans are a staple for us in the midwest.

There are plenty of special places around the Greater Cincinnati area to explore and enjoy, but we at Blaine’s Fine Men’s Apparel have a special place in our hearts for our own neck of the woods.

Montgomery, OH might not be the first place most people think of when they think of the Cincinnati area, but we think that should change. From restaurants to bars to retail establishments and other spaces, Montgomery is home to some of our favorite destinations in Cincinnati.

Whether you’re looking for a night on the town or a fun destination for spending the day with your family, we’ve compiled some of our personal favorite spots in the Montgomery area that we hope more people get the chance to visit soon.

From longtime classic destinations to more recent additions, we hope you’ll agree that plenty of exciting things to see and do in Montgomery, OH!

Especially if you’ve only recently started investing energy into looking your best and dressing well, learning how to put together fashionable outfits can be challenging.

From the seemingly vast differences between styles and designers (compare, say, Teleria Zed’s take on trousers to Rick Owens’) to the sometimes minute differences between types of garments (what really differentiates an oxford shirt from a button down anyway?), it’s easy to find yourself lost.

And if you’re feeling lost just looking at the clothing landscape, you’re almost certainly not feeling good and confident, which is what dressing well is really all about.

Fortunately, it really doesn’t have to be complicated or confusing. Once you realize that making any garment look good generally relies on the same three characteristics, you can start to find your place in the world of menswear relatively quickly.

What’s up, Cincinnati Men! This blog post is specifically designed just for you. If you just moved here, or have been living here your whole life and just want to fit in better or step up your fashion game, this article will give you everything you need to know. We aren’t just talking fashion here, but local neighborhoods as well.

From Montgomery, to Downtown Cincinnati, we will be hitting on a few big neighborhoods as well as their fashion culture. In Cincinnati, we are all one big community, so the trends don’t completely differ, but we’re going to have a little bit of fun with this and "stereotype" if you will.

Let’s start off with Blaine’s home base, located in downtown Montgomery.

If you’re new to dressing well, wondering which clothes you should add to your wardrobe might not be the first problem you feel like you need to solve in order to step up your fashion game. If you’re anything like I was when I started to learn how to dress more effectively, you might be wondering how you should be pairing, matching, and layering the clothes that you already have long before you think about buying anything new.

It might seem like an obvious skill to some, but for many men, it’s one that takes conscious time and energy to develop. It certainly did for me: when I started learning about dressing well, I didn’t even know where to start when it came time to compose an outfit.

I had to spend time doing research on my own to figure out how I should be thinking about pairing clothes together. And once I did, I felt so much more confident, not just in my ability to compose appealing outfits from the clothes I already own, but also in my ability to cut through the noise when shopping for clothes and identify pieces that I’d enjoy wearing.

Even better, though it can seem intimidating at first, if you have the right resources to work with, developing this framework for approaching your outfits doesn’t take a lot of effort. It can really be as simple as a series of questions you ask yourself when composing your outfit every day.

So if you’re struggling with composing layered outfits that look put-together and make you feel good, look no further: I’ll walk you through the resources I used when I was developing my personal taste to help you create a simple logical framework for composing great outfits.

One thing I’ve noticed about Cincinnati and men’s fashion, they take shoes very seriously. Your shoe game almost defines you in this midwest city. Most men here own more shoes than they own clothes, okay this blog post may be getting out of hand, but the point is that if you want to look good and feel great it all starts with your kicks.

At Blaine’s, we offer only the utmost comfort and styles. We pride ourselves on being ahead of current trends and making sure you are always looking your best. In order to take care of you guys, we’ve put special attention on our shoe collection. We know you can get a basic sneaker or dress shoe at any store in town, which is why we carry premium European brands that you won’t find anywhere else.

Depending on your lifestyle, denim is arguably the most important piece in your wardrobe. Even the professional world has become more accepting of casual work attire, allowing your favorite pair of blue jeans to be considered work appropriate.

Even if this is the case, that doesn’t mean all types of blue jeans are business appropriate. There is a fine line between a nice tailored and formal looking pair of blue jeans and a baggy outdated pair you’ve owned for the past 15 years. These jeans automatically scream unprofessional and could potentially make your bosses change the blue jean policy.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when searching for the perfect office appropriate pair of denim.

As a mens’ fashion aficionado trying to pull together impeccable looks on what some would describe as a shoestring budget, financial compromise is an unfortunate but unavoidable reality.

I’m the type of person who loves to obsess over finessing out the details of every outfit I wear, from rigidly defending the cleanliness of the iconic gold numbering on the back of my Achilles Lows to maintaining the perfect amount of I’m-not-even-trying slack in my perfect french tucks. But despite my passion for perfecting every detail, there are some garments I simply have to accept as low-cost basics. Though I’d love to swap out my Uniqlo tee-shirt collection for some brand that produces $95 shirts that fit my body perfectly, it’s just not going to happen on my budget.

That said, I’d be far more likely to drop (relatively) huge amounts of money on a single pair of designer mens’ socks than I would on, say, the perfect tee shirt, which might come as a surprise. Why socks, of all garments?

I may be a little biased, but I believe that a suit is what defines a man’s wardrobe. Men’s fashion was built on the suit, it’s the ultimate foundation to a luxurious wardrobe.

When I sell my luxury suits to customers, I want them to love it so much they enjoy wearing it. It should never be this “ugh it’s a suit day” today. The thought should be, okay I love this new Canali suit that I just bought from Blaine’s, how can I wear it as much as possible.

Let me give you some quick inspiration and unique ideas of how you can wear your suit even if your office isn’t formal business attire, or you’re lucky enough to work from home. And the first step to knowing how to wear the suit is selecting the right suit fit.

Coming from a time in your life when you used to just purchase small, mediums, larges and so on, dress shirts can be a little intimidating. Typically men go with the motto, the bigger the better, and they would rather have a bigger shirt than a shirt that’s too small. Yes this is still true, but only in hopes of getting the bigger one tailored to be just right. Nowadays when it comes to men’s fashion and specifically dress shirts, if it’s too big and baggy you ultimately lose credibility.

You may not even really care about the current trends, and looking like the most fashionable guy out there, but whether you care about fashion or not, it’s important to look put together. Even a business man knows how your look can make a difference in whether you get the deal or not.

Let’s take it one category at a time, in this article were going to focus on men’s dress shirts. The first characteristic of a dress shirt that you want to pay attention to is the fit of the neck.

So, menswear experts of the Greater Cincinnati region, this one is for you: no matter how complete your wardrobe or how dashing your daily wear, it’s time to take a step outside of your comfort zone and into some experimental, cutting edge menswear aesthetics that are perfect to try out this summer.

There are dozens of discrete aesthetics I could have selected for this list, but for today, I chose four unique looks that can augment many typical styles and are sure to breathe some fresh air into your wardrobe.

Every guy wants to look and feel good in the clothes that he wears, but for many who are only just starting to develop their wardrobes and personal styles, finding a way to simply get started can present a seemingly insurmountable challenge.

What I learned was that once I developed that basic understanding of how clothes fit together in an outfit -- little things like how to prioritize colors or how to ensure a shirt fits properly -- I felt significantly more confident when thinking about how to improve my wardrobe. It took the intimidation out of the process of shopping for clothes and turned it into something understandable and even fun.

Have you ever gone shopping with high hopes to find a really cool and different shirt? Or a suit that just fits you to a T? Later to find yourself disappointed and walking out of the store empty handed. 

Since Cincinnati hasn’t been considered the best shopping destination in the past, men tend to leave their shopping excursions for when they travel. Our made-to-order program looks to change that behavior by […]