Unlike our friends in New York City or London, living in a tropical country like Malaysia does not make it mandatory for us to change and update the content of our closets every season. We can wear our shorts, t-shirts or whatever it is that we wear on daily basis all year long. It’s not like we are going to freeze ourselves to death or get frostbites.

Mark Ronson

But wearing the same thing over and over again can get pretty old sometimes. It will be great if we can change and mix things up a little bit from time to time. It’s not like doing total wardrobe makeover every single month. This is more about keeping up with the current trend and trying out new stuff that might work for us. It can be something as basic as experimenting with the new length for trousers, new mix of colors or new choice of fabrics for our work shirts. As long as we don’t look exactly like we did six months ago, that is already quite an accomplishment.

So for this time around, it is safe to say that plaid button front shirt is still in. But unlike the same kind that is worn by school kids on weekends, the new update is more colorful with multicolor combination and looks more like flannel shirts made popular by Kurt Kobain in the late nineties than anything else. The look is a little grungy but definitely not dirty. To top off the look, pair it with beanies and Chuck Taylor on weekends.

RafSimons Asics

Another hot item right now is the plain pre-washed tee. It looks great with shorts, jacket, skinny jeans, khakis and even pajama pants as you crawl into bed at night! It’s comfortable, doesn’t require any extra care and the best part is it looks effortlessly stylish. Gap, Topman and even our local label Fourskin have some really great selection. We don’t need to have it in every color but black, white and a couple others in primary colors like blue or green are enough to spice up any outfit. As for the fashion daredevil out there, they can head on to Topman now and get one of those paint-splattered varieties with slouchy pockets. And don’t forget to wear it a little loose like Jude Law.

Zac Efron in denim jacket

Denim jacket is back with vengeance after many years of absence from the runway and fashion spread of magazines. It looks great in very faded (but not dated) wash like the one spotted by Zac Efron. We can all spare the embarrassment of looking as if we came straight from the 80s by making sure that our denim jackets are not baggy, acid-washed and smell like old jeans from the attic. Yes, some of us might dig back the ’80s and 90s boxes’ from the attic to find our old denim jackets, but the best thing to do is to get a new one in new cut and shade. They will fit better and of course, doesn’t smell like the attic.

Jeans on the other hand are in darker wash like black and navy. Although the cut is still skinny, it looks a bit more prim and proper. They look like jeans that we can take to the office for that emergency meeting on Saturday morning without looking hung-over from the night before. Dark washed jeans look great paired with leather shoes or boots instead of high-tops that we have been sporting for the past few seasons. The idea here is to achieve Mark Ronson’s look and not Kanye West’s.

Running shoes are acceptable once again as demonstrated by Stefano Pilati who paired his with a pair of YSL pants at one of his show. Even Raf Simons collaborated with Asics to come with a pair of neon-colored sneakers that looks great with pretty much anything. The key to wearing running shoes and look awesomely stylish is to wear a fresh pair from the box. If your running shoes have some signs of wear and tear, then they are best kept for running.

There we have it, five items to keep us looking stylish and new at least for another couple of month before the new stuff comes along. This doesn’t mean that we need to spot all these five items at once. One or two key items for each outfit are enough. That is the fashion rules 101.

Images lifted from: Denim blog.com huckmagazine.com fashionoverload.com

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