BREAKING ALL THE RULES FOR MEN'S FASHION

Never wear shorts with a sportcoat or bucks

You can actually wear shorts with a sportcoat and bucks. The key is to make sure that both the shorts and sportcoat are impeccably tailored. Think more Bermuda inhabitant than overgrown schoolboy. But please, skip the knee highs — no socks necessary here.

 Make sure your pants cover your ankles

A hem that hits above the heel sounds about right if you’re headed to a boardroom or a Bar Mitzvah. For the other 90% of your life, feel free to relax and roll up your khakis and jeans. An inch to an inch-and-a-half should do the trick. Ankles can be bare, but showing a smidgen of sock — preferably with a pop of color — is a nice touch, too. If you look like you’re ready for a 40-year flood or a circus, you’ve likely gone too far.

Avoid clashing black with navy or brown

Old-timers will tell you that navy suits should never be paired with black belts and shoes. There’s an even harder style stance when it comes to wearing black and brown. But as the saying goes, black really does go with almost anything. Here’s how to break the fashion rules for navy or brown with black. Make sure your brown bluchers are polished to perfection to match the inherent sleekness of their darker background. Another tip here is to use different skins and fabrics. For example, a pair of black leather driving gloves will work well with a brown wool overcoat.

Always match your shoes and belt

Brown shoes, for example, should certainly partner with a belt of a similar tone (one that’s too light or of the cordovan camp would be needlessly distracting). By the same token, if you’re daring enough to sport drivers in, say, a rich, red suede, let the shoes do their job and let a more neutral belt take the backseat.

Stay away from denim on denim

Can you break the fashion rules by wearing jeans on jeans? Yes. Sync tonalities and patinas — dark with dark and washed with washed — but never match them exactly. In the end, you may just pull this one off.

Limit your pick of patterns

Matching and mixing patterns is really just a simple game of color and scale. The strategy for winning results: Coordinate the former and contrast the latter. A blue gingham shirt with a blue and orange rep-stripe tie under the subtlety of a navy windowpane jacket, for example, should pay off handsomely.

Never wear white after Labour day

If it’s still hot outside, white jeans and a seersucker suit should be fair game through September. Then, once the mercury dips below 70, make the switch to more fall-friendly clothing.