Sartorial Role Model: Taye Diggs

I mentioned this earlier today on my personal blog, but Taye digs has been KILLING it on the sartorial front for the past year or so.  The great thing about Taye’s look is that, for the most part, its so timeless.  These pictures will look great 20+ years from now when kids are reposting them on whatever the big information sharing tool of that era is.  Hit the jump for the secret to Taye’s killer look.
The big thing stylistically that Taye has been doing is mixing and matching dressier and more casual pieces for a look that is comfortable and clean.  Take this look for example:

A grey v-neck and khaki chinos are items that a lot of men own, throw a blazer and fresh brogues on and you are demolishing the game. Though all of these pieces are common, I would venture to say that the vast majority of men could not pull this look off with these same pieces in their closet.  Why?  Two words: fit inconsistency.  It is not uncommon to see guys whose casual wardrobe fits vastly different than their dress wardrobe.  Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, in a man’s closet should fit him well.  If this is the case, looks like this are easy.  A well fitting blazer will look just as good over a t-shirt as it does over a button down as evidenced in the following pic:

Taye also shows he can do the same things except sans blazer and add jeans.  Please ignore his “hey I’m still cool!” pose and focus on the fit:

Shirt fits well, vest fits well, jeans on on his WAIST! not hips.  The biggest faux pas guys make with the vest and jeans look is wearing jeans too low and/or not tucking their shirts in.  Generally speaking if you are wearing a vest or tie of any sort and jeans, you should tuck your shirt in.  Its a cleaner look up top to complement the more casual bottom. 

We can forgive the bootcut jeans here… Even role models make mistakes.