An accountant in the movie, Confession, said "It is not hard to do the right things. It is hard to know what the right things are. Once you know what the right things are, it is very hard not to do the right things." After spoke with hundreds of thousands of customers face-to-face over two decades, the author is not 100% sure the accountant is entirely correct. People don't always do the right things for various reasons. Many people do not pay much attention to their clothing perhaps because their life experience has taught them that dressing a little better or worse does not seem to have a determinate impact on their life. Most men cup their fingers to determine the proper length of the jacket. When they were told the method had been wrong perhaps for hundreds of years, they were stunned and did not know what else to do. They got lost when they were told it is wise to judge the length of jackets by the ideal man's figure while keeping the mass of the upper and lower body balanced. Many men want to wear their pants long but do not like the bottom front bunching up. Other men prefer no break in the front but do not like the high-water look in the back. They never realize they can have their pants cut short in the front and long in the back at the same time. The secret is to slant the bottom of the pants. Merriam and Webster Dictionary defines food for thought as "something that should be thought about or considered carefully." This book collects many topics on men's clothing that warrant serious consideration. Many of the ideas in this book not only are creative, entertaining and thought provoking, but also have been proven useful by a huge number of consumers. The information will be beneficial to the readers of this book as well.
About the Author: Ivan Chen graduated in 1977 from Ming-Chi Institute of Technology, which is a member of the Formosa Plastics Group in Taiwan. He earned an MBA from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania in 1985 and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City in 1991. Chen strives for perfection on everything he does. He studies constantly and becomes an expert on whatever he does. He has been able to share his expertise through publications in various professions. He wrote a manuscript, entitled The Psychology of Soldiers, while he served in the Marine Corps in Taiwan. The manuscript was recommended by the Ministry of Defense to join the Seventh Military Sciences Golden Statue Award Contest in Taiwan. After serving hundreds of thousands of customers in retail for more than twenty years, Chen has gained invaluable expertise in menswear. With his multi-disciplinary educational background, experience in cloth industry, and his exceptional reasoning capacity, Chen has been able to understand and explain many phenomena in men's clothing better than any fashion expert. Many experts contend that there are about 100 methods to tie a tie, but no one knows which method is preferable. Chen is perhaps one of the few people in the world who can arch out a tie without the support of a collar pin, a collar tab, or a vest. Experts suggest that spread collars are more elegant than point collars or button-down collars, and cuffed pants are dressier than non-cuffed pants, but no one can explain why. Experts also mistakenly claim that fabrics made of 2-ply yarns are better in quality than fabrics made of single-ply yarns. Chen often provides surprising, yet convincing explanations. Many of his answers are thought provoking and are contrary to common beliefs. According to Chen, buying the wrong clothes is a major reason that today's men dress poorly. Consumers are overwhelmed by the huge selections of clothes items; they have no idea about what they should look for once they enter into a clothing store or shop on line. Contemporary publications are ineffective in helping consumers dress well because the publications do not teach consumers how to buy the right products. Unlike other books that describe every variety of men's clothing items but cannot tell consumers which variety is preferable, Dr. Chen's books enlighten consumers what to buy and how to wear men's clothing.