How to Dress Like a Gentleman - Daniel Öhrstedt
In the second of our How to Dress Like a Gentleman Series, we speak to the always immaculately turned out Daniel Öhrstedt, getting his views into what he looks for when putting his clothing choices together. You can find Daniel on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/datinventory
How would you describe your own personal style?
Tough question, but I guess I aspire for something classic, with a slightly modern and casual twist.
My workplace neither requires suit, jacket or tie, so they are all choices of my personal preference. This also means that I can vary my daily style: from suit and tie to more casual looks, like a field jacket and a polo shirt, depending on what I feel like wearing that day.
Most of the time I end up wearing a pair of high rise single pleated flannel/cotton trousers, an oxford shirt, brown shoes and a casual tie (wool/knitted) with an odd jacket. This is a bit less formal than for example a 3-piece pin striped suit, which may look a little over the top at my workplace, but it allows me to play with the elements of classic clothing that I enjoy.
If you browse through my wardrobe you quickly realize that I tend to use some brands more often than others, e.g. Drake's London, Berg & Berg, Rampley & Co, Loake, Eidos and Stoffa.
I think these brands have something important in common. They all provide the customer with very easy-to-wear items and they make classic clothing that fits very well into modern lifestyle, be it casual or formal.
Additionally, I think there are a few more brands that fit into this category and that I’d love to see myself picking up more of in the future, like PrivateWhiteVC, Ring Jacket and Edward Green.
When you choose your outfit for the day, what is the item that you choose first?It might depend on various factors: the feeling of the day, some item I particularly feel like wearing, a new combination that has to be tested, or maybe I try building an outfit around something that’s just arrived.
It also depends on what’s on the schedule that day (will there be meetings or do I expect a big delivery that needs to be unpacked). I also try to vary and wear as many of my clothes as possible. Therefore I always take into account what I've been wearing the previous days.
Do you have any particular favourite patterns or colours?I very often favour the earthy tones: brown, sand, taupe and green. As for patterns, I do love the striped shirt and printed scarfs/pocket squares. I try to find more subtle patterns and prefer to play more with fabric textures.
The tie can sometimes be the first thing I choose and at other times it’s something that pops up in the middle of the process. From time to time I find myself thinking that I’m fully dressed in a tieless look, but then I start thinking "wouldn’t this look even better with a tie?" and go back to get one.
The pocket square is almost always the last thing I choose, "the final touch" so to speak. I like to think of the pocket square as the one thing that I choose in order to bring out that little extra, adding some extra colour or intensifying an existing one. Or just simply I try to create something a little eye-catching.
What do you generally look for when choosing your pocket square?Often I find myself looking for different colours when making the pocket square choice. Sometimes I want to find something vivid, other times I want something more muted or tonal, it very much depends on the mood and what I want to create that day. I like something that becomes that extra element of interest.
I also like pocket squares that look a little different depending on how you fold them, this can be great when you travel with just a few squares.
I think my sweet spot when it comes to tie width lies between 8 and 9 cm (with the exception of knitted ties that could be a little thinner) and a length around 150 cm.
This, I think, fits both me and the lapel width of the jackets that I tend to wear.
Socks are among those things that you can never have too many of, but I do have a preference of ribbed over the calf socks.
Previously I've always opted for the classic navy, dark grey and dark brown colours, but currently, I often find myself looking for a pair of bottle green ones. However, a few recent additions of darker muted purple socks found their way into my wardrobe and I actually find them surprisingly easy to wear.
How much thought do you put into your shoe style, and colour?
I guess I put quite a lot of thought into shoes, since I’ve ended up with quite a few pairs over the years (and there are still a few more on my mind). Much like many others these days, I own a quite large portion of brown shoes of different shades and styles, but also the occasional burgundy, black and lighter suede.
The common thing with my shoes would be that I do prefer the classic rounded lasts (these tend to fit my feet best) and like to add a little bit of shine.
Do you wear one watch or different watches? If so, what style of watch do you wear most often?
I very much like watches, but currently I'm a one-watch guy.
I started out picking up some vintage watches, but I managed to break them all at work. So I thought I would get something more durable and I started to look at the well-known dive watches only to find that I liked the vintage ones the best. I ended up getting the newly issued Tudor, that was made with the older "marine nationale" models in mind as a compromise, and I've worn this every day for about 3 years now. I still do like this watch a lot, but I keep looking for something that would slip underneath the cuff a bit better from time to time.
