Trust Your Eyes

"What the hell do I pair this with?"

This is one of the questions I get most.

Pairing stuff is where we see most of our personal styling clients get stuck before they learn a better way. So, let me show you an easier way to approach it.

Let’s start here: You’re overthinking it.

In ten years of working with men to help them improve their style, this is almost always the case.

Overthinking is what happens when you're hit with too many rules, conflicting opinions, and bad advice. It’s decision fatigue. You second-guess yourself before you’ve even tried anything on because you don't trust yourself.

Let me give you an example. Clients often hold up two pieces and say, "There’s no way these go together... right?" I’ll smile and say, "Try it." After they look in the mirror, it’s: "Wait… that actually looks really good."

Exactly.

Your brain was convinced it wouldn’t work. But your eyes? They knew. Here’s the truth: Your eyes don’t deceive you; your brain does.

Humans are wired to recognize beauty on sight. You’ve seen a beautiful person, a stunning view, or a well-designed home, and you just knew. No one had to teach you what looked good. No one needed to give you "rules" for understanding it. You just felt it instantly.

The best part is that you're born with this skill of knowing what looks good. Babies—just days old—look longer and more intently at attractive faces.

"Babies as young as one day old will look longer at adult faces rated as attractive by adults, showing an innate sensitivity to facial features associated with beauty." (Slater et al., 1998) Neat.

You were literally born with an eye for what works. You’ve got a God-given, hardwired sense for visual harmony. The trick is to get your brain out of the way so your eyes can do their job.

You’re trying to pair things in your head—and that’s where it all goes sideways.

Your brain is caught up in what might not work, what you shouldn’t do, or what someone once told you never to pair together. It’s all noise.

Here’s a quick mindset shift to help: next time you feel stuck, invert your thinking. Instead of assuming things won’t go together, assume they might. Just try them on and see. More often than not, you’ll surprise yourself - your eyes will get to see something work that your brain told you wouldn't.

This is how we break those old style hang-ups—like the time your mom’s friend told you brown and blue don’t match, and it stuck with you for 20 years.

Funny enough, most of our job is helping guys unlearn that kind of stuff and instead giving them real advice.

Keep in mind: real style rules—the ones that actually matter—aren’t arbitrary. They come from visual principles that apply across all art forms. Proportion. Color balance. Contrast. These are the same fundamentals used in architecture, painting, and interior design. And just like you understand what looks good in those disciplines without overthinking it, so can you in style and clothing.

The problem? Influencerz, friends, parents, etc. hijack these rules to manufacture authority. They’ll say "Never pair X with Y" to scare you. But if you press them on why that rule exists, it usually falls apart fast.

So next time you’re unsure if something works, stop thinking. Just look.

Trust your eyes—they know better than your brain.

Hope this helps.

x Patrick

P.S. Want some style advice from me personally and to learn how we can take your style to the next level? You can apply for a call with me to do just that. We’ll take a look at where you’re stuck, what’s working, and exactly what to do next. You'll get a glimpse into our men's personal styling service to get yourself looking incredible in record time with clothes you actually love.