Mo’ Muscles, Mo’ Problems

Style advice for the athletic man.

Stylist Catherine Bachelier Smith has a message for men over 35: Your clothes are too big.

“Most men over 35 wear their clothes a size or two too big,” she said. “Fitted clothes make you look thinner and younger.”

Even the young and perfectly sculpted walk around in ill-fitting clothes because most off-the-rack garments are not designed to fit the traps, lats, quads and glutes of CrossFit athletes.

“Good style equals good fit,” Bachelier Smith said.

The best way to ensure a perfect fit—and to look younger and trimmer without diets or plastic surgery—is to have a piece of clothing custom made. Custom, or bespoke, clothing is not just an option for the fabulously wealthy. You’ll pay slightly more than what you’d pay in a department store, but the end result is a perfectly fitted, well-crafted, one-of-a-kind piece.

And fit, according to Bachelier Smith, is everything.

To help bring some style into the lives of CrossFit men, we gathered three athletes and a professional stylist at Crow Thief, a bespoke men’s clothing store in San Diego, California, to talk about custom and off-the-rack clothes, vests, pocket squares, and the manly art of the perfectly cuffed jean.