Looking for more shopping intel on menswear's golden ratio and the (painless) math behind it? Start here and here.
A decade ago, the most dependable outfit combination in menswear looked something like this: a long, slinky tee (usually curved at the hem), skinny jeans (usually stacked higher than IHOP pancakes), and rare sneakers (usually a Jordan 1 or—gulp—a Nike Roshe Run). We’ve come a long way since then. Want proof? In 2024, almost the exact opposite is true. Pants are baggy and high-waisted, tees are cropped and boxy, and two jacket lengths reign supreme.
Heady stuff, right? Well not to be a total buzzkill here, but the guiding ethos behind the shift isn't quite as titillating. In fact, it's downright mathematical. The secret is menswear's golden ratio, also known as the rule of thirds, where your tee, shirt, or jacket comprises one-third of an outfit while the pants make up the remainder. The golden ratio is the reason young-gun red carpet legends like Paul Mescal and Austin Butler swear by their cropped T-shirts, and why every menswear influencer on TikTok has followed suit.
All of which begs the question: What's the best way to nail the defining look of 2024 without ringing up a stylist—or thumbing your way through an infinite scroll of GRWM clips? For answers, we turned to three dudes who wear (and in two cases, sell) the vibe better than almost anyone we know. Here's how they do it, along with a few easy-to-replicate outfits inspired by their insights.
Four Ways to Golden Ratio-ify Your Spring Fits
- The Unbeatable Tee and Jeans: Abercrombie & Fitch Heavyweight Cropped Tee, $35; Madewell 1991 Loose Straight Jeans, $138
- The Vacation-Ready Shirt and Trousers: Kartik Research Cropped Fringed Jacket, $875; Saint Laurent Wide-Leg Satin Drawstring Trousers, $2190
- The Throwback Jacket and Chinos: Bare Knuckles Sonny Varsity Jacket, $428; J.Crew Giant-Fit Chinos, $98
- The Itty-Bitty Button-Up and Billowy Pants: Carson Wach S1 Shirt, $225; Banana Republic Italian Hopsack Wide-Leg Pants, $200
Who Doesn't Want to Look Taller?
The main benefit of the golden ratio is simple: done right, it's an easy, non-surgical hack for looking taller. The combination “elongates the silhouette” and contributes to a more considered sense of proportion, says Paul Ben Chemhoun, the founder of Parisian vintage boutique Brut and an influential proponent of the rule of thirds.
In 2021, Brut's in-house label dropped its first run of cropped-and-screwed Barbour jackets inspired by Ben Chemhoun's own vintage zip-up. (Two years later, Barbour itself dug into its archives to re-release the Spey, a waist-length fishing jacket with a cult following online.) But the the rule of thirds doesn't just benefit short kings—after all, what is a shorter jacket if not an opportunity to spotlight your pleated pants?
Know Thy Measurements
As you might expect, nailing the dimensions is crucial. Hard-boiled menswear buffs tend to know their sizing across a range of brands, but that isn't much help here unless you can suss out exactly what those translate to in good ol' inches or centimeters. For Jacob Keller, co-founder of Bare Knuckles and the Portland-based vintage store Kissing Booth, the key lies in understanding your specific preferences.
With a mere four measurements, Keller can eyeball a listing on eBay and know in a second whether it'll fit him or not—and, more importantly, whether it'll fit him the way he wants it to, a hard-earned know-how that ensures his shirts are cropped just right.
School Yourself
High-waisted pants might feel like a dramatic departure from the jeans you're using to wearing, but in the middle of the last century, they used to be considered just, well, pants. Not sure how to style 'em? For inspiration, high-rise devotee Kevin Montes poured through old family photos and looked to jazz greats like Eric Dolphy, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane. That journey led him beyond cropped hoodies and high-rise jeans, encouraging far snazzier flourishes, like tucking his knit polos into roomy pleated trousers.
You definitely don't need a PhD in menswear history to pull off the look, but it's worth noting that pieces like Ben Chemhoun's beloved vintage fishing jacket, or even a badass waist-length biker, were initially designed for function first, not just vibes. Motorcycle jackets were cut cropped so that "when you sat on your bike and you had your arms up on the wheel, they didn't bunch at your waist,” says Bare Knuckles' Keller. These days, you don't need a cropped jacket and jeans with a 13-inch rise to ride a Harley, but the golden ratio that defines them will still guarantee your work fits look clean as a whistle on the train to the office.
Find a Tailor
In 2024, there's no shortage of cropped tees and high-waisted pants at every price point, so getting involved is as simple as a couple of quick clicks. The new-and-improved Abercrombie sells a killer riff on the former, while J.Crew’s viral chinos have become a hallmark of its renaissance. If you’re hunting for “ID?!”-eliciting pants, Montes recommends independent labels like Rota and Casatlantic, both of which have carved out a niche hawking an extensive range of gloriously high-waisted trousers.
Keller probably wouldn’t mind if you perused Bare Knuckles’ next drop, but he's also quick to tout the power of savvy tailoring. A good tailor can do a lot more than you might think—shorten the length of jeans or the sleeves of an old jacket, modify T-shirts (T-shirts!) to sit right above the waist. Start with a piece of clothing that you don't get a ton of wear out of and "see what it looks like if you were to chop a few inches off,” he says. The DIY route isn't a total no-go, but if you take a pair of scissors to an old tee a tailor can finish the bottom hem, which will prevent it from rolling up into true crop-top territory after a spin in the washing machine.
Finding a tailor Montes can trust has been crucial for him, too. “Because of my stature, whenever I wear things right off the rack I feel like a little kid in his dad's clothes. When something fits you well, it looks like it could be thrifted—or it could be $900.”
What About Shoes?
Good news here: There’s no hard-and-fast rule among the experts on what shoes work best with your new pants. Montes likes to anchor wide trousers with lug-sole loafers and chunkier boots to balance out the added fabric. But unlike their slimmer counterparts, Keller says, looser pants look killer with pretty much every type of shoe there is; he wears his with loafers and boots, sure, but also dainty slip-ons and retro sneakers. A word to the wise: the same pair of pants might puddle over sneakers but land with little to no break over boots, so home in on the shoes you'll wear them with and tailor judiciously.