Men: What Can You Wear When Your Greatest Piece is Dead!

When you get by on an undergrad's budget despite being well past that phase of life, food and shelter claim your money.

What you need: Clothing that fits, presents you as confident, trustworthy and friendly.

What you deserve: clothing that makes your color, features and shine, fetes your culture, and you carry yourself with the swagger that you feel.

What you can afford is different. If falls short. When you're ambitious...

I'm fond of the 1930s when flair and flamboyance were common. Peak lapels went to an extreme. And first impressions seem to have been more important. I derided casualness as a pox in an essay, I'm a snazzy dresser in a Land of 10,000 slobs for the 10,000 Takes project at StarTribune.com four-years-ago.

I remember having found some trousers that lifted my self-image! When Dockers weren't enough for me to express the grandeur I saw within myself, I found a pair of grey trousers at a department store. They were flat-front and flannel-weight. These let me be dapper. A dandy. I didn't default to the uptight-looking pleats that some men concede to wearing. Somehow I found an affordable pair.

I had found these. I could pretend to be a cosmopolite! Some of us crave to rise above a common look.

But then, I tore through these charcoal grey trousers; after a few years of loyal wear, I'd worn through them. And this happened during a conference! So I had to return to home base, to change into a charcoal suit. This wasn't grave. Yes, it was a downshift in peacock power! (What's the sad, and embarrassing fact? I have not yet thrown away these trousers!)

Clothes aren't everything; This is clear, judging from the paltry imagination and audacity that men put into dressing. But first impressions matter. And no matter that the reality is cruel, we do judge people within the space of an inhale.

Those of us who want to steal someone's breath, and the moment by dressing like the $10,000 you feel like, but can't afford to, and who need a nudge. We need to go to vintage and consignment stores where we can find great pieces at great prices. –– But that's easier said by women than done by a dandy; 10 percent of the stock in those stores might be men's wear. It might be less!

As a former real estate magnate, and an investor on ABCs Sharktank co-star, Barbara Corcoran, wrote in her book, "Use What You've Got". (I prefer the original title for it. "If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons on Your Pigtails"... it's candid and uses that to command attention.) I don't have my valued grey trousers anymore; no matter how smart I am or how many people find me urbane this still smarts.

So I improvise and adapt my attitude and what my closet offers to convey the pride, self-love and grandeur that I feel on a given day.