Clothing / Attire (Gender-Unspecific Grooming)

Photos of fashion in remote tribes (taken by Jimmy Nelson)
http://www.boredpanda.org/vanishing-tri ... my-nelson/
- note the use of colors, patterns, and the sum of lots of small details (like a Christmas tree)

Colorized photos of westerners in the first half of the 20th century
http://twentytwowords.com/2013/11/06/re ... -pictures/

Pants / Skirts

Dealing with pressure around your abdomen from pants / belts

- One trick is to wear stretchy pants. Yoga pants seem to be great for this.
- Another thing you can do is wear stretchy belts. I have this cloth belt I got from my grandfather that's pretty elastic.
- Another trick is to just chew your food 50 times and wait a few minutes between bites. You'll end up eating less. But you need to be careful to not eat too little, or you'll lose muscle.

Shirts

T-shirts

- I think I've noticed that some t-shirts have arms that flare out when you're wearing them and have your arms at your side. It's a subtle thing, but I think that probably messes with people's natural body-proportion-recognition, and probably doesn't make you look as good as possible. So it may be better to use t-shirts that have arms that hug your arms instead of flaring out.

Laundry

Tracking how many times you've worn something

Fabric softener
- From the reading I've done, it looks like this is worth investing in.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fabric_softener <-- good info

Fabric softeners work by coating the surface of the washed fabric with a thin layer of chemical compounds that are electrically conductive, thus preventing buildup of static charge and improving their feel. Other functions are improvements of iron glide during ironing, increased stain resistance, and reduction of wrinkling and pilling.

You can use white vinegar in the rinse cycle instead of fab softener.

It is actually better for you and your clothes. The smell isn't pickley after the clothes dry, it gives way to a clean sweet smell.

It removes residues from your clothes, as well as softening the water so that detergent works better and rinses cleaner, which means that stuff isn't in the fabrics to stiffen your clothes.

When I did this, I just put vinegar in the downy ball.

Source: https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 540AAL8tmF

eHow -
http://www.ehow.com/facts_5915238_impor ... eners.html

The ConsumerReports article also found that even the best fabric softeners built up over time, reducing flame retardancy in flame-retardant materials, particularly flannel and fleece. As described in the article "The Truth About Fabric Softeners," this build-up is an oil-based residue and an important consideration for consumers when using fabric softeners.

Shoes

Measuring your shoe size

The official instructions for using a Brannock Device (those foot-measuring things you see in shoe stores):
http://brannock.com/pages/instructions-fitting-tips
- This is VERY helpful

eBay - The Foolproof Way to Finding Your True Shoe Size
http://www.ebay.com/gds/The-Foolproof-W ... 037/g.html

Wide shoes

Zappos - Wide shoes
http://www.zappos.com/wide-shoes

Zappos - Wide shoes explained
http://blogs.zappos.com/blogs/how/2009/ ... -explained

What can you do if you just love a shoe, but can't get the width you need? In some styles, you might be able to wear an average width shoe with heavier socks or tights if you typically need a narrow. You can also try buying an average width one-half size larger than you typically wear if you need a slightly wider shoe. Depending upon the shoe, a shoe repair shop may be able to stretch a slightly too narrow shoe to offer a bit of additional width in the shoe upper for comfort.

Shoe brands
I remember hearing that Birkenstock is supposed to be good:
https://www.birkenstockusa.com/birkenstock-benefits

Sunglasses

Hard / rigid cases

- It's very important to own a hard / rigid case for your sunglasses! I'm embarrassed to say it took me years to learn this. The reason it's so important is kind of obvious: it prevents damage to your sunglasses. There are three types of damage I can think of off the top of my head which are very common and easily avoidable:
-- 1) scratching / smudging the lenses of the sunglasses. This is extremely common, and it makes the sunglasses extremely annoying to wear, because you have these lines and dots and smudges floating right in front of your eyes, which are very distracting. For a long time I had no idea how to fix this.
-- 2) crushing the sunglasses. For example, I used to keep my cheap sunglasses in one of the front pockets of my backpack on cloudy days, and I'd broken more than one pair by accidentally sitting on my backpack or putting something heavy on it.
-- 3) Bending the metal joint that connects the two ear-parts of the sunglasses with the front-part of the sunglasses (the real term for this is the "hinge" of the sunglasses). This is especially common if you use aviator-style sunglasses because they have smaller and more-delicate hinges. I have broken / bent more than one pair of cheap aviators by just having them folded over the collar of my shirt. Any kind of twisting of the sunglasses when they're like this can bend the hinge.
- Even for cheap pairs of sunglasses you should buy a rigid case. It just makes them last so much longer and much more pleasant to use. The only exception I could see to this is if you knew that you'd be throwing the sunglasses away after a certain period (like a day, or a week).