Adventures in Styling is my blog series that follows my bid to win the 2011 Southgate Stylist Search. In this part I'll be showing off some urban looks that I put together for my styling portfolio with the help of a couple of friends who modeled for me.

So let's have a look, starting with my friend Jason:

Jason

Jason has been a very close friend of mine for the last few years and he owns a small business in town. When he's not out working hard, he likes to dress more relaxed and enjoy the nightlife. With this in mind, I wanted to put together a weekend look for him. I like working with leather jackets because they are really versatile and can be dressed up or down by changing the layers underneath, so I had a look around for one. Here's what we went with:

And here's a detail shot:

I really liked the epaulets on this leather jacket (by Zara) and the clean fit. I like to mix military inspiration into urban looks, and this jacket did the trick nicely. Leather jackets should fit very close to the body, and with most styles, hit at the waist. The V-neck shirt Jason has on underneath (by Wet Cement) complements the jacket with it's subdued colours and I like how the green in it pairs well with the chinos to give a "grass and mud" look reminiscent of military camouflage. Finally, every urban look needs to be anchored by the perfect shoes, and Jason's white sneaks do the trick nicely with a stripe detail that subtly references the chinos.

Next up is Bilal:

Bilal

Bilal has been a good friend of mine since I first met him when he joined my fraternity a few years back. Now he's an accountant and has to wear at least business casual everyday, so he doesn't have a chance to wear casual looks like the soccer jerseys he favours. With this in mind, we went to find some good work clothes for Bilal. However, upon getting to the shops it wasn't long before I was distracted by some casual looks I wanted to try, so we went in that direction with a promise to Bilal that I'll help him find work clothes another day.

Here's what I put together:

This look is all about finding depth in shades of grey. By playing around with different textures and shades, I created a look that offers more than the sum of it's parts. Much like in Jason's photo, the anchor of this look is the leather jacket. I found a nice pre-wrinkled jacket on the rack at Zara that got me started on the casual kick and went from there. You'll notice that, as with Jason, Bilal's wearing a V-neck. I think a slim-fitting V-neck is one of the simplest ways for most guys to show some style prowess, even with just a pair of jeans. For this look, I went with this V-neck featuring a grayscale abstract print in a matte finish. For pants I went with grey skinny jeans with a little bit of distressing. Finally, metallic silver sneakers polish off the look and add some more diversity to the visual texture.

Playing with visual texture as I did here is on way to breathe life into monochromatic looks. Thanks to Bilal for letting me style him. All items are by Zara.

In my next post in the "Adventures in Styling" series, I'll be moving on to put some styles on women for the first time in years, so keep your eyes out for that and please let me know what you think.

Also, I've set up a Facebook page for my bid in this contest and I'd really appreciate it if you could check it out below and like it. It will definitely help with the judges. Thanks!