The Men's Fashion Rules To Break Now Men's fashion is all about rules. Don't wear socks with sandals. Don't wear ill-fitting pants. Don't wear mismatched suit separates. But fashion is also a constantly changing field, and some of the most modern styles require you to bend the rules of the older ones. No, you still shouldn't wear sandals with socks; the truly fashion-forward man, though, has many more combinations now available to him and his repertoire. Pants Lengths Whether you're going formal with slacks or casual with jeans, the edicts of men's fashion dictate that your pants reach a certain length. Traditionally, the hem of pants had to end at about an inch from the bottom of your shoes, a one-inch break. Now, though, those measurements seem to be changing and breaking the age-old standard. Pushed by countless names in men's fashion, most notably Thom Browne, pants have been moving up, literally. Nowadays, it's become acceptable to show a little bit of ankle between the hem of your slacks and the top of your shoes. Worn with a pair of loafers or lace-up brogues and no socks to speak of, you'll have to agree that it's an interesting twist to what was once an untouchable rule in men's fashion. Not everyone, however, can pull the style off. It takes a guy of slim or athletic build and more than the average amount of height. That's because the suit needs to be cut extremely slim to maintain proportion with the abbreviated hemming. At the same time, showing ankle tends to shorten your visual height, so you have to have a bit of it to spare. Suit Standards Try recalling your first time to buy a suit for prom, and you'll remember that your dad or the men's boutique salesman told you that a suit jacket should always match the pants. In the past couple of years, though, men's fashion designers have been bending this rule, sometimes breaking it completely, with unprecedentedly good results. Now you can go the way of Ralph Lauren and Dolce Gabbana with regard to the color of the jacket that you wear with your pants. A couple of shades' worth of discrepancy has become an acceptable difference between your jacket and pants, with the pants taking the darker shade to pull the look together. Pepper gray jackets can now work with pants and a pristine white blazer is okay to pair with an off-white pair of slacks. Even more style limitations existed to govern what kind of shirt and necktie you could wear with what kinds of suits. Generally, the rule was that the tie had to contrast with the shirt, which in turn had a contrasting color with the jacket. The last couple of seasons, though, has seen more than a few color-on-color shirt and necktie combinations. The matched-up-colors look isn't foolproof to assemble, though. Despite the similarity of the colors, each piece still has to remain distinct from the others. This can be done by having a shirt in a lighter shade than the jacket, which in turn is darker than both the shirt and tie. Otherwise, a play on textures and fabrics is required to create necessary contrast. Sandals on Men It used to be that sandals were such a difficult item for men of any fashion sense to wear. They were too formal to be used in the beach, but much too casual to be worn regularly. Style experts like Tim Gunn, however, have been showing the world exactly how sandals can work and still be fashionable. Although there's still the classic option of wearing sandals with beige or tan Bermuda shorts, you could also try pairing them with light colored slacks and a plain (preferably v-neck shirt) to create a laid back look. Add a matching jacket if you'd like to dress up the look for any place that's beyond the beach. The rules of style are usually fairly clear, but they're far from fixed. Remember that men's fashion is a field that's in constant change and evolution.