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By Hendrik Pohl

Face it: when it comes to fashion, men are at a disadvantage with accessories. Not only does the sex as a whole have a narrower selection, but finding that stylish sweet spot is also very difficult for most. It gets even harder when your age starts breaching the 30- and 40-something limits, after faux pas cease to be cute and become cringe-worthy. Here are a few things you may want to remember about accessorizing for a more mature style.

Bling is Bad
Many forces in men’’s fashion from celebrities to fashion designers have decried the rise in popularity of bling. Outrageously large and glittery chunks of diamonds and precious metals, bling is most often used as a statement of power and wealth. For older guys like you, though, it’’s an equally strong statement about your lack of good taste.

Non-watch jewelry on guys used to be a very touchy topic in men’’s fashion. Up to about three decades ago, eyebrows would”ve been raised very high at a guy wearing a necklace with a pendant. Nowadays, it’’s become a norm in many groups and communities all over the world. The more mature guy should stick to more conservative standards when it comes to wearing accessories with any outfit.

Keep your jewelry, if any, small, minimal and, above all, tasteful. A thin bracelet in gold or platinum works for a guy of any age. Necklaces at most an eighth of an inch thick are also allowable as long as you wear just one. A good rule to follow for jewelry is to think about the meaning of each piece you wear. If there’’s no sentimental value to a piece, there’’s very little point in your looking like a rap star wearing it.

Errant Earrings
Back in the days of the Spanish Armada, a great number of court men wore earrings as a sign of rank and prestige. Modern men, however, dress by a different standard, and you should definitely think twice about getting those lobes pierced and accessorized.

Some guys look tough with a stud earring or bad-ass with a tiny hoop. Extremely few of them, however, are past their thirties, and a buffed up bod is usually a requirement to pull off the appearance. Unless you have piratical aspirations, earrings are probably best left to your wife or girlfriend to wear.

Look at it another way: what purpose would earrings serve? They don”t frame your face like glasses do, nor do they have practical functions like a watch. As a mature and stylish man, every piece you wear has to have meaning and value. Otherwise, you”ll most likely end up looking like some overdressed jewelry store on two legs.

Plastic Not Fantastic
Every now and then, going back to being a kid swings into vogue. You see colleagues goofing off with game consoles and friends collecting toys from your youth. One thing you should rethink about revisiting, though, is the plastic fantastic era when everything from your shades to your watch was some disposable parent-purchased contraption.

Lose the plastic shades, they don”t go well with anything, give that plastic watch to a nephew who could use it, and that plastic ring has got to go. Each and every one of those items subtracts from your image of a tasteful, mature and financially independent man. If the item was made for kids, leave it to the kids. It’’s rather too late to revisit an era that’’s already three decades in the past.

Real men your age should be playing around with more sophisticated materials like metal or leather, not dollar store plastics. Yes, these pieces cost more, but they”re also much more appropriate for a man of your stature. They”re just toys for the big boys.

Accessories are by no means an easy field for men’’s fashion. You have to be able to strike a delicate balance between minimal and artistic, between tasteful and fancy. The easiest way to do that is to wear only those pieces that either serve a purpose or have some great meaning behind them. Just remember that each one has to count for something.

About The Author

Pohl likes to write about fashion and style. Besides writing on multiple mans fashion blogs and forums he is also the owner of neck and bow-tie store: http://www.bows-n-ties.com/