Best Dressed Men At the 2011 Golden Globes

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We’ll dig into trends and favorites among the many gowns on display at last night’s Golden Globe awards, but first a shout out to the guys. Let’s be honest, it’s damn near impossible to look bad in a tuxedo that fits properly, so in one way men have it easier.

On the other hand, women get to go a lot further with color, cut, and embellishments so standing out without looking silly is much more challenging for men. All over color can look dated in the worst way possible; shine might work for dresses, but overdone on suits can look like pajamas; stick to the basics and you risk being mistaken for a waiter.

So, how do you inject some personal style into an otherwise uniform outfit?

Try the right pattern

Glee‘s Kevin McHale combined a Dolce & Gabbana jacket with white dots that aren’t too large or too small with classic black pants, and gets our vote for best dressed. Keeping the pattern to one piece was smart, as was sticking to a monochromatic palette. Glee co-star Harry Shum, Jr. obviously got the memo and looked great in a patterned black and white dress shirt also. If you want to try a a patterned dress shirt, try custom shirt makers like Proper Cloth or World of Alfa.

Ditch the basic black

Others injected a bit of color, but stuck to neutrals like dark blue (Jon Hamm) and charcoal gray (Jeremy Renner) or subtle touches like Jesse Tyler Ferguson‘s olive green paisley bow-tie and matching suit button. Jeremy Renner and Jon Hamm have a bit of a sheen to their suits, but not so much that they look like satin.

Ferguson proves that standing out doesn’t necessarily take a fortune either. His tux was by Etro, but his bow-tie from The Tie Bar was only $15.

Combine textures

Black Swan director Darren Aronofsky and Glee‘s Chris Colfer both stuck to classic looks with skinny ties, but both had a slightly different look with lapels in different textures. It looks like Aronofsky went for velvet in a Dolce & Gabbana tuxedo while Colfer and Johnny Depp (who went tieless) went for more of a high shine. For a no-fail way to do something different, that’s the way. Ryan Gosling actually pulls off head to toe velvet, but if you’re not working with an actor’s budget/styling options (read: can buy or borrow a fairly expensive suit with high quality velvet) the look can quickly veer from dashing to Don Magic Juan disaster so tread lightly if you decide to try this at home.