Style Rider: How to Dress Well Shows Us the Meaning of His Name

Photo by Zackery Michael

The whole notion of normcore has been played out to the max, but it's still the best descriptor for Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well's style. Krell doesn't go for flash and glitz; he mostly sticks to slouchy white t-shirts that look like they came from K-Mart and sneakers your dad would wear. His understated style is pretty much the opposite of his emotionally-baring R&B—in his words, "My music is very expressive and my style is more functional." But that hasn't stopped the fashion world from embracing him. Krell has modeled in a lookbook for Velour by Nostalgi and collaborated with Eckhaus Latta. "Tour style is important, but the really important thing is that tour lifestyle," he explains. "That's the whole body and soul, you feel me?" We feel you, Tom.

As he continues on his fall tour through Europe, we caught up with him to find out what he brings along in his suitcase to stay looking fresh and—sorry!—dressing well.

PROCTORS PINELYPTUS PASTILLES "On tour the most important thing for me is my voice, using it right, healing it right, etc. so I always travel with hella weird voice saving shit—always got like at lest six boxes of Proctor's on deck. These are delicious and very helpful."

NIKE SNEAKERS Photo via Tom Krell's Instagram
"I gotta have shoes that I want to wear in multiple contexts because I don't want to overload my luggage with, like, five pairs of shoes. So, for right now, it's these new Nikes because I can wear 'em on stage, to play basketball, or go to the gym, and they're extremely comfy. Also, this look is cute because you don't even know if I'm going to the gym or to play a show ayyy. (Here, I was going to play a show in Mexico City.)

SPIRITUALLY SOOTHING MUSIC

"Being on tour is exhausting and very stressful, so you've got to treat your soul right and play something like that new Ian William Craig record or Grouper or 'music for airports' to get your head right."

COMFORTABLE—BUT COOL—CLOTHES Photo by Zackery Michael
"In general, but especially on tour, it's all about rocking simple, comfortable clothes that also make you look presentable. Being on tour is so gross, you're tired, sick, and spend a lot of time in bars, and you need some 'fits that can both make this feel okay and mask this. That's why you'll often catch me with Acne gym shorts and long sleeve APC Jean Touitou shirts, or in button downs from Velour by Nostalgi, or in sweat pants and soft tees from Acne."

LOL TURN UP MUSIC

Take 1: Everything's gonna be alright, rockabye-- my bandmate @freddieprincejunior

A video posted by tom krell (@howtodresswell) on Sep 9, 2014 at 7:21pm PDT

"It's also very important to have that fefe music on tour so you can expend some of that adrenaline and anxiety—need to always be on the hunt for lol songs like "Family Man" by Hall and Oates that you can put on over and over and just lol at (what a RIDICULOUS and weird premise for a song?) or some bullshit by Shwan Mullins that my bandmate Aaron can sing until I laugh so hard it hurts. Every tour has like two main turn up songs we come back to every night. Last tour it was all about 'Lifestyle' [by Rich Gang] and right now it's all about that OG Maco shit!"

Casey Lewis does this every week. She's on Twitter.