Why did Steve Jobs always wear a black long-sleeve top together with denim pants to all of Apple’s major launches? What’s with Mark Zuckerberg’s style “Meta-morphosis” from “Zucker” or “Zucks” to just “Zuck”?

Apart from being both tech icons, Jobs and “Zuck” share another thing in common: they’ve harnessed the power of basic clothing as a tool for personal branding. 

Besides saving you some time and effort during those “I’ve got nothing to wear” days, basics can help elevate any style through layering.

“Even if it’s just basics, we wanted to show that you can do a lot,” Grab-A-Fit marketing head Mitch Gonzales said in an exclusive DAILY TRIBUNE interview.

“It doesn’t mean that just because it’s basics, it’s boring. We want to make sure that our basics can still be on trend with the colors, the fits, the silhouettes that we have, and the type of fabric especially also.”

Here are some hacks to turn basics from classic to classy:

Stripes-on-stripes

After print-on-print and denim-on-denim comes stripes-on-stripes. Match different pieces of striped clothing in different colors to create an optical illusion. 

Round neck over collared

Since preppy is having a comeback, the easiest way to rock it is to have a collared shirt underneath a non-collared one, with the collar of the undershirt sticking out for an instant Ivy League look. 

Play with lengths

Show some skin and create interest by juxtaposing shorts against a long-sleeve top. Add some twist by tying another long-sleeve top on the waist or over the shoulders.