Did you ever ask yourself what the main difference between Charlie Harper and his brother Alan may be?
Yes, Charlie presents himself much more cooler, more self-confident and he is a womanizer (why ever…). Alan, as the opposite, is very shy, a little bit sappy and a womanizer? I think he does not even know how to spell the word.
A very important point how to present those differences is clothing.
As I said in a post before, Charlie has reached a cult status by his bowling shirts. He has his individual style that makes him unique. Maybe that is the point that gives him his kind of coolness as well. But what about Alan Harper?
Here you can see a typical picture of Charlie and Alan. Charlie of course in his bowling shirt and Alan in a striped polo. If he does not wear polo, he always has these plaid chemises, very normal and a little bit boring. He has no individual or unique style as his brother has. He wears clothes that anyone else wears. If you go outside, you can see thousands of men with this kind of style. But how many men do you see that wear bowling shirts, tennis socks and shorts?
What I mean by this is that clothes can show the difference between two persons and of course also the difference of the characters. Charlie is self-confident, he knows that women like him and he shows that by his clothes. He is not afraid to be individual. Alan as the opposite is very “mainstream”. He does not want to attract attention and he likes to be in the background. Clothing underlindes that in a strong way, because it shows how characters present themselves to other people.
What do you think about the difference between the two brothers? My argument is that clothing helps to show that main difference. Do you agree?
dressitcom 
wow! Now that you meantion it, it beacomes way more obvious to me!
I think you might add that Alan is also keen on looking neat; he rarely wears short trousers and tucks his shirt into his jeans.
Whereas Charlie’s main objective it wearing comfortable clothes; he doesn’t care about coventions at all and even attends court or restaurants in that outfit. (The only thing he is shown to care about is his hair ;D)
Thank you for this nice comment. And I think you are right. Charlie does not care about what other people think about him. He is really self-confident. And I think Alan is keen on looking neat because he is very insecure and it is important for him what others think about him.
I think with Charlie you are right. But I wouldn’t say that Alan is mainstream. I would argue that he is another “extreme”, just the opposite of Charlie. Most of the time he wears checkered chemises tucked into his jeans, which seem to be totally out of fashion. Even when he goes to bed he wears long checkered jammies 😉 Charlie just wears boxer shorts and a shirt. So yes, their clothes definitely underline their characters – Charlie, the cool and confident guy, who doesn’t care what others think about him and Alan, the traditional man, who is obsessed with looking neat and who prefers not to attract attention.