I wear a suit and tie to work every day. This is despite the lenient dress code at my office. Last Friday I left the tie at home for “casual Friday” – I felt uncomfortable.
Strangely enough, in my particular office there is even pressure to dress down. From time to time, people will make jokes about me being “uptight” or “needing to relax”, or they will comment on how they would never wear a suit to work unless they needed to.
So the “conformist” thing to do would be to dress down.
However I feel that the suit and tie are a better reflection of who I am. I am a professional, not a slob.
And this strategy has paid dividends.
1. Whether right or wrong, people judge me on first impressions. So when an outsider appears in my team, they think that I must be more intelligent and professional than the rest.
2. Because I feel confident, empowered and comfortable with who I am, I can be more persuasive when speaking. And I sit up straight and work harder, because I feel good.
3. The others tend to dress up for special occasions – e.g. when a big executive comes to visit, or for a job interview. But they look uncomfortable in their once-in-a-blue-moon tie – meanwhile I look “in my element”. And it works on interviewers, visitors and clients.
Conforming or rebelling
Dressing well is not about buying $800 designer jackets, the latest colours and changing your hairstyle every time Beckham does. To me, that kind of over-the-top fashion is bullshit.
I mean really, how can you justify spending $400 on a pair of jeans, when it was manufactured by a labourer earning $4 a day? With 60 cents of raw materials? With some bastard businessman or snobby “artist” pocketing millions of dollars for simply being arrogant?
“High fashion” is about conforming. But really, wouldn’t you rather be yourself?
What matters to me is simply dressing well. Clean shirts. Pants without holes in the knees. Brush your teeth, comb your hair, shower every day. That’s not rebellious, that’s just healthy and polite.
In social situations, people get the impression that you’re safe and pleasant to be around. In business situations, people get the impression that you can be trusted to do a good job.
A $1,200 handbag just tells them that you need to buy expensive things to prop up your weak ego. And you are incapable of holding your own set of principles – thus you need the Fashion Channel to tell you how to dress. Plus, that particular bag is SO yesterday, so mission failed. Conforming with the ever-shifting demands of Fashion is a pretty intense task. Few people can keep up without hiring a professional to do it for them.
Dress well, that’s all.
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