It’s perhaps a totally different story with women because those of the fairer sex tend to dress according to what the current trends dictate, but for us fellas what we wear is in a sense a representation of who we are. That’s why it’s called fashion when referenced in relation to the ladies, while we guys prefer to refer to our dress sense and everything we do around it simply as dressing up or presentation.

You may not even be consciously aware of it, but you are indeed what you wear, quite simply because you likely dress according to how you feel, what you do in your life and sometimes according to where you’re going. If those of your friends who know you best were presented with a mannequin dressed with one of your typical outfits, they’d probably be able to spot your DNA all over it. The only reason why something like this isn’t as pronounced as it would be with the ladies is because men generally don’t talk about such things. Fashion doesn’t explicitly come up as fashion in any conversation, but when one of the boys is indeed dressed to the nines, it sort of comes out through something like a compliment or a question: “Looking dapper today Steve, where on earth are you going?”

It really isn’t a bad thing at all however...it just makes for an interesting observation, especially since we appear not to be all too aware of it.

An expression of your character

What you wear is sometimes just an expression of your mood, like if you head on down to the convenience store or to the market fully kitted in your dressing gown and slippers, this pretty much just tells everybody that you seriously couldn’t be bothered today. When you go shopping for clothes however, you seldom buy according to your mood, so that’s why your clothes are more of a representation of your character than your mood.

Whether one is commissioned to show up dressed according to a certain dress code, like formal or smart-casual for instance, you somehow still find a way of throwing an outfit together which mirrors your character in some or other way. Like “Yes it’s smart-casual, but smart-casual in my way...”

We have a much bigger variety from which to choose our clothes these days with the likes of online shopping platforms and overseas shipping, but the expression of our character through our clothes was never deterred by the limited choices we previously had. Yes, they admittedly have a very wide range of options available, but if you had to go through the men’s knitwear catalogue of jumpers and cardigans at the likes of House of Fraser, you’d probably be able to pick one out for each of the people in your life you know really well, according to each of their own styles.

This only serves to reinforce the fact that you are indeed what you wear, but in no way is it intended to have you altering the expression of your character through your dress code. If anything, you should embrace this channel of expression in ways that can really open up some doors for you. I’m sure you know all about what power-dressing is...