Welcome back to the Gentleman's Gazette!
In today's video, we discuss nine reasons why dressing down is overrated.
Recently, my wife showed me a post about 10 things why dressing up is overrated and if
you're a regular follower of this channel, you probably know that I would not agree with
that statement.
That being said, I do dress down on occasion which means I dress less formally than I usually
do.
The basic arguments in that article were that one, it costs money and at two, it wastes
time, and three, that it panders to what other people think of you rather than what you think
of yourself.
Now first, let me say that I think there is real value in not caring what other people
think of you because oftentimes, it can just cloud your judgment and you just live for
other people rather than yourself.
That being said, there is a limited usefulness to that attitude.
Men's Wearhouse had a survey and almost 3 out of 4 men felt that they are underdressed
all the time.
If you're in that state of mind when you're not dressed up to par, you simply lack a certain
element of confidence.
Being confident is a very important factor of how you're perceived, how people think
of you, and ultimately, where you end up in life.
The truth is we live in a society, we don't live in a vacuum just for ourselves, and the
way you dress and the way you appear to others has a huge impact whether you want it or not.
The truth is also that it does cost some money to dress up.
That being said, dressing up can be a lot less expensive than you might think and I
strongly suggest you check out this video on 15 things you can do to dress like a gentleman
on a budget.
Even if you do have to spend a little more, it really pays to look at it more of an investment
rather than an expense.
So why are we paying money for clothes to be considered an investment?
Well, if you get a classic wardrobe that you can wear for many years to come, the cost
per wear is very little.
At the same time when people see you and they think of you more highly they respect you
more and they deem you more competent it will have a direct impact on your paycheck now
without further ado here the nine reasons why being underdressed is overrated and one
people won't take you as seriously as a consequence you won't take yourself as seriously and you
will think that you can't achieve certain things even though you could do them no matter
situation dressing well gives you an air of authority and it usually means dressing up
Yale conduct an interesting study of mock real estate negotiations they had men dressed
up dressed neutral and dressed down the men who dress down felt at a disadvantage from
the get-go ultimately they lost more money and deferred more money to
the people who were better dressed interestingly the well-dressed men
sensed this insecurity and they were less likely to budge they maintained their position
and they walked away with a much better position than the people who were dressed down or dressed
neutrally interestingly the professor of that study noted that animals respond to signals
of dominance and for humans it certainly is the business suit nowyou may argue that some
of the richest men in the world are extremely interest down such as Mark Zuckerberg at the
same time when Mark Zuckerberg appears or when an article is written about it oftentimes
people refer to the fact that he's dressed down a lot so it almost taints his accomplishment
in a certain way even if that's not the case it's a distraction at the least and at the
last congressional hearing he showed up in a suit people noticed and it was a signal
that said I'm taking this very seriously so by dressing up you can purvey this kind of
message that you respect others and in turn they will respect you more
the second reason why pressing down is overrated is because people who dress up make more money
over the course of their career just think about it if your boss doesn't take you seriously
and if he doesn't respect your work why would he promote you even if you don't believe the
studies and think that it worked has changed 75% of men think that their well-dressed counterparts
are more successful in their jobs
3 you will look less attractive you can't change your physical features aside from working
out and even if you work out the fact remains that if you wear a suit or if you dress up
if you dress well you will always look better than the equivalent person in a t-shirt and
sweatpants so yes it's true most people would probably argue that Daniel Craig and the t-shirt
looks better and I do in a suit and they're quite right at the same time I'm arguing that
Daniel Craig in a suit would look even better than Daniel Craig in a t-shirt also the good
thing is you can take action and change your clothes and will likely be a lot quicker than
changing your bodily physique and if that is enough for you 78% of the women surveyed
said that they prefer men who dress well dressing down and keep you from doing things sometimes
when your sweatpants and your t-shirt you don't feel it's appropriate to go out on the
street so you just stay in hang out on the couch or pizza and watch Netflix in my opinion
your clothes shoot and hold you back they should help you move forward
and honestly these days all it takes is a pair of chinos a dress shirt nice leather
shoes and you're probably prepared for most of the situation's out there now you even
want to put on a sport coat or a blazer you're a better dressed than 90% of the men you'll
encounter
5 dressing down makes you look lazy yes it's easy and cheap to buy a pair of t-shirts and
sweatpants at the same time that's exactly the message to communicate I'm cheap and lazy
6 what you wear isn't just about you Tom Ford once said that dressing well is a form of
good manners and if you think about it it's a form of showing respect to others it's a
form that you show respect for the event you're
at and in turn you will earn more respect from others for that just you're a I read
a comment from one of our YouTube viewers and he said that he was never as embarrassed
before as when he had a business event with a co-worker and the co-worker showed up in
a sports Jersey that was way too tight with a deep cut out and he just felt so embarrassed
that probably had an impact on how he approached this meeting and I'm certain he could have
achieved more if his colleague would have dressed up more so whenever there is a dress
code and you disregard it and dress down it's a sign of disrespect and not having those
particular clothes it's not a real good excuse because you could even rent a tuxedo to rescue
this black tie or get an inexpensive one and put in a little effort the seventh reason
dressing down is overrated it's because dressing well actually makes you feel more confident
and powerful and in turn that leads to you doing things that you otherwise
might not have done if you were dressed down it could be things like asking your boss for
that race or asking out that woman that you have a crush on putting a nice suit has an
effect on your posture the way you walk the way you talk the way
you look in the way you interact and who wouldn't want to feel more confident and powerful the
eighth reason is dressing down can cost more in the long run yes t-shirts are inexpensive
and sore sweatpants at the same time they're usually made of low quality materials and
so they wear out a lot more that means you have to invest more time to go to the mall
or to shop online and if you value your time as well as the natural resources dressing
down and dressing cheaply is really not that cheap in the
long run evidently you will just keep spending more and more money and it's like a slot machine
in Vegas at the same time you always look crappy on the flipside if you invest in a
nice pair of shoes and you can resole it and wear it for 15 or 20 years down the line you
probably spend less if you consider the cost per wear off your shoes 9
last but not least who never know who you're going to meet a couple of years ago and was
on an airplane flight and when I travel I always try to dress well that means I wear
a jacket Orson Chino is so leather shoes and were a bowtie or regular tie and that really
makes me better breasts than 99.9% of people who fly so just turned out I was sitting next
to US bank executive we were talking was telling him that I had a business and that was banking
with US bank and recently I'd applied for a credit line and they thought they could
only give me $30,000 two days later I received an email from him
and I had a credit line for $100,000 and my banker called me up and was like wow how did
you do that and all it took was being well dressed sitting to the
right person at the right time who looked at me and respected me and
thought highly of me and believed that I was worth a credit line of $100,000 now that's
not something you can plan for but ultimately if you're dressed up regularly chances of
you encounter situations or will be to your advantage or much higher then you just show
up in sweat pants and a hoodie
so in summary dressing down makes you feel less confident makes you feel less powerful
and it will only less money over the course of your career it also doesn't make you look
intelligent or successful and as a consequence people respect you less and think of you less
highly yes it is true dressing down may cost you less but compared to the
earning potential of dressing up and a cost per wear it actually may hurt your wallet
In today's video I'm wearing a casual suit which is an oxymoron for most people however
it's a flannel suit it's not a business suit it has a small houndstooth pattern and I combined
it with a contrasting purplish red vest with gold buttons it matches well with my green
tie that has stripes which is middle of a shantung silk and picks up the colors and
ties it all together my pocket square is red and matches the waistcoat and it's not too
ostentatious my socks are shadow striped brown and green and pick up the tones of my tie
as well as the suit and my shoes they also provide a little bit of contrast between
the pants and my medium brown Derby and overall it's a combination that I would wear when
our people would probably wear a sport coat and chinos having an extra edge always helped
me to stand out and people often approach me that I otherwise wouldn't approach and
most of the times good things come of it shirt is an off-white dress shirt with
double cuffs and I have some Monkey Fist cufflinks in gold which is warm and goes well with the
warm call tones in the rest of my outfit my ring matches my cufflinks and has a nice star
sapphire stone which looks really cool when you have a light source come on to it
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