MY FIRST PRINCIPLE OF STYLE
Introduction
A person’s style is based on predetermined principles. These principles are the foundation upon which dress standards are built. Your style is your identity. Your style is a reflection of who you are, not whom who are among.
As you build your wardrobe, your poor taste in style is what allows you to wear socks and sandals. This is expected of the untrained soul, so do not require perfection of yourself right now. Go ahead and wear your socks with sandals, but be sure to have valid principles and reasons for why you are wearing them. Otherwise, do the world a favor and shed yourself of that terrible image.
Having confidence in your outfit is a benefit of your predetermined principles. As a test, allow me to ask you why you are wearing what you are wearing right now? Do you have a principle for your current color scheme?
Deep down, we all tend to have some sense of style. This is obviously built from our life experiences, but sadly, our experiences tend to be faulty and we can sometimes be underdressed and look foolish. This is why we must have principles for our dress. Below is my first personal principle for style.
“One must lay a foundation of simplicity, in order to reach the height of sophistication”
Principle number one:
1. Dress for the occasion.
I know that this principle isn’t life shattering or world changing, but as embarrassing as it is, some of us have been guilty of showing up to our first work party in shorts and a t-shirt only to find that our CEO was going to be joining us in a suit and tie.
n the day and age that we live in, there seems to be a majority of people that throw on whatever seems to be the most comfortable material and they choose to care less how they look. I call this being underdressed. It’s not that these people are wearing “less” clothing than other people, but their style is too plain or informal for the occasion.
Granted, comfortable clothes should be a go to, but never at the expense of loosing your style. Doing this every once in a while is not going to kill your reputation, but overuse is certainly not suggested.
Being underdressed can harm your image as you will:
Give off the impression of either not knowing or not caring what dress standard the occasion calls for.
Be perceived as having no sense of style.
Lose respect (I am in no way suggesting that you should judge someone for the clothes they are wearing, but at the same time, respect is earned and lost in many ways - including style of dress)
Solution:
When you are unsure of the attire of where you are going, never be afraid to slightly overdress. Being slightly overdressed allows you to stand out in a good way.
The reason I say slightly overdressed, is the fact that a person can be overdressed to the point where:
They stand out as being insecure
They can put the people they are with in an uncomfortable state.
Although some eccentric personalities allow for this “overdressed” sense of living, it is pretty safe to say that most of us don’t have the personality - nor do we long for it.
Being slightly overdressed allows you to give off a greater impression. Removing articles of clothing is definitely an option, but on the reverse of that, you cannot put on what you do not have.
If I were to describe this first tip in one word - it would be wisdom. Be wise about your clothing. Discern what the occasion is and rise to the occasion. Style is a predetermined mediation - not an after thought.
