Scott Free Thinking

Many people do not think that clothes make a difference as to how others perceive you, and I can tell you that depending on the circumstances, it might make very little difference. But in certain situations it can make a big difference, in terms of a professional business environment, a date, formal events like dinners and formal parties, and many more. There are a whole wide range of books on this particular subject, and perhaps the most popular one I could think of at the moment might be John T. Molloy’s New Dress for Success. In this book, numerous scientific studies are gone through to determine what to wear in whatever situation to make the best overall impression. Perhaps the biggest conclusion made from this book is that for a suit, the ideal thing to wear is solid navy blue with a simple solid colored blue or black tie. The general idea behind this is that this is the most commonly acceptable outfit among all cultures, backgrounds, financial classes, and so on.

It is not just clothes that make the difference. The fact is, all of our overall appearance makes a dramatic impact on both who we see ourselves as, as well as how others see us. My own experience with clothes has been dating back to a decent amount of time, and I think the most prominent place we first notice the impact of clothes is in grade school. It makes somewhat of a difference in elementary, but with the introduction to sex appeal after puberty, the massive corporation marketing for that very aspect in teens and young adults, it really comes into play during the high school years.

Two books I would recommend you check out on the subject of how appearance affects perception on a social basis would first be Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty, by Nancy Etcoff, and secondly I would also recommend taking a look at Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell. The first book by Etcoff goes into specific and explicit detail regarding the affects of appearance, dealing with not just clothes, but the whole of physical appearance. Gladwell’s book is mainly a book on intuition, but the overall basis for the book itself is the rate, speed, and potential accuracy(or inaccuracy), that people have when making decisions. Often when faced with choice, you have made up your mind in a quick instant, often without ever realizing you have already made up your mind.

The cheek bones make a difference as to how impressions are made in others’ minds for faces, the eyes, the mouth, the overall symmetry or asymmetry of the face itself. When it comes to clothes and dressing for a great situation, you might want to consider the concept of color fundamentals. For example, while red is a very active, vivid color, easy to notice, and also arouses a physiological response of a slightly accelerated heart rate and awareness state, this is part of the reason red is commonly associated with both death and love. In addition, blue as many soothing physiological responses when one is surrounded by it, and it is considered the most calming of all the colors. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that certain dangerous elements in nature are red, and water, something mankind has been around for hundreds of thousands of years and is the main source of life, is often also blue in hue.

For years at a time, I could care less about the clothes I wore. Up until recently I was wearing cargo pants and plain t-shirts almost every single day. Within the recent past, however, I have subsequently become a huge fan of Lucky Brand Jeans, and my own line of apparel. My interest in fashion or clothes did not come until quite recently when I realized that my interest in public speaking as well as a much more public appearance online was going to take place. In addition, I also got a kick out of the idea of the extra attention from girls.

However, for the longest time I was just considered to be Scott, the guy who wore whatever he had lying around. The difference in attention you get from wearing nicer clothes is astonishing. During my time wearing nothing but cargo pants and plain shirts that were often a bit loose and baggy, I got a lot of negative commentary, even from friends. I’ve always been a very solid, firm, and unwavering believer in the idea that people should be judged for who they are, not what they wear. The unforgiving truth of the matter soon began to set in. One guy even said I looked “like a serial killer.” If I was going to be any kind of role model or pedestal for personal development, a helpful psychologist, or whatever it was I was headed for, I had better do something about this situation.

So I scraped up a few hundred bucks and hit the shopping mall and a haircutting place. I would like to hope the result was as least somewhat dramatic. I bought jeans for the first time in years, new collared polo shirts, and ordered a few of my own shirts. This picture on the left shows me after the brief “post makeover” with Calvin Klein jeans, a Dirty Mechanism Unite shirt, my Hot Chilly thermals on underneath, as well as a head of short hair. Now, I’m one of those people that prefers not to spend too much time putting a drastic amount of effort into the things that I wear, as well as how I manage my hair. On a purely aesthetic fashion perspective, the things I could improve are my overall build, my hair styling, and perhaps I could improve the skin a bit more. On a photographic perspective, this picture could use some changes. The pose could be done at a diagonal to make it more pleasing to the eye, the camera higher to capture a better head/neck orientation, and maybe a bit more of a wider smile.

Merely taking notice to many of these improvements, if you’re looking for them by nature, might serve as an example as to how well ingrained society’s conditioning is in our minds to how much attention we should be giving to our appearance. Especially where I live here in the suburban United States, you will see a lot of effort being taken on the ends of the mass marketing companies to shift the trends to be their own way, to convince the population that what they wear should be this certain way as opposed to that certain way. Did you know that Victoria’s Secret, Express, Bath & Body Works, The Limited, and other common major retailers you see in large city shopping malls are all owned by the same corporation? I think this is important, the apparel and garment giants - they control the overall styles we see across the entire country.

And the styles, are very important, because they affect how we are perceiving other individuals in our individual perspectives. While there is a common subjective trend to the whole of apparel as to how it is interpreted, there seems to be a common sort of ‘objective viewpoint’ stemming from society as a whole. I know there is no such thing as an ‘objective viewpoint,’ but there is definitely some sort of common conditioning happening below our immediate conscious awareness.

If you are really looking to dress to impress, or ‘dress for success,’ they real key is to figure out the real science behind fashion. There are two ends to fashion - the creative end, and then there is the scientific end. While both sides are involved in making the clothes we wear, you had also better believe there is a great deal of science going on behind the scenes that determines what is sold in stores, for how long it is sold, and how it is marketed and advertised to the people.