Dressing For Yourself

They say you don’t dress for yourself, and that you dress for other people. This piece of knowledge floats around the void, creating contact with those who believe your wardrobe is more like a costume than bits of yourself you wear on your body to express who you are. 

We’re told to ‘dress to impress’.

But, what happens when you dress as someone you’re not, rather than dressing as the person you are on the inside? You could give the wrong impression of who you are as a person. You could also jail a spirit whose creative inclinations create who you are. It’s not that dressing differently would be all that different, anyway. It’s not about being different. It’s about displaying your insides on your outsides, and expressing individuality.

A lot of people are terrified of this quality because we’re taught to blend in — not to stand out. But, blending in doesn’t get you jobs, it doesn’t get you seen, and it doesn’t show people who you are as a human being. That’s why clothing is so important. Rather than dressing for anyone else, if you dress for yourself, you’re giving people an accurate interpretation of who you are when they meet you.

This may get a you a good job you’ll get to keep.

This might get you a lead in a play, get your song heard, get your contract signed.

And, as long as it’s you you’re displaying, that’s the type of work you’ll get. Dressing like someone else, or dressing to impress, will show a facade, and will be a costume instead of your style. Personal style is called ‘personal style’ for a reason, the same reason why dressing for yourself will surround you with likeminded people, and people with likeminded ideas. Wearing a costume of sorts, rather than being yourself, will most likely surround you with people who will either make you miserable, or who are nothing like who you are.

This might sound like a great way to get a job, but it’s not a great way to keep a job. Your employer will be using what you’re wearing, and your likes and dislikes, to be able to understand whether or not you will be a good fit for their company. If you’re not dressing like the best version of yourself, you might get hired, but you most likely won’t keep the job you’ve been hired for. Even if you have to wear business casual, or corporatewear, the best way to be yourself and show who you are is to dress up what you might usually dress down.

In order to make it in any world, you should, if you can, dress as the version or versions of yourself that are needed in everyday life. If you don’t, you’ll be dressing in a costume that will clash with your personality. If you’re wearing a costume that clashes with your personality, your boss might look at you and wonder how they could have been so wrong in hiring you, which means you would have wasted both their time and your time.

Not to mention, this isn’t just about getting a job, and it’s not just about the workforce, no matter how much of a big piece this is of a larger picture.

Dressing like yourself also allows the people around you to relate to you better. They’ll understand where you’re coming from, and who you are. That’s why band t-shirts are so cool, and why a t-shirt and jeans isn’t just a t-shirt and jeans. Most people, no matter whether you’re a man or a woman, wear that every single day. It might show others that you’re cool with being whoever you are, and that you’re laid back, but it also might, in some social circles, depict that you’re anti-individualism. You want to be like everybody else, rather than being a certain version of yourself.

If you dress in a t-shirt and jeans, dye your hair purple, and wear this outfit with combat boots, it’ll depict a completely different version of yourself. It’s skinny jeans versus flares or boot cut. It’s boot cut versus boyfriend or mom jeans. The cut tells just as much as whether or not it’s a long-sleeve t-shirt or a short sleeve one, and it tells a lot whether or not it’s winter or summer. 

Some people don’t like wearing winter coats in the winter. They’d much rather wear a tank top. What does this say? It might show people you love the cold, or grew up in this type of weather and grew used to it as you grew up.

There are many different ways diverse people will peel apart what you wear and how you wear it. Your social circle will come to reflect the type of clothing you wear, or how you wear your hair. It’ll become artists with artists, and writers with writers, and lawyers with lawyers. How you wear will attract the type of person you are, and you’ll be surrounded by likeminded people.

Personal style no longer meets the ‘costume’ criteria. Now, personal style matches who you are, and that costume changes into an outfit. That outfit ‘fits’ what you are and who you are when you are ‘out’ and about in society. When you allow yourself to have your own personal style, you’ll find more people who are like what you are like. It happens because they’ll look at you and say to themselves, “Wow, that person is wearing how I’m feeling,” or, “Wow, that person is dressing how my brain works.” 

Either way, you’ll be both more honest with yourself and more honest to society.

The more honest you are with yourself and society, the more your life will fall in place because you will no longer be dressing for the rest of the world. The world will see you better because you’ll be being honest. The more honest you are, the better the world will see you. The better the world will see you, the better you will fit into society, and instead of ‘fitting in’, you’ll find a spot in society that suits the type of person you are.

It might take a while. It might take years. But, being able to start the journey of dressing for yourself so you can find that spot in society that suits you can all start with a simple outfit and shoes to match.