Job Interviews can often involve assessing how much pay to offer someone. I’m not sure you can do the math on how much “fashion” gets you how much more money, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it compares favorably to a lot of salary negotiation tactics. Also: Many people go to many job interviews over the course of their lives. Spending money one time to optimize a suit or other outfit can be spread out over many opportunities to wear it.
I also think more generally this is a big fallacy among nerds, the notion of “Anyone who would dismiss me for how I dress is not someone I want to hang out with anyway”. You have to remember that you’re competing with everyone else a person may or may not interact with, and consider how many people you meet who you never have an in-depth conversation with. Everyone uses many criteria to judge whether to talk to people for the first time, or talk to them again or seek them out at parties or whatnot. “fashion” or more generally appearance and a sense of personal style is one of these criteria. If you look interesting or like a hoopy frood or this can make more people want to talk to you. If you dress like a goth, some people will really want to talk to you and some others will want to avoid you. Fashion isn’t just paying attention to what runway models wear, but to what sort of image and identity you yourself have. There’s not even anything actually wrong with going around all the time in cargo shorts and a shirt with a Carbon Dating joke or a My Little Pony on it. Just recognize that even your “default” outfit is signalling something to everyone you meet, and your social interactions will in a not necessarily visible way all be colored by it.
No doubt. There is significant impact of appearance. And I agree that it is kind of a nerd fallacy to assume (or insist) that inner values should qualify only or mostly. It took me a while to learn that.
But it is also a fallacy—and a potentially expensive one—to assume the opposite that you have to follow every fashion or trend (of your social peer group). Moderation and balance is the key here I think.
Yeah that’s one reason I don’t like the word fashion/fashionable: it combines trendiness with style in a way that can make you focus on the wrong side.
Job Interviews can often involve assessing how much pay to offer someone. I’m not sure you can do the math on how much “fashion” gets you how much more money, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it compares favorably to a lot of salary negotiation tactics. Also: Many people go to many job interviews over the course of their lives. Spending money one time to optimize a suit or other outfit can be spread out over many opportunities to wear it.
I also think more generally this is a big fallacy among nerds, the notion of “Anyone who would dismiss me for how I dress is not someone I want to hang out with anyway”. You have to remember that you’re competing with everyone else a person may or may not interact with, and consider how many people you meet who you never have an in-depth conversation with. Everyone uses many criteria to judge whether to talk to people for the first time, or talk to them again or seek them out at parties or whatnot. “fashion” or more generally appearance and a sense of personal style is one of these criteria. If you look interesting or like a hoopy frood or this can make more people want to talk to you. If you dress like a goth, some people will really want to talk to you and some others will want to avoid you. Fashion isn’t just paying attention to what runway models wear, but to what sort of image and identity you yourself have. There’s not even anything actually wrong with going around all the time in cargo shorts and a shirt with a Carbon Dating joke or a My Little Pony on it. Just recognize that even your “default” outfit is signalling something to everyone you meet, and your social interactions will in a not necessarily visible way all be colored by it.
No doubt. There is significant impact of appearance. And I agree that it is kind of a nerd fallacy to assume (or insist) that inner values should qualify only or mostly. It took me a while to learn that.
But it is also a fallacy—and a potentially expensive one—to assume the opposite that you have to follow every fashion or trend (of your social peer group). Moderation and balance is the key here I think.
Yeah that’s one reason I don’t like the word fashion/fashionable: it combines trendiness with style in a way that can make you focus on the wrong side.
related: http://ctr.sagepub.com/content/5/3/1.short