In the wise words of Jay-Z, from time to time you have to put on a suit. If by age 21 you don’t own a suit there is something seriously wrong with the type of places you frequent. I personally love wearing suits. No, not talking about your dad’s suit. Nice suits, fitted-crisp-made-just-for-you-nice materials-no pleats-no visible-pant-hems-two-button-suits…you know what I’m talking about.
So many of my fellow startup/tech brethren lack sartorial elegance. I recently read a blog post where someone was facetiously listing classes that he was happy are not taught at incubators; one of the classes he listed was something relating to “dressing to impress” – can’t recall the exact phrase. But it made me think. Why? Why would you not want to dress up?
I have been around the tech space long enough and have enough developer friends to understand the hesitancy. I won’t call out the person who said this to me originally but I believe it’s not a willing choice but rather a choice forced by lack of style. The veil of “I’m a developer/coder” or “I just build cool stuff, I don’t need to impress you with my suit” is just that, a veil.
If you don’t know anything about suits, here is my recommendation – guaranteed to make you look like you’re wearing a suite especially made for you.
- Buy a navy or dark blue suit off the shelf that fits you. Zara, Men’s warehouse, doesn’t matter.
- Find a top-notch tailor in your area. Finding a good tailor is key; someone with experience. Don’t skimp.
- For about $250 or so you should be able to tailor the suit exactly to your body.
- Enjoy the compliments.
Here is a cool infographic that thegentlemanual.com pushed out about the annual spend of a metro vs hetero.