People who play multiplayer video games often spend lots of time and lots of IRL money decking out their characters with unique skins and fashionable clothing. But how much time are you really spending on your fashion in the real world?
With a handful of wardrobe upgrades, from leather loafers to a sensible sun hat, you could end up looking better, feeling better, and carrying yourself with more confidence.
So how do you do it?
The Value of Better Fashion
First, why should you spend all this time, effort, and money on this type of project?
After all, fashion is somewhat superficial. Isn’t it worth it to spend your time on better, more significant endeavors?
Obviously, this is a matter of personal preference, but developing your fashion sense and improving how you dress can positively affect you in a number of ways.
- First impressions. You may not like it, but we live in a somewhat superficial society. It’s human nature to immediately make judgments about a person based on how they look. First impressions are incredibly powerful, and if you dress yourself well, you’ll constantly earn more favorable first impressions from everyone you encounter. Whether you’re interested in building more relationships or just having more pleasant interactions with strangers on the street, this is indispensable.
- Job opportunities. Dressing better can help you land a better job. During the interview process, you’ll stand out as a better candidate. If you have a great track record to go along with your style, you’ll be more likely to get promoted and rewarded. And it could even help you land more clients or hire more employees in the future.
- Romantic options. Are you single and looking for more dating opportunities? Dressing better can help you here, too, as you’ve likely already imagined. In some ways, how you dress matters more than how you naturally look, so if you want a romantic partner, it’s important to clean up how you dress yourself.
- Confidence and self-esteem. Whether you realize it or not, the clothes you wear have a significant impact on your mind. If you dress better and you look better, you’re going to feel better. And over time, you’ll develop a keener sense of confidence and higher self-esteem. It’s hard to overstate the benefits of this.
Starting With the Right Mentality
Before you get started cultivating your fashion sense, take a moment to consider and adjust your mentality. Starting with the right frame of mind can help you make better decisions.
- Something isn’t working. If you’re reading this article, you already know it: something about how you dress yourself just isn’t working. You may not know exactly what it is or exactly how to fix it, but you know that something is off. If you insist that everything you’re doing is fine, you’ll be too reluctant to change.
- It takes time to build this skill. You can’t become the best FPS player in the world without practicing. In fact, practice is usually the only thing (or at least the most important thing) separating the best from the worst in a given field. Fashion is no different; you’re only going to get better by practicing.
- You can still be you. Dressing better doesn’t mean you have to change who you are. You can still be a unique individual full of personality; the goal is to merely look better doing it.
Observe and Imitate
Once you have the right mentality in place, the next step is to start observing and imitating people around you. Pay attention to your friends, strangers, celebrities, and people in your professional environment. When you find someone who looks good, ask yourself, what is it that makes them look good? Is it a specific fit? A specific combination of clothes? A specific color balance? Try to uncover the root cause and imitate it on your own; how do you look?
Experiment
The more you experiment and break out of your comfort zone, the closer you’ll come to building your own unique fashion sense. It’s important to try on many different types of outfits and many different styles to see what suits you best. If you’ve only worn a handful of outfits in your life, you’ll think they’re the best. But if you’ve worn thousands, you’ll end up with the true cream of the crop.
Always Nail the Fit
The fit is one of the most important aspects of any fashion decision, so always make sure it’s on point. Your clothes and accessories should fit you in a complementary way; usually, this means being an appropriate size that closely mirrors the contours of your body. But you can also go for a looser and more relaxed fit if desired. If you find clothes you love that don’t fit you perfectly, consider getting them tailored.
Build From a Core
After a few weeks of careful studying and experimenting, you should end up with at least a few pieces of clothing that you feel really good about. This is going to be the core of your new wardrobe. Focus on the elements that make these pieces work and try to find them in new pieces so you can gradually expand your wardrobe and your fashionable options.
Developing a fashion sense or your own personal style can be intimidating, but after some time of conscious and deliberate practicing, it should become second nature to you. From there, it won’t be long before you start feeling better about yourself and finding better opportunities.
