This is from Financial Time’s Style section — a feature called “Suits and the City.” I really like this weekly feature because it shows REAL people (as opposed to models) wearing real clothes that relate to what they do and who they are. As I find myself creeping closer to 30 and becoming more immersed (or should I say trapped?) in professional settings, I find myself becoming more interested in projecting an image that is consistent with my own stage in life: what I do, what I’m about, etc. Because of this, I find this feature useful, because it shows people who are in roughly similar circumstances, trying to integrate clothing into what they are about.

Now in this particular feature, this dude shown here is slide no. 3. If you read the caption, it says:

“January 25 2012: Spotted on the Upper West Side. Brian Igel, arts and entertainment lawyer with Bellizio & Igel, PLLC. Brian is wearing Johnston & Murphy shoes with Alton Lane bespoke trousers, blazer and dress shirt. He made it a point to mention that he doesn’t typically create an ensemble from a single designer, but that he just received these custom pieces and was excited about giving them a test drive. He likes Alton Lane because he says the construction is impeccable. When asked about his style, Brian says that he simply likes to look sharp and feel comfortable at the same time, whether he’s dressing up for a client meeting or meeting friends for Sunday brunch. I asked if Brian feels that office attire is trending back towards the more traditional, but he says that the creative clients he works with prefer like-minded, well-rounded attorneys over ‘white shoe’ BigLaw attorneys where the dress code may dictate something more traditional” (emphasis mine)

I really like this outfit because it is consistent with his stated reasoning, and it is well-integrated into his professional circumstances. Usually, when you think of how a lawyer dress, you probably picture a guy in a dark suit, dark tie, and dark shoes. But because this guy works with clients who are not your typical Biglaw clients, like corporations, he needs to tone down the formality of his dress so that he can interact with his clients on a level field. After all, you don’t want to show up to meetings with clients, who are musicians/artists/other creative types, in a 3 piece suit when they are mostly wearing t-shirts and sneakers. But at the same time, you don’t want to dress down exactly to their level, because after all, they are paying you, so you have to project the image that you have your shit together. In this case, something in-between the extreme formality of a suit and the extreme informality of t-shirt/sneakers is required, and a sport-coat/odd trousers combination fills that niche.

Breaking down each component of his outfit. First, the tweed sportcoat. Tweed is a fabric traditionally used in various “sporting” or “country” settings, such as hunting, horseback-riding, etc. Its rough texture and variegated colors contrast sharply with a smoothly-finished and slightly-shiny worsted wool typically used in making business suits. Moreover, his sportcoat has a ticket pocket, a detail that is also associated with the countryside, as in the “olden” days, people who took trains from country to the city usually had a smaller pocket on top of their bigger hip pocket to store train tickets (hence, “ticket” pocket) and other various small sundries. Second, his trousers have a large windowpane pattern, and any pattern is less formal than a solid garment. Third, his shoes are brown, a color that is again traditionally associated with country settings (the English have a saying: no brown in town). Finally, his tie: it is a wool tie, so its texture is rougher than a traditional silk tie, and also much more matte.

All of these things, whether someone who knows what their traditional/historical associations and connotations are, convey the message that he is not really “doing business” in the full sense of the word. BUT, on the other hand, everything that he is wearing is tailored well and fits well, and the color combination is safe but effective (earthtones and neutrals), and there is enough contrast between top/bottom/skin to not wash out the whole outfit. These things show that he put some thought into what he is wearing, and it shows because he is put together and presentable.

So to me, this is a very good example of “dressing down” (in the context of dressing in one’s professional life), but not in a sloppy “I’m wearing my hoodies and cargo pants” way. Most importantly, it shows that he has a good grasp of how his clothes should integrate into his professional life and what kind of image they convey.

Now, you might ask yourself: does any of this shit MATTER? In one sense, they don’t, because clothes is just clothes. But in another sense, clothes DO matter, because they are the first thing people see. Now in our day and age, because of the informality of our dress even among professionals (not a value judgement, just stating the facts), a lot of what used to be common knowledge about clothing is no longer common knowledge, but rather obscurities that one must go out of one’s way to find. But if you have a basic grasp of this — no Ph. D dissertation required — you can have a greater degree of control over how you want others to perceive you. Now if you say “fuck the world,” then hey man, more power to you. But I don’t have that kind of balls, and nothing that I have done in my life so far suggests that I could warrant that kind of attitude anyways, so I personally think about how I want to appear to my professional peers.

Now, do you have to go out there and immediately cop custom-made clothing? Hell no. With some basic grasp of what kind of message your clothes convey, you can find something that is consistent with what you do, what stage of life you are in, and who you are as a person, at pretty much all price levels. The point is to know, but I’m not here to convince anyone that they should give a damn. But on the other hand, the danger of caring too much leads one to preening and primping, peacocking in situations that they really shouldn’t be. And that is just bad.

So the most important thing, above all else, is that age-old Socratic wisdom: know thyself.