WHAT TO WEAR ON A DATE

‘Dress to impress’ is one of those phrases you see banded around on social media usually accompanied by a girl in a tight red dress and an oil slick of a man in a shiny suit, they may impress each other but not me. Therein lies the catch, you need to decide who you want to impress and how to use clothing as a lure. We all know that the first glance is the most important, so to use a fishing analogy, it’s worth spending some time to ensure a good bite and hopefully a successful hook.

I’m casting this missive out towards men as I feel we need the most help. The choice of clothing is narrower for men at all levels, so it becomes even more important to make every nuance count. The first rule is that you should feel comfortable in your look, that’s not to say you should be wearing horrible slouchy track bottoms but more that your clothing reflects the type of person you are or wish to be. It’s easy to spot an off kilter look that doesn’t ring true.

One of the most exciting aspects of dressing is that you can decide how you wish to be perceived. Will your paramour fancy a rakish, devil may care spontaneous lover or a steady bookish intellectual? These two extremes can equally well be conveyed at first sight. Having decided on the impression you wish to make, the next stage is to get the details right and add a fresh spin of your own. It may be that you wish to appear as a free spirited thinker who cares nothing for such insignificant material things as clothing but if that is really the case and you turn up in a stained, smelly t-shirt and bad fitting trousers you are just going to come across as a lazy slob.

I’ve always admired the good advice of the Savile Row tailor Hardy Amies; “A man should buy his clothes with intelligence, dress with care and then forget all about them”. A simple well fitting suit can be worn with just a t-shirt and trainers in a totally casual manor and be acceptable. Equally, you can dress it up with a shirt and tie, polished shoes and then all manner of accessories such as cufflinks, tie pins, boutonnieres etc. As long as the fit is good anything goes. Of course, if you feel a suit is too much then just wearing the trousers or jacket separately works equally well especially if the cloth is slightly different and does not look like a discarded business suit.