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Ask HN: How do I dress better?

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Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#51

Post by kingmanaz »

vn0m wrote: post #29

I sense an opportunity to build an AI generating clothing lines. At least for the buzz.

Try a clothing store with exact color hex codes on the tags of all garments, and, software in which someone's skin tone and eye color are matched with one's appropriate seasonal color. Such a store would diagnose/prescribe a shopper's acceptable colors and said shopper would choose items using the color hex code on the tags.

This could be an entirely online operation, too, given a smartphone app and a web store which provided access to the color codes for each of the garments.

See the book "Color for Men" by Carol Jackson for more details on seasonal color theory.

Send me a couple hundred if it ever gets off the ground.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#52

Post by stuaxo »

Rotten194 wrote: post #25

I would recommend keeping your current style if you don't want to try to hard, and simply tweaking it with new items. For example -- keep wearing jeans, but buy a couple pairs of nice, dark/black well-cut jeans. Instead of wearing a sweatshirt hoodie, wear a nice pullover sweater (H&M sells a nice waffle-texture sweater for fairly cheap, I got mine on clearance for $5 and I've worn it for years now). Button-ups can e…

Same thing, I'm a TShirt + Jeans type person and didn't understand this at first.

Make sure the jeans you have don't have holes / rips in them. Get some new TShirts - don't wear older / faded ones.

Make sure what you wear is in good condition, and you should be good.

If you're not happy in boring shirts, then there are some that have prints that are a bit more interesting. Similarly for shoes; I tend to really not be keen on average brown / black - but blue suede was OK.

Obv not saying to wear those exact things, but if you have a look around you can find stuff you like a little even in styles you might not like over all.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#53

Post by dixie_land »

hoodoof wrote: post #19

Girls have always said to me that the key thing is to get clothes that fit properly - this means asking help from fitters at the clothes shops and trying on LOTS of stuff till it looks and feels right. Take alot friends who are girls who are interested in fashion. Find "your colors" - i.e. general color directions that look good on you. Ask people (typically women because they tend to be interested in such topics) wh…

couldn't agree more.

for suits though I'd suggest skip off the rack and do made to measure, or if budget allows, fully bespoke.

another thing, almost never wear your jacket "naked", get a pocket square. White linen / cotton in a presidential fold for formal occasions and bright / patterned silk in a casual puff to hit the town.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#55

Post by randomJoe69 »

hueving wrote: post #16

It really depends on your office environment. In most companies in the bay, a hoodie and jeans are completely fine and it will likely be distracting if you dress 'too nice'. Take cues from how most people dress in the office and target that level of formality. If most people are t-shirt and jeans, just stick with what you're comfortable in. If most are jeans and a button-up shirt, do that. Yeah, it's conformity, but…

I work in the south of France and not in the bay. Here everyone looks like they work part-time model.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#56

Post by stephenr »

If someone won't hire you to write code based on how you dress (assuming you aren't breaking any obscenity laws or wearing hate speech shirts etc) I would look elsewhere for work.

If you want to change your "look" that's up to you, but doing it just for a job is among the most depressing things I can imagine.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#57

Post by SAI_Peregrinus »

hoodoof wrote: post #19

Girls have always said to me that the key thing is to get clothes that fit properly - this means asking help from fitters at the clothes shops and trying on LOTS of stuff till it looks and feels right. Take alot friends who are girls who are interested in fashion. Find "your colors" - i.e. general color directions that look good on you. Ask people (typically women because they tend to be interested in such topics) wh…

WRT short sleeved shirts: The Apollo-era NASA engineers pretty much all wore short-sleeved white shirts, black slacks, and a black tie. The image has stuck in many people's heads as what a professional engineer should look like, even younger people who've seen movies about the era like Apollo 13. It's also still a popular style at NASA for looking professional (photo ops and such).

Of course the reasoning for short sleeves is that graphite dust would stain long sleeves. Likewise for a black tie. Since drafting using pencils is pretty much nonexistent these days the need for the style is gone. Now it's just used to project an image of competent professional engineering.

It's also much more common among engineers in disciplines where they could get a PE than among programmers. Code monkeys don't match, sparkies and gearheads do.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#58

Post by joshka »

PaulRobinson wrote: post #44

Caveat: I'm currently in the process of losing a lot of weight and really looking forward to hitting target weight and then getting a new wardrobe of good fitting stuff. It should be an adventure, and you don't need to do anything that other people tell you, but do take advice. That said, I dress like a sack of potatoes right now, so take this with a pinch of salt: Lots of good advice here, and basically buying more…

Typo should be https://www.reddit.com/r/malefashionadvice/ ;)

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#59

Post by rektide »

olavk wrote: post #41
pedrodelfino wrote: post #32

"Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against stupidity." - Paul Graham

That quote may make sense in context, but dressing informally will certainly not prevent stupidity.

It might be intending to express that informal dress keeps people overconcerned with dressing standards at bay. Informality is a refusal to compete.

Re: Ask HN: How do I dress better?

#60

Post by maxxxxx »

arcanus wrote: post #7

Man or woman, I'd ask a female friend for help. In my experience women have much better eyes for dress than men, for either men or women actually. See if you can't convince someone to come along shopping with you, the second opinion is very valuable.

My sister used to play that role for me. She took me to the store twice a year and that was it. I often got compliments for stuff I didn't like myself but she had insisted on.
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