Work styles

We've been recently hearing that respectable newspapers and magazines are in quite a pickle as their subscriber base has been slowly eroding. Reasons have been plentiful: the internet is killing the industry, TV is killing the industry (and has been since the 1950s, but oh well), and that people just aren't reading anymore. Now a new bread of newspapers has been popping up in Helsinki, too. Namely the free newspapers like Metro and Uutislehti 100. These fine pieces of editorial brilliance (umm... right...) often have other interesting themes beside the boring and tedious daily news. Today I noticed that one or the other, most likely Metro, had a full page article about how to dress for the office, i.e. what's in fashion. The article covered both men's and women's fashion and my god, it was horrid.

The styles of the models weren't necessarily that horrid, but the points were entirely rediculous. I mean, here we have a brilliant example yet again of why fashionable people are always out of style. If people are taught to only look at slim jeans and... Wait a second, it's no longer slim, now they're going towards bootcuts... No, back to slim... Anyway, if people are taught silly things like these, they'll still look horrid. They'll look like they're trying too much and so on. And the advice is superficial and if everyone listens to these fashion tips, everyone will end up looking the same. As always, it's silly to say that a single car will suit all the people in the world. You shouldn't even say that a red car will suit all the people in the world. Or that a car should always have tornado lines. But instead you should maybe approach the problem by defining an overall framework, attempting to find a so called fit for you. A fit for the values you represent, a fit for the needs you have, etc. Fit is important. In strategy, strategic fit is essential. So if you do not remember anything else, remember this: FIT!

So, maybe a better approach to this work fashion nonsense is to outline some broader suggestions and frameworks and leave the specifics for the individual. This way, in an optimistic scenario, we'll have more people looking better while still retaining their unique style. Again, I can't comment on women's clothing as I know nothing about it. And even if I did, I'd still be wrong about it. ;) But for men, a quick thought would suggest the following pointers:

1. FIT! Make sure your clothes fit! Seriously! It shouldn't be too difficult to find clothes that fit. A well fitting piece of clothing will not be too tight, nor will it be too loose. It'll allow you to move around in it comfortably, but still highlight the good parts of your body. Even if you have entirely unfashionable clothing, you will still look pretty damn good if your clothes fit. You'll be better off than the upstarts picking up 2000 euro Armani suits off the rack and not have them adjusted properly. Hell, fit is why all the big business guys and the world's leading politicians look so much better than you do. They know it's the fit and they can afford to get clothes that fit. But ok, maybe you got the point already.

2. Attitude. Wait, what has attitude got to do with clothing? Well, you have to wear clothes that fit your overall attitude. You have to be comfortable wearing your clothing. If you're not comfortable, then the clothes obviously do not fit. This misfit maybe caused by physical uncomfort or by an attitude mismatch. These days it's not that common anymore for men to automatically wear suits. But the British have a saying that if your new suit looks new, nasty things should be done to the tailor. That is because your new suit should look like an old suit; it should look like a suit that fits you so well that you might as well have been born in it. Now, here again you see the fit from point 1. But this also illustrates attitude, at least to some extent. The British gentleman wearing the well fitting suit also has the attitude for the suit. He's comfortable wearing it, emotionally as well as physically. If you're wearing a day cravat with a shirt, you should look comfortable in it and not think about what everyone else might be thinking. You have to be confident with it. If you're not, then maybe you should be wearing something else. That's the attitude.

3. And finally: the rest. The boring and easy stuff. Simple things like you shouldn't wear brown shoes in town, only in the countryside. And that certain colors go with others and that the tie should just about always be darker than the shirt. And so on. The beauty with these rules and suggestions are that after you know them, then you know that you can also break them. But the deal is that you aren't supposed to break them before you know them, because it is only when you do know the rules and boundaries that you also know the extent to which you can cross them and still remain decent and tactful. But as said, this is easy as you can just read a bunch of books or talk to people who are old enough and well taught enough to know about these things. Most of it in fact is just common sense.

And after you have mastered those three points, you should also know that the fashion tips in the magazines are complete and utter waste of time. As has been said so many times before: style is always in fashion, but fashion is seldom stylish. Or something to that extent, anyway.