Cover art: Olivier Vasseur
If you don’t like reading I turned this article into a video, enjoy:
Recently I undertook a survey of men who are just starting out with self-improvement. The goal of this exercise was to find out the specific goals they are working towards. A decent chunk of these men who put down upgrading their style as a primary goal. Which is reassuring to me.
I was already aware of this, but it is nice to have some cold hard numbers staring back at me confirming my assumptions. For these particular men I have written a fashion guide which lays out how to build a wardrobe, it even has direct purchase links to the recommended items so there’s no confusion. If this interests you, then you should sign up to my email list and you will get this eBook for free!
It felt important for me to write this guide as when I started out in self-improvement my original mentor created one of these for all his newbie readers. Sadly, the guy in question is no longer active on his blog and the community has been lacking an up-to-date style guide for several years.
There was a surprising benefit of writing the eBook in that I have been able to walk a couple of early sign ups through it personally. In a practical sense this has allowed me to work out any bugs or pitfalls present in my advice, which is great. But it has also got me thinking back to when I was a newbie, back when I had no idea how to dress myself.
What were the biggest issues that I faced?
Where did I stumble the most and what did I find hardest?
It made me realise one significant truth that I think is worth passing on to those who are going through the newbie stage now: Drastically changing your style will feel weird. This is normal, don’t worry.
You have either dressed ‘ok’ for your entire life and not cared enough about it to improve, or you have dressed badly and remained completely oblivious to how bad it was. Going with the conscious decision to improve your style makes you exactly that: conscious. You become hyper aware of the new pieces you are wearing. And if you go for the style that I recommend, it is likely your first reaction will be:
‘These clothes don’t feel like me.’
It is crucial that you power through that feeling. It won’t take too long but it will almost certainly crop up. You may even be hesitant to go outside dressed in your new clothes.
The actionable step to take in this situation is to go out in public as much as you can while wearing your new outfits. This is how I got over the weirdness. I remember complaining to my mentor, who had smartened me up to my trash style (cheers Andy), that I didn’t feel like ‘me’ in the new clothes. He ordered me to walk around Melbourne for as long as I could, dressed as someone that actually cared about what he wore. Also, I was to strictly to wear these new clothes when I was hanging out with friends. That was arguably the toughest part because close friends are going to notice when something about you changes.
Getting as much of this exposure quickly was exactly what I needed.
Eventually I shed the attachment I had to my old style of dress. Those old clothes were no longer part of my identity and I could move on. Also, since this initial experience I have found adapting and experimenting with new styles to be a fun experience as opposed to something weird. Even when I am trying something that maybe doesn’t work as well as I hoped it would, I still possess the confidence to go for it in the first place. This is incredibly freeing. I recommend you go through this experience yourselves and embrace being a stylish, well presented man who wants the world to take him seriously.
If you are new to the process of improving your style, then I encourage you to grab my Style Starter Kit which is available for free on this website. It will take you step by step through building a killer wardrobe from scratch. It is designed with absolute newbies in mind and I am confident you will be happy with look you can achieve from it should you follow all the instructions to the letter.
Until next time guys,
The Hatfish