- Published on
On Dressing Better
- Authors
- Name
- Teddy Xinyuan Chen
So I decided to stop being sloppy and be more presentable.
Why the change?
- Wearing the same thing everyday and dressing poorly make me feel bad and hurt interacting with other people.
What I use to wore was a bad representation of my personality, and I want to dress in a way that express myself better before I open my mouth. - I'm going to fancier social events frequently where everyone's properly dressed, unlike people in College of Engineering.
- I want to be presentable
What changed
- Mass consuming content from YouTube, blogs and Wikipedia on the topics of styling, fashion, classic menswear, etc.
- Spending a lot of time in clothing stores, vintage shops (Asheville's are better), and online stores.
- Bought tools for hemming my pants, bought tape measure to measure myself in garments in store so that I can have an idea if somethings fits before I try it on.
- Since I'm now dressed better, I'm more invested in skin care and fixing my posture.
Posture: shoulders back, head angle Walk: learned how models make turns (insider foot first etc) and walk; and I stopped dragging my foot when walking.
Next steps
Just keep learning, trial and error, experiment with different styles, see what's for me and what's not.
Interesting things I noticed
Being well dressed helps me with my posture
I see myself in beautiful clothes and I tell myself that I don't wanna look sloppy or slouched, and it helped a lot.
Taking longer before I can go out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyGDd_iYaCI
One thing is of course, how much longer I spend from I'm getting ready to go out to actually stepping out of the door.
In the video above, Rafael said about that now your partner suddenly has to wait for you to leave, which is so funny but true!
Becoming much more sensitive and observant to styles
Last time I went to downtown Raleigh's capitol square and I was looking at how the shoulders are attached on the body of the jacket on a sculpture.
And I noticed how most poeple's clothes don't fit on the shoulders.
Buying new garments motivates me to learn more, even thought they're going to be returned
I bought a cheap sport jacket online that doesn't fit very well, but I had the chance to put it on many times a day (depending on where I am and the temperature), and I have so many questions when wearing it, like
- Should I buy a briefcase? Backpack doesn't go well with blazers and can damage the shoulders
- What is it made of, why is the lining making me so hot? Maybe I should buy a half-lined one or a linen one next time.
- Are the bottons plastic or mother of pearl?
- What can be tailored, and how much does it cost? Should I tailor it or return the piece?
- How much should the sleeves be?
- Are my butts covered?
- The quarters' distance doesn't feel right
- They feel like fancy winter pajamas that you can wear outside
- I learned that I should never button the jacket while sitting, and how I should eat on a fancy dinner
Getting much more attention
In the school, in the gym (I was dressing up a bit for the dance and played with the equipments before it started), on the street.
And people definitely treat you differently when you're dressed better.