What ARE You Wearing?
Brawl Stars / Queens of the Stone Age
Triggered by the sheer number of questions I regularly get about my godawful dress sense, I thought I’d actually start paying attention to some of the truly outrageous stuff that I wear. For a guy who regularly reviews what goes INTO my body, why do I not concern myself nearly enough about what goes ONTO it?
Over the years, I’ve let pretty much everyone dress me: my mum, my friends, my wife and now even my kids. I’ve just never really been that bothered about clothes. Ironically, I went through a period when I wore either ripped track outfits and cargo pants or immaculate suits with waistcoats, and I regularly looked like I either owned the town or was sleeping rough in it, depending on the day.
Why do clothes tell you so much about a person? It’s true: I did the test. I literally started visiting the same places on different occasions dressed in the two entirely different ways, and the manner in which I was treated depended very much on what I was wearing. This was especially true when I walked through a local village, where the reaction to the ‘scraggier’ end of my wardrobe was pretty stark.
When I talk about manner, I’m not really talking about how people addressed me or whether they were rude or standoffish (they weren’t): I’m simply talking about the way I was received: the smiles seemed a lot more genuine and engaging when I looked well-healed than they did when I looked like I’d just come off a building site. When it came to the more rural community, the reactions were - however - borderline hostile. I guess people learn to be pretty guarded based on their personal experiences…or worse: the stuff they’ve read.
When clothes can be a testament to how much money somebody has or what sense of style they possess, why should those facts determine whether we’re likely to gel with that individual as a person? The quick and easy answer is that it shouldn’t…but often does.
This month, I will be modelling mainly Brawl Stars t-shirts, Queens of the Stone Age sleeveless vests and army pants. Don’t make eye contact.
