You can just wear a suit

post by lsusr · 2025-02-26T14:57:57.260Z · LW · GW · 5 comments

Contents

5 comments

I like stories where characters wear suits.

Since I like suits so much, I realized that I should just wear one.

The result has been overwhelmingly positive. Everyone loves it: friends, strangers, dance partners, bartenders. It makes them feel like they're in a Kingsmen film. Even teenage delinquents and homeless beggars love it. The only group that gives me hateful looks is the radical socialists.

1. The first time I go somewhere wearing a suit, people ask me why I'm wearing a suit.
2. The second time, nobody asks.
3. After that, if I stop wearing a suit, people ask why I'm not wearing a suit.

If you wear a suit in a casual culture, people will ask "Why are you wearing a suit?" This might seem to imply that you shouldn't wear a suit. Does it? It's complicated. Questions like this one follow the Copenhagen interpretation of social standards; their meaning is defined retroactively.

• If you respond with anything other than quiet self-assuredness, then people pick up on the incoherence. This will probably happen the first time you wear a suit just because you want to.
• If your subtle mannerisms and other contextual clues imply that you should be wearing a suit, then not only is it acceptable for you to wear a suit—it's appropriate. Why wouldn't you be wearing a suit? Suits are awesome and so are you.

There are correct and incorrect answers to the question, "Why are you wearing a suit?" After experimenting with several different answers, I notice that other people respond well to, "I like to, and I think it makes me look good." You have my permission to steal this answer for yourself. This answer is good for multiple reasons:

• It communicates that I'm not wearing a suit because I have to for my job.
• It implies that I don't care if anyone else wears a suit. This puts other people at ease.
• An ironed, well-fitted suit does look good.

I wouldn't wear a suit everywhere. I live on the West Coast of the USA, which is very casual. That makes wearing a suit a fashion statement. If I wore a suit in Japan [LW · GW], then it wouldn't look like I'm making a fashion statement. It would look like I just got off of work and didn't have time to change.

I never wear a suit to work.

If you're wearing a suit, then don't comment on anyone else's clothes (unless they compliment you first). This is the reverse of normal social advice. Normally, complimenting other people's clothes makes for a general-purpose icebreaker. However, if you're wearing a suit, then drawing attention to others' appearances just draws attention to yours, which is counterproductive.

That's because if you wear a suit in a casual culture, then you want to be sending the subconscious message It's no big deal that I'm wearing a suit. I'm just the kind of person who wears a suit.

5 comments

Comments sorted by top scores.