Men today are under tremendous pressure to keep up with the latest trends and project an image of being ‘cool’. The mass media does strongly imply that failing to keep up with the latest fashions can put you at risk of being accused of not being ‘with it’ or some other hip and trendy statement to denigrate those who just don’t care about the latest in-thing.

The reality is that being a fashion junkie is just more than a little bit pointless.

The fashion industry exists for one reason, to make money. Granted there are in the fashion industry that love what they do and don’t care about money, but you can be sure that someone is making a shed-load of the back of their efforts. If you care about too much fashion then you are, whether you like it or not, a pawn in multi billion dollar industry.

Trying to be hip and cool serves no practical purpose in life. You could spend many hours shopping and spending large sums of money to get hold of latest fashions, then a few hours more getting dressed up and what do you get out of it? A few hours of hoping that people think you look great. Add in to the equation the fashion has its own vicious circle of sorts - the fashion houses want you to wear their latest fashions for only a short while so that you then buy their latest designs and the process repeats ad-nauseum.

The Flock Mentality

There is a rather unfortunate flock mentality to the world of fashion. Guided and spurred on the the fashion houses and clothing retailers, magazines and trashy tabloids dictate to us what to wear. Amazingly millions of people will follow these instructions. Those who don’t take fashion instruction from the media will naturally copy what others wear so as not to see out of date, it’s is to a certain extent natural human behavior. Granted, some people buy the latest fashions without thinking about being up to date, they just need new clothes so they get the latest thing. I’m not writing this article for their benefit, they are already happy and confident in who they are and what they wear. I’m aiming this article at those who feel they must make an effort to be bang up to date with their chosen fashions.

Coolness Isn’t What You Think It Is

If you obsess over the latest fashions in order to look cool, then I’m sorry to say that one of the rules of coolness is that if you try to be cool then you can never actually be, cool. My advice is to try and be confident instead.

Confidence and coolness may seem similar but they aren’t. Coolness is a trait that is hard, in fact almost impossible, to define. There has to be something about your character and personality that makes a large number of people agree that you are indeed cool. It has less to do with fashion and more to do with personality. Confidence on the other hand is a feeling within yourself that you are happy with the way you live your life. You make your own lifestyle decisions without being influenced by the media or peer pressures.

Confidence Feels Good

I had my own confidence awakening. During my teens and twenties I was aware of the latest fashions. While I certainly was never cutting edge, I did generally wear clothing that was considered to be the then current fashion. I wore shell-suits in the early 90s. I hated the things, but that’s what everyone else wore and to not wear one amongst my contemporaries did make me feel awkward and bit out of fashion. Ditto the late 90s when cargo pants where the in-thing. I wore them, even though I hated them. Then one day I decided to say to hell with fashion, I was going to wear what I wanted.

My fashion sense is best described as timeless. I like to wear smart casual with elements of traditional attire such as tweed jackets and shiny brogues. Its certainly not cutting edge, but I am happy with it. I am actually confident wearing it. Also not being a slave to fashion means that I buy clothes only when I need them, not when my current wardrobe ceases to be fashionable, thus saving me a small fortune. I also refuse to be swayed by or be loyal to brand names. Why pay extra for a fancy brand name suit when one from a high street store looks just as good, but costs a lot less?

I would advise all men to disregard fashion trends and dress the way the really want to. Not only will you feel happier and more confident in yourself and you will also find that people will respect you more. If you feel confident people will pick up on this and see you as a much more reliable and trustworthy person. And let’s not forget the old adage “Confidence Breeds Success”.

Of course with all this you have to be sensible, wearing a 1970s suit or clown costume everyday isn’t going to do you many favours, but dressing they way you want to really will make you feel far more confident and you will have one less thing to worry about.