Why Men Must Dress Nicely (And When I Say 'Nicely', I Mean 'How Women Want Them To')
Ah, nothing like a misandric assumption to begin an article with, n'est ce pas?
As I personally lack the vapid, shallow sort of mindset that making these sorts of statements requires, I've taken the liberty of borrowing the following findings from the most excellent, fashion4nerds.com
Fashion4Nerds Basic Theory
When selecting appropriate clothes to attract women it can help to have some insight into how the fairer sex thinks. Every woman is different, but our research has shown that most would agree with the following sentiments:
1. They want your clothing to reflect your maturity
You are no longer a little boy, thus you should not have the velcro Transformers wallet that a little boy would have.
2. They want your fashion to show that you made some sort of effort to look good
If you can’t keep your shoes clean, how can they take you seriously as an adult? You don’t have to do much - keep your clothes clean and avoid the typical Nerd fashion faux pas (shirts, pants, shoes, grooming, etc…)
3. They like confident men - certain fashion choices imply confidence
Instead of trying to hide your bald spot with a comb-over, it is infinitely preferable to women for you to just accept that you are balding and have the confidence to cut your hair short and clean.
Now, let me preface this by saying that for a certain type of woman, these observations are bang on. If you like a woman who spends three hours getting ready for a date, loves to be feminine, likes pretty dresses, and secretly makes catty comments about the shoes 'she's' wearing, then follow the above advice precisely.
On the other hand, if you're looking for someone whose aesthetic senses wouldn't drown in an inch of water, then you can safely ignore many of the above tips, aside from the ones where they tell you to be clean. Smelling bad and being dirty is almost never attractive. But I didn't need to tell you that, because you're not a drooling moron, are you?
Here's the exception I take with the comment that women want men's clothing to reflect their maturity, etc. It is really implying that men should be dressing the way women want, which isn't a sign of maturity, it is a sign of transferring one's mother allegiances (wearing what mommy buys) to a woman less closely biologically tied to you (wearing what mommy girlfriend likes you to wear.)
You don't see online articles telling women how they should dress to please men, (though one could make a reasonably decent argument that all beauty magazines are essentially tomes to help women attract men, but at least these don't stoop so low as to explicitly state that a woman should dress to please a man on an everyday basis.) Why? Because women long ago rejected that kind of thinking as sexist. Perhaps it's time men did the same.
