MALE CALL

Branded clothing is usually the canvas of status seekers

Q. I believe you generally oppose "writing" on clothes, not just designer or brand names, but interesting names like your yacht club or boat name, your tennis or golf club, or even your company or ex-military affiliation. Do you have specific reasons for this and are there some guidelines about when such identification is appropriate? The reason I ask is that my experience has been they often engender some interesting conversations and new acquaintances; that has been the case a few times this summer at casual-dress parties and during a great week on a casual-dress cruise ship.

A. This is an interesting question because my response to it can go either of two ways. One, I usually dislike the prominent display of designer logos on clothing, and two, my strong belief is that we can use our clothes to project nonverbal information about ourselves and help prompt a desired response.

The effect of one's clothing choices can be much more powerful than he thinks. Fair or not, people judge us by the way we look and that includes the way we dress. Because our clothes send messages, we can use our wardrobe to change how others perceive us. Much of what I have been lecturing on and writing about for many years has been directed toward helping men learn to use to their advantage the potential that their clothes offer them.

Our options and choices span a wide range, whether they are the difference between mass-produced watches and luxury timepieces, or simply between a plain knit polo shirt and one brandishing a prestigious designer's name. They all have something to say about who is wearing them. With your watch, in social contexts people often determine such things as your social position, level of education, taste, and, of course, wealth. Sometimes you want the right watch or the right shoes or a T-shirt to say a few things about you. I think the first impression should be that you have good taste. Beyond that, you can send multiple messages. The good thing is that, by choosing wisely, we have total control over what those messages will be.

Some options work and some do not (often depending on the rest of the outfit). Keep in mind that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

My usual advice: With very few exceptions, never wear a visible logo. The few exceptions usually have to do with the setting. For dressy or business occasions, I urge you to avoid logos. But casual events such as the ones you mentioned can be different -- they include picnics, outdoor concerts, and in your home. Sports logos are OK, but should perhaps be restricted to the ballpark. One of my sons remembers a time when he was working in his yard, wearing a gift T-shirt from the Houston Zoo. It had large drawings of four animals on it: an elephant, an alligator, a giraffe and a flamingo. When a mother and her little boy came by, the child excitedly said: "Oh, wow! I know those animals" and proceeded to name them. This tells us something about the age for which "writing" on clothing is most appropriate.

It has been said that a visible mark from a manufacturer or designer is an attempt to fool people into thinking its wearer is fashionable. True fashion speaks for itself. I have always admired the slogan used by one of the world's most prestigious makers of upscale leather goods, Bottega Veneta: "When your own initials are enough." Wearing a logo -- e.g., a pocket crest, a jacket's manufacturer, a Harvard T-shirt, the designer's name on a shoe -- does not necessarily "say good things" about you. It may suggest that you want too much to be liked. It could be telling the world you are not comfortable in your skin. Flaunting your company's name is also questionable. It probably depends on the prominence of the place you're employed and whether your colleagues already know you well.

Wearing "blank canvas" pieces shows that you know people value you for more than your labels. On the other hand, as you have discovered, in a situation where you are meeting people for the first time and hoping to make an immediate connection with some of them (as on a cruise), wearing some identifiable "name" can be a good way to help start a conversation. It is important that you wear it in a way that leans more toward identification than "status." This requires some subtlety. If your knit shirt projects the information that you served in the military or that you like to sail, it may jump you ahead several steps in the getting-acquainted process. If you follow those occasions up with logo-free wear, it will accent that you are not one to always try to be "labeled."

Mark Twain had this to say on the subject: "Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society."

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High Profile on 08/31/2014

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