Dress for success

 

Although I hate dressing up for anything, sometimes, to have the look of someone who can solve problem for you, I have to wear that tie and that suit just for the sake of looking sharp. In my normal day at work, I will just wear a shirt, rarely with a tie and by 1pm will have already roll up my sleeve so that I can at least enjoy my lunch properly. Sometimes I do want to be like those lawyers who just couldn't care less about how they look. They wear this short sleeves which they wear under their jacket so they would look presentable in court but they look more like a slacker than anyone else. That is how bad they can look, wearing a jacket but looking like they need a comb for their hair.

Most style fashion guru nowadays ask people to be overdress than to be underdress. I take it with a pinch of salt and do sometimes look like I don't belong in certain functions that I have attended. I remember going to a function at a hotel in which there was a launch of credit card which ties up with the Bar Council of Malaysia. It was a Friday and as for me, Friday is the day I dress down, without a tie and usually with a khakis. It is easier to go Friday prayer in that attire than in something where I need to wear cufflinks. It was not as if I dress shabbily or anything but I was the only one without a suit in a room full with well dressed people except for the reporters who was there to cover the event. When I asked for a gift bag, the people at the counter were looking at me as if I am a vagabond crashing a party I am not invited to. At least I had my partner who is always overdress in whatever working day who looks good and made sure they were told who I was then.

The thing is, I was not the only person who was dressed as casually. There were a few well-known lawyers who wear as casually as me. They were in their 50s and 60s, quite well-known and of course, their clothing can be as simple as a man on the street. They are court brawlers who people wouldn't dare to cross path with and some were always there when you hear a landmark case had been decided somewhere in court. They just couldn't care less to dress up even for a formal occasion, especially those involving other lawyers. These other lawyers are the one who should be thankful that they (the senior lawyers) made an appearance at their event. Even I will admit that they have earned it and I am hoping to join their rank one day. 

All in all, dressing to look successful is overrated sometimes as this is how some conmen manage to con those who are gullible as people expect to go on their hands and knees when people dress well but they thumb their nose to those who don't. The measure of a man is not in their clothes but their heart. Nowadays, a pure and good heart are always hidden. Maybe the slacker generation which emphasise more on what they can produce and not how they look while producing it actually brought some good things to the work culture too (other than all these technology we have around us growing in leaps and bounds thanks to them)