Whether you’re trying to impress your future boss in a job interview or cultivate a cult following on social media, your image is going to play a role in your success. Your personal tastes, how you dress, and how you groom yourself will all form the first impressions (and lasting impressions) of those around you.
While it’s certainly worthwhile to consider the brand, color, and style of your clothes and accessories, it’s even more important to find the right fit—and get a custom fit when you can. This is true not just for clothes, getting tailored to your exact measurements, but also for any accessories you might wear, like getting custom gold grillz instead of something off the shelf.
So why is this so important, and what steps can you take to ensure the best possible fit?
The Benefits of a Perfect Fit
Let’s start by taking a look at the benefits of a perfect fit:
- Body type accommodation. Your body type matters. No matter what the shape of your body is, or how big or how small it is, clothes that fit you well can make you look more attractive and more professional. Learning to dress for your type of body will accentuate your best features and minimize your least favorites.
- Self-awareness. Dressing in clothes and accessories that fit you also shows a level of self-awareness that not everyone has. When someone shows up with a suit that looks baggy on them, or shorts that are way too tight, you might wonder whether that person owns a mirror (or cares how they look). A good fit isn’t an accident—it shows the person cares about their image enough to invest some time.
- Comfort and adjustments. Clothes that fit you right are also more comfortable. You won’t have to spend time constantly adjusting your clothes to cover a certain body part or to stop the material from rubbing you. This is mostly a subjective feature you’ll enjoy privately, but when you’re more comfortable, other people will notice.
- Confidence and posture. After making a concentrated effort to dress in clothes that fit you perfectly, you’ll feel more confident about how you look. You’ll carry yourself differently, and your resting posture will improve. On top of that, you’ll likely carry out conversations and meet people with more confidence and energy, which can improve your image in ways that your fashion sense can’t on its own.
- Durability. This is more of a minor detail, but clothes that fit you well tend to last longer. Clothes that are too tight can stretch and get distorted over time, or even rip when you put them on. Clothes that are too loose can get caught on things and tear.
Tips on Getting a Custom Fit
If you’re looking to get more of a custom fit in your daily life, these tips can help:
- Aim for quality over quantity. First, don’t try to fill your wardrobe up with dozens of options for every occasion. If you have a limited budget, it’s much better to invest the money into a handful of items that fit you perfectly and look great than on many items that all look mediocre. Take your time looking for new clothes and accessories, and add them into your wardrobe gradually.
- Try everything on and get multiple angles. Don’t buy a piece of clothing just because it’s in your size or it seems like it might fit; take the time to try it on in a dressing room, and evaluate it from multiple angles. This is the only way to see if a piece of clothing truly fits you.
- Ask a friend for help. It’s sometimes hard to gauge whether or not a piece of clothing is a good fit for you, especially in the rear, where you can’t easily see. If you have a fashion-savvy friend, get their help; together, you’ll be able to find better-fitted clothes.
- Buy cheap and invest in tailoring. Getting the help of a tailor may sound expensive, but their costs are actually quite competitive. In fact, if you buy a cheaper version of a garment and have it tailored, you’ll usually end up spending less money than you would have spent on the more expensive alternative. This is the better way to go in most cases; cheap clothes can look amazing if they fit you perfectly, while even expensive clothes can look like garbage if they don’t fit right.
The more custom-fitted your clothes and accessories are to you, as an individual, the better you’re going to look in every area of your life. It may take some extra time and some extra money to pull off this look, but it’s almost always worth it.