Gentlemen,
At the risk of sounding a bit categorical in the eye of those who stumbled onto this page by chance – though unlikely as it is since PG is by essence, a website promoting research, study and attentive reading as opposed to idle browsing – today, we chose a title which, beyond its apparent radical stance, sums up perfectly everything we've been defending for the past 4 years.
Please also note that, in an effort to avoid the customary do-gooders commentary, which constantly seem to miss the point, we are NOT saying « Expensive and elite clothing can change your life », nor are we saying « year-round ties and suits can change your life ». No no no. In fact, the point isn't even to own nice pieces of clothing. What we are saying is much simpler : a good sartorial education can have a very positive impact on your life. This reaches well beyond the question of means, taste (or lack of interest thereof) for clothes. Even your age isn't relevant.
And if, after reading those few preliminary lines, you still can't repress a small mocking smile at what you might think are the fanatic ramblings of a few egocentric dandies, here are a few recent figures for you :
A large canadian recruitment office recently published a study concerning the recruiting of male executives. This study shows that 52% of headhunters (be them internal or external to a company's HR department) had a pretty « reliable » idea of the candidate in less than... 10 minutes. 30% of those recruiters said they had made an almost definitive judgement in as little as 5 minutes, particularly during the preliminary interviews where competition is steep and time is short. Physical appearance and body language account for 80% of the global impression in these first few minutes. That is to say before you can even begin advertising your expertise, the quality of your credentials and your motivation in the long run...
On the private side of things, I'll spare you – please don't hold it against me – the last soppy investigation à la Cosmopolitan. But in the midst of this landslide of silliness, a point of data recently unearthed from the aforementioned publication seemed to sum-up the subject in its entirety in a pretty direct fashion : according to a study conducted by the very respectable American Kelton Research, 80% of US women would, in exchange for the guarantee of a better dressed and more elegant man, agree to forgo something like going to the restaurant, using their cellphone, or even having sex for as long as a full year !
I sincerely hope that after reading this study, many a man on the other side of the atlantic payed a swift visit to a tailor or to their neighbourhood clothing shop to satisfy their partner wishes while dispensing them from having to make such harsh sacrifices ( with special mention to the latter of the list ).
It should be a surprise to no one that those « studies/investigations » only exist to be sold to the media, and that their depiction of the subject is forced. It is a fact that a well-dressed idiot will never, and that is fortunate, stand in comparison with a genius dressed in rags, not to mention that said genius-in-rags will always find a way to be more stylish than the over-dressed idiot, but that is another subject entirely.
That being said, we don't need studies, as serious as they may be, to realize that personal elegance in its classic and discreet form is a major trump card in today's occidental societies, even more so for men than for women. A trump that, insofar as it is backed up by a solid sartorial education, can prove itself decisive, or at least much more important than it seems, especially during key moments of existence.
As we recently mentioned in an article titled « On the spirit of PG », if it happens that people still consider elegance (and elegant people) as the pinnacle of futility, and all too often dismiss its research as a very minor and artificial form of beauty, or worse yet, as a symbol of a so-called « cast system » ( very en vogue at the moment )…it is also remarkable that elegance for a man is also looked upon as a symbol of superiority, as well as a decisive factor in influencing important decisions.
So, without encouraging you to become a shoe-glazing-and-patina fetishist or to start worshipping the Old Bertie tie knot, we invite you to form, here or elsewhere, a solid sartorial education that, as you will soon discover, will be of use everyday and might even prove extremely useful and – who knows ? - decisive one day.
Give three piece a chance.
Cheers,
Hugo Jacomet
