How charismatic people dress
A charismatic leader is an excellent hero who solves all problems. But to their surroundings, they are not the main hero. You must understand that the place of a princess or a prince in your follower is already occupied – by him/herself. Every person is the protagonist of their story. So, you must become the one required by any protagonist, who is stronger and more knowledgeable, and who the protagonist will follow. If the hero is the knight Quentin Dorward, you are his king, Richard the Lionheart. If the heroine is a princess, the leader for her is the queen or the fairy godmother. If the hero is Frodo Baggins, you are Gandalf or the elven lady Galadriel.
But we are not in a fairy tale, and a charismatic leader cannot go out to the audience in a brocade robe. Well, they might, in some exceptional cases, but we are talking about everyday situations.
Ideally, the image of a charismatic leader relies on two main components: classicism + uniqueness. And before my inner critic flips out, I should say that I understand how difficult it is to combine them. Classicism, with its strict lines and uncompromising standards, by definition, has minimum uniqueness. And yet. Challenging classics are good because they are ideal knights’ armor for self-esteem. A man wearing a suit, snow-white shirt with cufflinks and tie, and expensive shoes just physically can’t spit on the floor, swear dirtily, or make inappropriate jokes. If you don’t believe me, try it sometime.
Classic style is easy to maintain, and you don’t have to be particularly fashion-savvy. However, it seems valuable to me because I am not very knowledgeable, and I even recently looked up the word “loafers” in the dictionary. At least I am capable of picking a decent one-color suit, tie, and shirt.
The weakness of the purely classical style is in the same austerity and universality/ It is too prim, too standard: “Someone came through in a tailcoat, a lord or a waiter.” And the charismatic leader should be memorable and unique, not a freak. Perhaps someone is about to say that I want the impossible. But I will remind you that, for example, there is nothing unique in a black turtleneck with black jeans. However, the style of Steve Jobs is recognizable to everyone. Yes, it’s monochromatic. Yes, it is monotonous. But at the same time, there is a certain carelessness, which gives uniqueness to his image. It states, “I am too lazy to spend time choosing clothes, so I bought a thousand of the same things because the image is nothing; I have more important things to worry about.”
One of the nuances of the leader’s style is, “I didn’t try too hard when I dressed up.” There’s nothing wrong with caring about the impression you want to make. But when you’re standing in front of an audience, no one should know how worried you were about picking out your tie. A charismatic leader is confident. And if you spend an hour choosing a tie, you’re not very confident. Yes, you will become closer and more understandable to people, but your charisma will be damaged — alas, this is life.