Competitive Dressing - Topic of the day 6/25/25
Whether it's getting matched on Bumble, angling for a promotion at work, or drumming up likes/fire reacts/votes on a fashion Discord contest, it's a common sentiment that your clothes matter in this regard. To what extent do you agree, and how much does this impact how you dress? If you disagree, how do you deal with people who think differently?
This topic will run for 2 days.
23 Replies
insane that fitbattle was not mentioned
who writes these things
It is mentioned
Implicitly
i guess sorry i can’t read
Anyway here’s my thoughts on competition
anyway yeah if u have swag everything goes better for u and if u don’t have swag u have to work harder to find love and success simple as
and if someone does not recognize ur swag they’re stupid
If I think something is good, and other people think it's good, it's good seasoning but not necessary. I'll probably be more sensitive to public perception if I'm insecure in the fit in the first place
Who’s the nerd here who submitted this and plays Pokémon unite :letsfuckinggo:
I’m always dressed to lose and I’m proud of that
:letsfuckinggo: every fit is dressing competitively i got get 35 🔥 in waywt
*46
I’ll be a little happy whenever i get my first top waywt
But such things dont impact how i dress (I think)
Maybe got me to take more risk a few times (spring fit battle for sure did!)
I am very much enjoying that I lost all competitive spirit in regard to dressing.
Its much easier to be happy with your mode of dressing when you are not constantly comparing yourself with other ppl. I think I found a way to dress that makes me happy and if other ppl don't see the vision thats okay.
I enjoyed fit duel though.
Same!
I associate competitive fashion with the Alpha M’s and Real Men Real Style’s of the world.
Treating fashion as a contest (usually for attention from women/deference from other men) always felt antithetical to fashion as a form of expression.
The clothes I wanna buy competes with my fucking rent money brother
I personally refuse to engage with this aspect of fashion as it brings me no joy
I don't hate it but I do think competition in dressing (through like, a fit battle sense) is a net negative for me.
Personally fashion is about two things:
Making me feel a given way towards myself
And, to a lesser degree, making others feel a certain way towards me
To some extent votes on a fit battle are measuring the latter of these things, but not directly, and sufficiently distanced from whatever intention I as the wearer had.
It is credit to this server that by the top 4, finalists in our fit battles don't appear to be sacrificing much personal engagement with their fits, but I can't avoid thinking through the lens of sacrificing my self-expression for the sake of pandering to the white millenial american man who is the overwhelming demographic on this server - not a person who I would even have any interaction with irl let alone consider dressing for.
See for me it’s really easy
I thought your break was supposed to mellow you out!
I find "competitive dressing" for me usually just turns into condescending judging, which makes me ugly in spirit. Personally. Especially since I often don't put in an honest effort myself, on an average day to day basis, who am I to judge someone else?
i find that the people/places that stress dressing as a competitive venture never really get into what to do when the competition ends - you have a significant other, or a promotion, or friends, but then what?
i don't think dressing to impress or improving how you dress for someone/thing is a bad thing in a vacuum; it's an issue when external validation is the sole goal because that can be fickle
I always feel a little guilty when someone compliments my outfit in public bc that's what I wanted lol. But I also hate that I enjoy the validation. I need to feel more comfortable with it. It's all about balance.
I think it's pretty normal to have a love/hate relationship with external validation. It won't make you happy with yourself, but as much as we don't want to admit it, it's a good stepping stone for getting there. Building an internal source of validation with zero external validation is incredibly hard.