The look of developers has been in circulation quite a bit recently. This Developers Life touched on it recently in an episode about "taste." Yesterday my friend sent me a blog post that referenced a Hacker News thread on the topic.

I joke around about the "IT Uniform" consisting of khaki pants and a polo (or plaid) shirt but behind the jokes is a sentiment that I wish I had a sense of self I could project better with my appearance. The truth is I haven't really shopped for clothes in a long time and when I do it's something safe, comfortable, and baggy enough to endure my battle of the bulge where my weight vacillates from a summer's worth of motivation to a winter's malcontented weight gain.

Sense of self should be the point, not buying products or looking like an advertisement in Details or Monocle. I notice how fashion icons, both male and female, seem to have a core that they stick to without need for drastic change: Michael Kors in his black seems to look sharp enough to the point where he can think and be productive and I love the fact that Anna Wintour hasn't really changed her hair in a long time. Before I give an overrated sense of my knowledge of the industry, my main sense is that there are people who dress as who they are and others who remain either tepid or confused. We get some baggy jeans and a safe plaid shirt or we shop from ads because it's safer to outsource the thinking of what our clothes should say about us.

As a developer, and more importantly as a person, I would want to understand what I want to say with my appearance and then choose an outfit that helps me do it. Maybe that's a suit. Maybe it's something comfortable and less formal. Mostly it's just something that gives the impression that I thought about it and paid attention to detail.