Fashion advice from Charlie Casely-Hayford

"People, unfortunately, judge you very quickly. Within the first few seconds of meeting someone, before you've even said a word, they've probably made some assessments based on what you're wearing and what you look like. When you think about it from that perspective, clothing plays such a big role in your everyday life and how you interact with people. Think about what you're saying by what you wear." Get the jacket here.

"I think it's important to remove yourself from the pre-conceived ideas of what fashion is. Don't necessarily think about it as fashion, because fashion is quite a daunting and scary concept, but maybe think about it as identity. Who's the man I want to be? When I put on my clothes in the morning and look in the mirror, is this the person I want to be? Is this the person that I am? Am I underselling myself? Even if you don't have a clue about clothing or fashion, I think most men have an innate sense of how clothes can affect other people's perception of them. So I think maybe that's a good starting point." Get the sweatshirt here.

"I always say dress for the person that you want to be. Dress up. I don't think you're necessarily deceiving people by doing that, I just think it forces you to up your game. If you approach it in that way, rather than trying to keep up with trends, think about it more on a level of who am I as a person and what do I want to reflect, it helps break it down and make it more approachable. Think about your clothing as a physical manifestation of your state of mind." Get the jacket here.

"You have to either commit fully, or don't commit at all. What happens quite often is people take a little element and don't continue. That's when you can create mixed messages or it can go pretty wrong. There are so many trends that are short lived. If you just dip in and dip out of fashion, you kind of become too swayed by the silliness of fashion." Get the T-shirt, here.

"Maybe a better approach is to establish a uniform, which can take a long time and the only way you learn unfortunately is through making mistakes. But experience can play out really well in that sense, and once you've created your uniform you can build from that. A guy should have a uniform, or at least work out what works for him. And it will tell time. But you can tell from the way people react to you on a daily basis, and how you react when you see yourself in the mirror." Get the sweatshirt here.

"Find what works, and use that as a base level. Don't stick to it. I don't think every guy should have a uniform they wear everyday, it would be very boring! Men build on their wardrobe: when they buy a piece it's very rare that they exchange it for another piece. It's about an addition, an accessory. Find what works for you and then build on that, bit by bit, piece by piece. Take your time. No rush." Get the jacket here.  

"LCM is very important to menswear as a whole to keep it moving forward. I think to the general public it probably doesn't mean anything… It's important to remember that a lot of what's on the runway is put up there to stimulate and force people to move forward. Whether that means on a very basic level that you decide one day to wear a bright blue jumper rather than a navy one, because you've seen something that's completely insane on a runway that you can't necessarily relate to but the colours inspired you. Designers are there to sell clothes but also to inspire. I don't think everything on the runway necessarily has to be taken literally." Get the jacket here. 

"LCM is the apex of the apparel world. It just may be difficult for someone who's not involved in that world to break it down. The high street's directly influenced by what is on the runway, it's just you might not be aware of it because it can seem so inaccessible. It's very hard as a normal guy, even if you want to look good, to understand all these trends that are going back and forth. LCM does help if you're able to disseminate what elements you want to take from it and make them your own. You don't have to wear everything that's on the runway." Get the shirt here. 

Read our full interview with Charlie in the February edition of Square Mile. Subscribe here.