Style 'Optimisation Fatigue'

Does it really matter?

I track what I eat to try maintain a physique that keeps me satisfied that my stupidly early morning routine offers me the value that I think it does. Carving out that time is me showing up for me and as valuable to my mental well-being as it is the physical.

I also come from a performance background where small margins matter, so it will now always sit inside me in one way or another. It’s a semblance of control that my brain needs to function in world full of noise and distraction.

I’m attached to the details, the training phases and rep ranges to meet the needs of each training cycle. And yes, it is as exhausting as it sounds.

It’s this attention to detail that I took into design on also one of the reasons I’ve never fully committed to Mallin & Son becoming a clothing brand. I simply couldn’t execute the details to deliver without Jeff Bezos’ bank account.

I reproof and repair with that same eye and enthusiasm and take it into the way I dress. The details noticed by literally nobody must be just right. Shirt length slightly long? It needs to be swapped or tucked. The hue in the logo of that t-shirt that only just clashes with the colour of the cap? Time to do my hair instead. Boot sole looking too clunky for slimmer leg? Out come the loafers.

This all sits under the umbrella of a term I came across last year, ‘optimisation fatigue’.

It’s essentially using lots of ways and things to live the perfect life that you never actually live because you spend way too long perfecting those ways and things.

Style wise, this is why building a capsule wardrobe is the best remedy. A timeless set of garments that interchange beautifully with little to no thought. If you can, do this.

But here’s something the Instagram menswear guys don’t tell you, they’re all the most extreme of optimisation fatigue. In fact, they probably don’t even know it.

The curated life that doesn’t care for daily chores, school runs, work or any other real life situation. It’s a life created for a small window on Instagram. You can be certain that as soon as the camera is switched off that they’re back into their George from Asda joggers whilst they’re picking the dogsh*t up in the garden.

I digress.

What I am trying to say is don’t feel like you have to optimise the way that you dress. If you want to wear a looser pant but not look like you’re floating, try straight instead of baggy. If you really like that jacket you’ve had for years that you see no one wearing on Instagram, wear it more. You love it, who cares what anyone else thinks. Your chore jacket isn’t from an obscure American brand that cost £550 imported and is just a standard piece that caught your eye when you nipped into Matalan to buy some swim shorts for your kids. Embrace it, you paid £15, you win.

The point is to use what you have based on your own taste and your own wallet and not based on the opinion of optimisation. Mix the vintage with new, the heirloom with the charity shop find and do whatever makes you happy.

Men’s style is about your expressing your character whether that be brash and loud or simply operational and unassuming. It’s not about expressing someone else’s.