How Can I Dress Like a Designer?

How can I gown like a designer? It’s not that I wish to idiot the world into considering I run a trend model, however I’m all the time struck by the truth that they by no means look as if they’re making an attempt too exhausting however they all the time look elegant: cool however purposeful. What do they choose for themselves? — Ann, Oak Park, Ailing.

You would possibly assume, in the event you spent your life creating lavish, beautiful garments, that you just’d wish to put on them your self; that in the event you had been a designer, you’d swan via life in a rainbow of sequins, Lycra, denim and lace, with a complete catwalk present in your closet.

However the fact is, most designers, males or ladies, don’t see themselves as residing billboards for their very own work — no less than of their working lives. (Once they exit, they do have a tendency to decorate to characterize.) Or so I found after I seized the second of the couture exhibits to report what the inventive administrators I encountered wore and to ask a few of them why, and the way, they selected their outfits.

As for the what, that may largely be summed up in a single phrase: black.

Each Maria Grazia Chiuri, the creative director of Dior ladies’s put on, and Virginie Viard, the inventive director of Chanel, took their bows in easy black fits from their manufacturers. Black was additionally the colour of alternative of Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino, Haider Ackermann of Jean Paul Gaultier and Daniel Roseberry of Schiaparelli.

Not a lot, it turned out, as a result of the designers actually, actually like monochrome — certainly, each Mr. Piccioli and Mr. Ackermann are two of trend’s biggest colorists — or as a result of they assume it makes them look arty and existential or strict and scary (assumptions folks typically make about trend folks in black). It’s as a result of, they mentioned, they wish to focus consideration on what they do, not what they put on.

“Since my 20s, I’ve been in a uniform,” Mr. Roseberry mentioned after I requested. “This Canadian tuxedo” — he gestured at what he was carrying: a pale denim shirt and pale denims — “or black Carhartt pants and a black T-shirt. It lets me direct all my vitality at my work.”

Mr. Ackermann mentioned he was all the time in black and white or blue, the higher to let his collections “do the speaking.” Equally, Mr. Piccioli, who wears black pants from his males’s assortment with a black T-shirt when it’s heat and a black sweatshirt within the winter, mentioned that carrying the identical factor just about day-after-day “helps you to hold far out of your job.” Which, given the 24/7 nature of trend, might be a great factor.

It’s primarily the identical rationale Steve Jobs got here up with when he adopted a uniform of Issey Miyake mock turtlenecks, denims and New Stability sneakers; what drove Gordon Brown, throughout his time because the British chancellor of the Exchequer, to put on solely navy fits, white shirts and pink ties; why Mark Zuckerberg is all the time in grey Brunello Cucinelli T-shirts and hoodies; and why Angela Merkel wore primary-colored jackets with black pants just about all the time she was chancellor of Germany. Making a uniform for your self makes you instantly identifiable and opens up area in your mind each morning to consider issues aside from garments.

In different phrases, dressing like a designer shouldn’t be actually about buying in any respect. It’s a couple of life hack.

Your Model Questions, Answered

Each week on Open Thread, Vanessa will reply a reader’s fashion-related query, which you’ll be able to ship to her anytime through e-mail or Twitter. Questions are edited and condensed.