Tomorrow is Not Today

Michael Hughes
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Kingsley: [00:00:00] Why is it important to dress and present well in business?

Michael: I always refer to dress how you want to be addressed.

Kingsley: Welcome to The Tomorrow Is Not Today podcast. You've already started to create the life you want just by being here, designed for you as a business professional. So you can be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy, more productive, less stressed, and living a life you truly love.

My name's Kingsley and thank you for coming on another journey with one of our uniquely qualified professionals.

Welcome to The Tomorrow Is Not Today podcast. In the studio today, I have Michael Hughes from Away Ridges. Michael, thanks for joining us. Thank you, and I'm excited about today. This is a podcast that I've wanted to do. And a subject I've wanted to talk about for a long, long time. But getting somebody who is an expert in their field, who lives this and does it all the time, [00:01:00] is not always easy.

So, we were introduced by someone else, which I'm very grateful for. , good old one. And since just hooking up with you as much, it hasn't been, a lot recently. It's been good to see what you do, how you operate, and the fact that you can help a lot of people, that most of the time those people are gonna go, no, that's not for me.

I can't afford it, or I can't do it, or whatever. So today we're talking about. Fashion, largely men's fashion looking, presenting good and being confident, , in any aspect of life really. So, Michael, tell us a little bit about, I'm gonna start off with a big one. Why is it important to dress and present well in business? That is quite

Michael: an important question. It is a big question. Oftentimes, I guess I always refer to. Dress how you want to be addressed. It's a very old, old quote. Okay. Yep. Yeah. Dress how you want to be addressed. Explain that a little bit. So say if you, [00:02:00] you were going to an event, let's just say a black tie event.

And, you walk your best pair of board shorts and a singlet walking into the, into the ballet where everyone's wearing tuxedos and black tire. You're not gonna be addressed very well by the people at the event that'll be wondering, who's this guy? Where has he come from? Whereas if you wear appropriate attire to the event, like a black tire event, you'll be addressed as a distinguished guest coming to the event.

So yeah, address how you wish to be addressed. And it goes to the same when you are even just walking down the street. So I remember I used to work in the city, I started in, men's retail, , managing men's wear stores, but I would ride my bike into the city and, I'd be a sweaty mess, like, you know, riding my bike there.

I take my suit with me, but when I'm in my shorts and my t-shirt dripping wet and sweat, no one would look twice at me. Like they would not make eye contact as I got a sweaty guy walking down the street. But when I wore my suit, once I got, had a shower and got changed and I was at work, [00:03:00] I was wearing a snappy suit.

Like, people would look past you like, oh, I like your suit. You know, oh, that looks great. You know, and that instantly, it's just how you're addressed. You address how you like to be addressed.

Kingsley: I like that. That's a great definition. I like that saying too. I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal that one. Yeah. Put that in the magazine.

Oh well. Yeah. So that, that makes me lead onto like, 'cause we are talking, most of our audience is business professionals in some way, shape, or form. Now not everybody's gonna be wearing a suit. Not everybody's going to be, you know, dressing up like that on a regular basis. A lot of people are, but there's other people who, it may be.

Some chinos or something like that and in a nice shirt, and often around the, the Gold Coast where we live, a polo shirt is actually pretty dressed up quite often. So it obviously does vary, but if people are going in for a presentation, like a sales presentation or if they're trying to get a deal over the line or something, do you think that has the, how they present themselves has much of an impact there?

I [00:04:00] think there's,

Michael: Dressing appropriate for the occasion also applies as well, so. I do think you could overdress in a situation, so say if you'd done some research on an office that you want to work in and they, none of them wore ties at all, ever. And half of them are in polo shirts, half of 'em buttoned up shirts, and you come in wearing a three piece suit with a tie, tie bar, everything, like you're gonna be a bit overdressed for the occasion, which may work in a negative effect.

Being overdressed, they may think you're a bit of, a bit of a tool for going Yeah. Out. Whereas yeah. So I think it can go the other way as well. So being aware of what you are dressing for mm-hmm. When you're going into those situations, I think.

Kingsley: Okay. Yeah. So let's take a scenario like that. 'cause I do a lot of work in the real estate industry as well, and one of the big questions, the never ending questions is how should I dress in real estate?

Now I know you've had a lot of lot to do and you've [00:05:00] made a whole ton of suits for a lot of real estate agents and you've got people, obviously some might work in Double Bay in Sydney, they work in the city and Brisbane, or some of the nicer suburbs, new Farm, Belinda, that type of thing. And then you've got somewhere that works in Warwick.

So. Give me a, a, an idea of how you would guide people in various scenarios like that?

Michael: Yeah, I guess it does vary from areas like you said, like, so we have agents that are, we dress that work in the city and they're in suit and tie every day. That's just what they wear. But then we also have agents that, out in the suburbs, which wearing a suit can be quite intimidating for people in the suburbs, whereas you're not used to, in the city, there's people in suits everywhere.

But in the suburbs they kind of, they dress it down a bit, they'll still wear a nice pair of pants or chinos and a button-up shirt. And then they'll wear a suit jacket for say a presentation video or for their photos, for their professional photos with headshots. But then you get people out in Warwick where it's no one wears suits out there.

Yeah. Half of 'em probably don't own a suit, so [00:06:00] that does make it a little bit more difficult for them. But I don't think you have to wear a suit to be professional as long as you are, you know. Dressed well in your, you know, clean, tidy, you know, facial hair's, nicely trimmed, nice haircut you can get away with wearing a nice pair of tailored trousers and a just a nice basic button up shirt.

Whether it be a short sleeve or a long sleeve, I don't think it would matter. When you're in a place like Warwick where even just a wearing something that isn't like your Bing Tang shirt that from your barley trip, you know, and your board shorts, I think you'll be fine. Yeah.

Kingsley: Yeah. Okay. No, it's interesting because that's, that's a big question that people deal with and I know you've had a lot to do, literally making the clothes or the suits for these guys and girls as well.

So at the moment we, at the recording, this will come out in, probably March, early April. So we're moving into the cooler months, autumn, winter, that type of thing. So if we were, let's have a little bit of a look. [00:07:00] Through the various seasons and what to do. Let's talk a little bit about, colors to start with.

Now obviously different seasons have different colors that seem appropriate for that particular season. What sort of colors are we looking at as we come outta summer? We're moving into sort of more the autumn winter Si time times.

Michael: Yeah, I guess. Your spring summer colors, they're obviously a lot lighter, a bit more lightweight.

You only get light colors. Like, you get like a not light. Oh, like I'm wearing actually, yeah, like a, like a beige linen. This is a linen cotton jacket. So it works well in spring summer. Yeah. All your lighter colors. But in autumn winter, the weight of the fabrics generally get a little bit heavier. In Queensland, it's not super important to get a heavier fabric because it's not that cold.

No, it's not. It's really not that cold. But, even more to the colors that you are wearing today. Like with the, slightly darker trousers, a little bit heavier fabric as well. There's warmer colors. They work really well in, autumn, winter. Mm-hmm. We are a bit lucky in Queensland that it's a nice temperature [00:08:00] pretty much all year round.

Yeah. It is lovely. But, I feel like the colors, like the browns and the, the light tan colors that you're wearing are a really nice color coming into autumn,

Kingsley: winter.

Michael: There is the odd day that's cold enough to put on the overcoat. It's very, very rare. And it's normally off by like mid-morning anyway.

Yeah, yeah, that's right. But it is such a nice touch. I do wish it was actually a bit colder so we could get away with layering up all those beautiful colors I'm with and garments. It would be amazing.

Kingsley: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love watching the guys on TikTok, like the European colors when they're doing tiktoks and stuff from Europe.

It's just, I love it. I love those things. Fantastic. Yeah. It's such good look. Yeah. Wish you could. Is, so what happens, like let's say you want to get your, it is winter, autumn type thing and you want to get a bit creative with your colors go a little bit brighter for people who, that's more their personality.

Is that a wrong thing to do or is that just your personality? That's fine.

Michael: I think, traditionally back in the day it was the wrong thing to do. You know, oh, you don't wear those colors in this time, or you don't wear that color shoes and that with that suit, but. Those days of like having [00:09:00] the right or wrong thing to wear.

I think they're kind of past us now. It's more just the personality type. Whether you like bright colors or you like darker colors. I think it's just up to the individual now. There's not really a set guideline. I mean, you couldn't really wear a pink suit to a black tie event. Yeah, I mean you've probably could.

I think I've probably seen that actually. Yeah. I think there was an event. I think I saw an event. There's, the celebrities went to, I don't know what event it was. Oh yeah, it was some outrageous suits there and they, the tan size is too big as well. Yeah, so all those rules are broken anyway, so I don't think it's, there's a set rule.

Okay. Yeah. Perfect. And

Kingsley: then summer, do 10 things tend to be like you touched on it be before, but. Is it a bit brighter type colors, you think sort of in summer, winter type time? Or is it what, what seems to be happening is every year it's like, okay, this color's gonna be in for this autumn or this color for this spring, or whatever.

How does that always work? And you know what's important with. [00:10:00] Clothes in different seasons like that.

Michael: Yeah. So those color trends that come out, at the moment it's like a really light tan. Oh, what is it? Do you know what the name of that color is that came out? Okay. It's like a really light

Kingsley: tan. I know what you're talking about, but I don't know the color.

I can't

Michael: remember the name of it. But it's like a light, beige, tan, sandy type color. Those color trends, they didn't generally, appropriate for like things like weddings. They tend to follow those colors a lot. Okay. Especially women's wear as well. They like to follow those color trends a lot.

The men's wear is a bit more off to the side. It's almost like a free for all for whatever you wanna do, but Yeah. Right. But in saying that, the marketing behind those color trends pushes clients to want those colors. Yeah. So the male's like, oh, that's the color. And then they see all the girls wearing it, and then they're like, I wanna suit that color.

So we had get an influx of people wanting those suit colors based on the push from media or social media of other people wearing it. Okay. As opposed to their own personal preference. They just want to [00:11:00] follow the trend. Yeah. Yeah. So the trends definitely influence them on the, on how they dress.

Kingsley: So where do those colors, like what's in.

Where does that actually come from? I actually don't know what

Michael: Design House decides what color it's going to be that year. I'm sure it's some European design house that decides those colors somewhere along the line. Yeah. Yeah. It's probably a good thing to look into to see who is the person making these decisions.

Kingsley: Yeah. And is it one place or one person or whatever, how it actually happens. It's, it's an interesting thing. It's one of those questions that.

Michael: Mm. You know,

Kingsley: and does anybody really know or is it a combination of different things? Anyway,

Michael: yeah.

Kingsley: So, yeah, it's an interesting one though. Yeah, I might look into that actually.

Yeah, no, definitely. See where it comes from. Look, yeah, let me know. I'm, I'm quite, quite keen to find out, I quite like the color trend at

Michael: the moment though. I, it's, definitely one of my favorites is it's always been those, like lighter browns, lighter colors.

Kingsley: And is that where we are now or is that moving into autumn, winter type thing?

Michael: I don't think that's just the color of the year, I think, I don't think it was a [00:12:00] seasonal one that was just like the, the year's color. Yeah. But for autumn winter, like if we look at the wedding space, in summertime, that there's a definite change between summer, spring, summer and autumn winter when it comes to colors and weddings.

Spring summer's like a light tan, beige color. But then autumn, winter, you start moving into like your black classic tuxedos. You get a lot of that. I get a lot of dark green emerald colors as well. Okay. Yeah, through the spring, summer as well, but also leading into autumn winter. I wore a green suit for my wedding as well.

I thought it was a good, good choice. Yeah. Yeah. But, green

Kingsley: seems to be becoming more and more a popular color.

Michael: Yeah. I'm actually finding it's starting to, it's starting to die off a little bit now. Okay. On the tail end of it. Right. It's still very, very popular, but it's on the tail end and we are getting a lot of the classic black back.

Okay. Like for everyday type of wear? No, for weddings has been the big thing. Okay. Yeah. Weddings have been black for everyday wear. The, the pinstripe, the navy pinstripe is making a mighty comeback. It's really, yeah, with a [00:13:00] vengeance. It's, it has been the most requested fabric, color, and choice.

Okay. So that's a

Kingsley: blue pin stripe? Not the black.

Michael: Not the black, no. There's a few for the black pinstripe, but yeah, the navy pinstripe has been the biggest request we've had. Okay. Interesting. It's making comeback. It's the power suit's coming.

Kingsley: Yeah. Yeah. Well I guess that's a lot of that when you look at politics around the world at the moment is a lot of that sort of thing going on, isn't it?

It power suits and ties and things like that.

Michael: Yeah, it's cool. I love it. It's great.

Kingsley: Oh yeah, me too. It's, it's great. What I, one of the things I love about fashion is it never stays the same. No, it doesn't. It keeps changing all the time. So now linen, I've been wearing linen for years. Absolutely love linen.

You can't go past it. But it seems to be like this last year, it seemed to me anyway, I could be wrong, but it seemed like it became a big thing. And this year it's just like everyone is talking linen.

Michael: I think. , I think everyone's discovering linen for the first time and I think men are slowly making more conscious effort to dress [00:14:00] better.

Okay. And just, just Martin themselves up a bit. And I think linens that really easy go-to choice because it looks so good and it's comfortable to wear. So as soon as they wear it, it's like, well this is amazing. Like, why would I wear anything else? So, yeah. Yeah. Like I get a lot of guys that, that wear the tailormade suits that we do, but they also request linen pants and linen shirts for outside of work because they know that that's just amazing to wear and it's not readily available everywhere.

Yeah. And especially in different colors. So, 'cause linen comes in a lot of colors, but typically you only find a beige or a. A light tan color and linen and pants or shirts. Mm-hmm. But yeah, we can do like a whole range of colors, those, everything. Even this, linen cotton one that I've got on.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Michael: So linen cotton, it doesn't crease as much. 'cause you know, linen can look pretty shabby if you wear a shirt. It looks pretty. It does.

Kingsley: Like,

Michael: I've got

Kingsley: a lot of linen. I think I've got dark blue, light blue mustardy color white and. Some others in there. Pink definitely got pink. Yeah. Nice. [00:15:00] All in linen stuff, but that's the thing in linen pants.

But it always creases and crushes when you wear it. Is that, is that like a, a no-no type thing or it's, it seems like there's nothing you can do about it. No, there's nothing you can do

Michael: that's just a natural thing that happens with the fiber. But when you blend it with cotton like this one, it puts more structure in it.

So I've been wearing this all day. Right. And it's, yeah. That's still look crisp. Yeah, it still looks pretty respectable. It doesn't, look too bad. Yeah. So you can get a bit more, a bit more out of it. It looks a bit sharper for longer. Okay. Yeah. It's good to know that. Yeah. It is a good to one though, especially shirts.

Shirts can look really, if you don't iron 'em for the first time in the day, they just look terrible.

Kingsley: Oh, they do. And even, even ironing them, it's really hard to actually, get all the cre You just can't get the creases out. Yeah. You can't, you just gotta embrace it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the big things I'm noticing on, I'm a bit of a TikTok fan, on TikTok is old, old school, uh, or old money fashion.

Can you tell us a little bit about what that is and where it fits in with our [00:16:00] culture here?

Michael: Yeah, I, I've seen a lot of that as well on TikTok and Instagram. There's, a lot of talk about old money, and it's not referring to the fact that these people have old money in their, this is the way they dress.

It's just a terminology they've used to dress in a certain way, which is pretty much like a Ralph, Ralph Lauren, book. Really, , you know, nice. Sweater over the shoulders, like tailored shorts, nice polo shirt or button up Oxford fabric. It's, just a smart way to dress. Like you go into the polo pretty much is like how you dress.

Okay. Yeah, it's, it's not so much the actual saying of old money, it's, it's just the, it's more the fashion style almost. Yeah. It's the statement they've made for that look,

Kingsley: it seems like from what I can get and I really like it. Mm. It's great because it's pretty much you got. Often it's a linen shirt and, you know, maybe linen pants or whatever, or shorts.

And it just, it's just easy. Looks comfortable. Yeah, it looks good. It looks like it's sort of, it never come. It's not a trend that comes and goes. It's just [00:17:00] whether you, 'cause I've seen photos where they got, JFK dressed like that all the way and lots of people dress throughout the decades.

Michael: Yeah. It doesn't change

Kingsley: still.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the glory about it. It just stays the same, so you can dress that way and it just doesn't date. That's the best thing about men's wear. Like you, you get a nice tailormade pant or a suit or sports coat, you can wear that for 30 years. Like it just stays the same unless you're getting something really out there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you're getting a really bright color, then that might change, but traditionally you can just wear that same, same pair of pants and jacket and shirt until they're just worn out.

Kingsley: So if, if we've got people watching or listening right now and they wanted to get some tailored clothes done, getting something like that sort of style, let's say, that's gonna last them pretty much until it wears out pretty much forever to just pick, keep, be able to use and it always looks good.

Michael: Yeah, that's a big thing we do as well. So we go through, we ask them, well, what have you got now? What do you wear? What do you like to [00:18:00] wear? We can build like a capsule wardrobe within their wardrobe. So if we get a pair of pants, it'll work with this sports coat or this suit that can mix and match within different suit.

So you can split it all up. You can make a dozen outfits outta your five or six different pieces, which works really well. Okay. So, and that style as well. So, you know, it doesn't go. Outta date.

Kingsley: Yeah. So it's always gonna look good. Yeah, you can keep it there and it's gonna, 'cause quite often you do buy a, a suit or something like that and it's a style and it looks fantastic for a couple of years and then you realize it's just not happening anymore and you can't wear it.

Yeah. I mean there's colors

Michael: like I remember about. 10, 12 years ago maybe. Like really bright cobalt blue suits were like the thing, I dunno if you remember that, but I do. Really it is brighter. The better. Like brighter the better. It was just amazing. Everyone loved them. School formals, weddings, bright blue suit.

But like now, like you show people that fabric and they're like, no, I'm not wearing that. Yeah. You like the add dates? Yeah, but if you stick to like classic navy, you can't really go [00:19:00] wrong like black, you can't go wrong. Charcoal gray, like those things just stick around forever. Yeah.

Kingsley: So talking about that, so you've got custom made, which is like what you do tailoring, and you got off the shelf.

Tell me the pros and cons of the two different ways.

Michael: Yeah, ways. So there, there is a big difference between the two. I mean, if you, in proportion and, you know, you've got a pretty good figure, you'll fit off the rack and it'll fit perfectly. Then there is slight differences. So someone can look like they're in proportion, but they might have a little bit longer arms, and all of a sudden all the off the rack shirts and suits don't fit.

So from personal experience, I love the shirts that are at some of these places, but whenever I put one on, they're two inches too short on the arms. Mm. I don't feel like I'm like massively out of proportion, but the shirts don't fit me. So I got frustrated with that. So. The difference between the two is that one is made from your own personal measurements and made to fit [00:20:00] specifically you, whereas the one off the rack's made to fit a broad range of people as much as possible.

Which of course you can alter to a degree. But it's a bit hard to add length onto sleeves. Yeah. Yeah. Shirts. Shirts and jackets. You can take it off easy enough, but adding it on makes it a little bit more difficult. Yeah. And other things like the posture, like your posture, wherever you've got one shoulder, that's one shoulder that's sleeping more than the other, or, yeah.

One. Yeah. Or your maybe got a little bit of a hunch in your back. Yeah. Those things can alter how a off the rack suit will look as well. So it might not sit quite right when you put one suit on off the rack. Whereas if you get one custom made, we can allow for those kinds of things when we make the pattern in the suit.

So, for instance, I've got a jacket on where I have one shoulder that's lower than the other. So there's a little bit of extra padding in this, this shoulder right here? Yeah. Wow. Just to bulk it up a bit. So to make it look a bit more symmetrical and even, but you know, most people wouldn't [00:21:00] pick it unless you say, oh, I've done that.

They'd be like, oh. Yeah. You know what? I, I can see it a little bit there, but Yeah. You wouldn't know. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And one arm's longer the other, 'cause, one of my arms is shorter than the other.

Kingsley: And so you make the suits, so it's gonna, and nobody's gonna know.

Michael: Yeah. Unless you're looking for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You have to be looking hard though. Yeah. Yeah. You generally have to look pretty hard to see those. Yeah. Wow. Little changes. So that's really cool. Yeah. So I don't fit off the rack. They just sit really strange on me. They, they just don't work. Okay.

Kingsley: So. Tell me, so that, that's a lot of good reasons.

Mm-hmm. One of the big things, obviously, 'cause the concept is the tailored is very expensive compared to off the rack. So what, what sort of, if we are talking sort of like, for like mm-hmm. So 'cause we want to compare like for like Yeah. What's the difference price wise, roughly?

Michael: Yeah. I mean for, if you walk into a shop, depending on which shop you go to, you can get anything from $150 to.

Oh, geez. I've seen Tom Ford off the racks like six and a half [00:22:00] grand. So, you know, like you can go from one end to the other. Yeah. And same with custom made as well. You can go from a $600 custom made all the way up to astronomical amounts. Like you can get $10,000 in your suit. You know, it just goes up from there.

I think several row starts at 3000 pounds. Like starting, right? Yeah. So that's like 6,000 in Australians. So really the sky's the limit when it comes to that, but. When you get brands, so like ourselves, we focused around a mobile operation, so we could go to clients or office spaces and measure them up in their own home.

Mm-hmm. We don't have a, a luxury store to pay for, so we were able to make it a bit more accessible for everyone. So our price point starts at around about the thousand dollar mark, which is what you'll pay for a decent quality suit from a shop off the rack. Mm. But then, so that's a

Kingsley: full suit. Yeah.

Pants and jacket.

Michael: Yeah. Jacket and pants. Yeah. Whereas if you go to a shop, you'll pay for that for something decent, but then you may still have to get it altered to make the arm shorter or [00:23:00] longer, or make it a little bit slimmer, you know? And these things all cost money as well. So you end up costing more to buy off the rack.

Plus you usually have to compromise on what you're getting as well. So say if you wanted a pinstripe suit, but you wanted the, the pinstripe to be a brown color on a navy. You could walk around for weeks looking for that from a shop and you just won't find it. Or if you want a green suit with a red line through it, you know you're not gonna find it.

So you have to compromise on what you can actually come up with or find.

Kingsley: Yeah, because when you do go around just looking at the different shops, you've gotta look at it. Do you like. The patterns in it, the colors, all that sort of thing. Then you've gotta have a look. Does it fit or is it a different material?

I don't like the material. All that sort of stuff, like you said. And it, it takes a lot of time to do that.

Michael: It does.

Kingsley: Whereas you guys obviously have a lot of different, materials, colors, all sorts of things that you can pick from. And also then the how your, your buttons are. And these, what do you call the things that the Oh, the side adjusters.

[00:24:00] Side adjusters. Yeah. They're great side adjusters. Do you want, like these pants have got two and I've got another pair of pants in a suit, actually. That has got the one big long one. Yep. And how, you know, everything can be adjusted according to what you want as well, which I think is really cool.

Michael: Yeah, that's right. And we get that request a lot. You know, a lot of people don't like belt loops on their pants or mm-hmm. The side adjusters, we can make them so they can pull an inch in on either side. So if you fluctuate and wait, we can make it so, like, you know, after good Christmas dinner, you can just loosen 'em off a bit and you're good to go.

Kingsley: Yeah.

Michael: Yeah. So all those little things we can, we can touch on. Especially like, I got a client, last week. He plays a lot of rugby and he has really big quads. So when he gets pants that fit around his waist, the thighs are just bulging. Like he just can't move. So he has to get a bigger size and then get the waist taken into suit so we can make that from, start with bigger thighs in it so we can measure his thigh and then allow for room for him to actually move and still fit him.

So yeah, things that he can't go into a [00:25:00] shop and buy a pair of pants, he, they just don't fit him. So,

Kingsley: yeah, it's funny, I learned years ago, and this may not be for everybody, but for me, that it's often expensive to buy cheap clothes. One, one of the things I remember when I first bought my first pair of RM Williams boots, I was in Sydney with my daughter.

She was down there at college and we were just walking around and I needed a new pair of shoes. So walking around the shops and she said, go on to R Williams. And I'm like. No way. So she said, just come and have a look. I said, I'm not spending 500 bucks on a pair of shoes, it's just not happening. And so she convinced me to go in, it's your daughter, what are you gonna do?

Yeah. So we went in, sat down and we're having a look around and I'm like, this is actually really nice. And sat down to try someone and there's another lady came in and she sat down next to me trying on some boots and I had a look at hers and I'm like, so. Are you getting another pair of this, your first pair or what?

Or what's going on? And I didn't know what she had on with Z and [00:26:00] Williams. 'cause I was new to the whole thing at the time. Yeah. And, she said, no, they're, they're fine. I've just had 'em for 11 years. I'm sick of them, so I wanna buy a new pair like 11 years. And now hers were a bit more expensive at, at the time, this was years and years ago.

I think hers were about 700 bucks or something. But I'm like. 11 years, 700 bucks. They're actually cheap shoes.

Michael: Yeah, that's right. Yeah. So

Kingsley: Lofas seem to be making a bit of a comeback at the moment. So, and I dunno if it's a European influence, if it's just how it is in Australia, are they, should we be wearing them or they, is it a passing fad?

Where does it, where do the loafers fit?

Michael: It's definitely a European influence. The loafers, I mean, back in the day I used to wear them all the time. And I would be like, question and be like, what the hell are those? What are you wearing? Like, are your girlfriend's shoes? No. But those same blokes now are asking for loafers and they want to find a nice pair of loafers.

I think it's definitely come from that European influence. I think, social media has played a [00:27:00] massive part in that. And they just look smart, but I think they have their time and place. For work, I think a pair of loafers is probably not quite appropriate. Maybe if it was a Friday or so.

When you say work, are

Kingsley: you talking about if you're wearing a suit to work or, oh, sorry. Yeah.

Michael: If you wear a suit every day for work, but depending on the job, because if you're a real estate agent, loafers are great because you don't have laces. You're taking your shoes on and off all the time to go into properties.

So they work really well. You can, I reckon you can pull 'em off if you wear socks with them. You can definitely pull off a full suit with loafers. If you're not wearing socks, it's definitely Friday. Yeah, after work, if you drink somewhere nice, like it's, I think if you, if you do it that way, you can definitely pull it off.

But traditionally I like wearing a full shoe with a suit. So like a, like a nice, yeah, Derby or Oxford or, you know, double Monk straps are always really nice of a suit. But I, I like to push the boundaries. I, I wear no socks, loafers with a suit, with a, a cuffed pant, which is like just a bit out there.

It's, I like to [00:28:00] be a bit more fashion forward with it. Yeah. And I love

Kingsley: that. I, I love being a bit, I personally have a tendency to love European fashion.

Michael: Mm.

Kingsley: It, because a lot of it I find it doesn't quite match, but it looks really good somehow. I dunno what it is, but, and I just enjoy that. Maybe that's a little bit of who I am as well.

But the other, the other thing is, and you just touched on it there, the big question is socks or no socks. That's the big, big debate.

Michael: I've actually been, in a bit of a dilemma about that as well. As of LA Yeah. I've back flipped on so many things recently. Yeah. But that's fashion, that's what you do.

And maybe I was just getting older. I'm not too sure. Maybe I finally saw what everyone was telling me that I've forgotten my socks. So, I mean, I, I didn't wear socks if with everything, all my loafers, even my, monk straps, I wouldn't wear socks with them. Because I've always had like a, a cropped pant or like a, a cuffed pant.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'd show like a little bit of sock or a little bit of heel on there. . Yeah. But yeah, I've kind of opted for, wearing socks now, to be honest. [00:29:00] Okay. Yeah. Again, for the same reason, it feels a bit more formal and I feel a bit more appropriate when I walk into a corporate office at, like, say if, financial advisors or solicitors.

And, I'm there if. My ankles showing. I feel a bit silly. Yeah. Gotcha, gotcha. So

Kingsley: yeah, so you are going back to what we got. We are right at the beginning of the podcast. You are sort of dressing appropriately for who you're seeing. So, so you are going into a corporate scenario to fit a bunch of guys getting suits.

You need to look the part with who they are. Yeah, that's

Michael: right. Like if I'm dressing them for, for their work purpose and I go in looking like I've stepped off a yacht. Yeah. With my loafers on, they're gonna think. Does this guy know what he is doing or, yeah.

Kingsley: Yeah. Gotcha.

Michael: I want them to feel confident that I'm able to do what they request.

Yeah, yeah,

Kingsley: yeah. No, that's good. No, I like that. And it's, it's, these are sort of the topics, the discussions that come up regularly with people. And it's just good to sit with somebody who, this is what you do [00:30:00] and see what's going on, and the fact that you are changing with, with times and who you're going to see, or the location or.

Whatever's going on that I think for the rest of us as well, we can get a bit better of understanding of how we can and can't or what we should and shouldn't do.

Michael: Yeah. And. It goes back to that saying as well, like, dressed how you want to be addressed. Yeah, yeah. So they'll dress me as this. I'm one of their equals or pair in that regard.

So I dress that way 'cause I want to be addressed. Yeah, that regard. So,

Kingsley: yeah. So take me back for a sec. I should have asked this earlier, but what got you into the whole fashion, men's fashion in particular, but fashion side of things in the first place? That's pretty

Michael: funny actually. So when I, I'm from New Zealand originally.

When I moved over, I had long hair and, I dressed pretty much and just like ripped jeans and band t-shirts because I, oh yeah, I played, I played in a band and I had long hair and I was just a bit of a mess really. But then when I moved to Australia, I saw this land of opportunity. Like, it was just like, there was, [00:31:00] everything was happening.

And there were so many opportunities and the first thing I had to do when I got here was find a job. And I had several interviews and I would get shot down for it. You, it was one, blatantly, which just said like, you're not right for this. Like, I didn't even ask you a question. He said I wasn't right for it based on the way I looked.

Yeah. Wow. And I was really sort of taken back from that because I was like, oh, what do you mean? Like, I could, I, and I was quite capable of the job, like I was more than qualified for it. But just the way I looked, he just judged me and I was, not appropriate for the job. So I was like, well, I need to change to get to, to make myself, successful in this world, which is very different to New Zealand at the time.

I needed to adapt and change, so went and got the haircut, got rid of the long hair, scrubbed myself up and put on a, you know, a few nice clothes and went from there. And then I, I just ended up picking up a, casual job in David Jones, right in the middle of the city in Queens Plaza. And I really got into it.

I really got into like [00:32:00] styling people and dressing them into, into nice outfits and making them feel confident. And then, from there I just got poached from brand to brand to brand. So, yeah. Wow. Yeah. I think my second, second position was at Saba. Australian Designer. Yeah. Yeah. So I just moved into there and then I just went off from there.

Kingsley: Wow. That's awesome.

Michael: Yeah, so I love that was bit of a change of personal transition. Yeah.

Kingsley: A big transition. Yeah. And it's funny how that rejection. Actually had a major positive influence and created your career and what you're doing and helping so many people in, in that way. One of the words you mentioned, there's something I want to touch on, a little bit, is confidence.

How much of an impact does the way people dress have on their personal confidence? I think,

Michael: well, if I didn't wear a suit and I walked in to measure someone up for a suit. I wouldn't feel very confident walking into the office in the first place. And I think it, it plays a massive role into, it's like modern day armor, isn't it?

It's like you wear, [00:33:00] you wear something like that looks good and you feel good. So it's like wearing armor like back in the day. So you feel confident to walk in somewhere? Yeah. And you know, say what you wanna do and get done what you wanna get done. I think it's, plays a massive role in it. Yeah.

Yeah. No, that's, that's huge.

Kingsley: It, it's interesting how, how it does make people feel different and present different and how they come across as a person. Michael, this has been great. I'm, I'm hoping what we've done, and I'm pretty sure we have, is covered a whole bunch of questions that people have, especially guys, maybe girls will get their guys, Hey, you need to listen to this.

But questions that we sort of don't. Talk about too often, but maybe as guys, we need to bring up some of these questions because it does affect every other aspect of our life as well. I think the way we dress, the way we present, the way, our reputation is. How we come across in meetings or meeting people in general or whatever it is and where to, where to wear what particular [00:34:00] outfit or whatever.

Just as we close off, I always ask two people, and this is very different to the whole conversation Yeah. But the podcast, we talk about creating the life you want. So if I was to ask you how do you, or, and, and creating the Ultimate Tomorrow is what it's all about. How, how would you describe what the Ultimate Tomorrow is?

Michael: Yeah, that's a, that's a really deep question actually. Yeah, I can really dive into that one. And that's changed a lot for me recently as well. Great. I love it. Yeah, it's been a massive change for me as well. I mean, you know, a few years ago my, my ultimate tomorrow was, um, you know, just. Building my brand, building the business, you know, like, oh, what can I do here?

What can I do there? Like build, build, build, like bigger, more, more, more. It was always chasing that, that more mm-hmm. That unattainable carrot dangling in front of my face. But then, a couple years ago I had, I had a little girl, had another, had a little child, and then we've just got another new little baby now who's four weeks old, [00:35:00] so.

Oh wow.

Kingsley: Awesome.

Michael: Yeah, like that changed the whole perspective of what the Ultimate tomorrow was. So instead of like. Chasing my own selfish goals, it became more about them and what my tomorrow would look like. So now the focus has gone from me chasing my own selfish desires to chasing a, um, a better future for the family.

You know, like, and ultimately it's the same, doing the same things, but with a different thought process behind it, a different, um, different motivation behind it, I think. Yeah. So it's, um, I guess. Just finding something that I love doing and then just doing it to the best ability I can. You know, I have a amazing wife that supports me in all of it as well.

And, I heard a great quote actually. It was, you owe it to the person who believes in you to succeed. And go out and do better. So like, that's really cool. She believes in me like a lot and I owe it to her to, to show her that, you [00:36:00] know, I can do it. Yeah. So, yeah, I think that's my big motivator now is, yeah, just be the best version of you that you can be.

Kingsley: I, I love what you said just in there that you, find what you love, you finding what you love doing, but you do it with a different motivation now. Mm. And different perspective. I think that's so cool and I think that's something that if people can pick up on that, what's the motivation, what's a perspective?

You might be doing this, but what's your motivation behind it? Your real why, what you really doing? What's really important to you? Yeah, and, and that's the

Michael: big thing, like my motivation wasn't right beforehand. It was obviously getting me trying to feel like a bottomless pit. It was whole, just never filled in like it was no good.

Whereas the. Yeah, your motivation's a big driver in, in what you do and what your tomorrow looks like. I think

Kingsley: that's awesome. And the second question I always ask, which is a follow on to that is how do you create your ultimate tomorrow? That's another really hard question. That's a

Michael: deep one. Yeah. How do you create it?

I guess [00:37:00] start by finding out what you really wanna do with your life is a big one. , I think writing down your goals is a big thing like writing down. What you wanna do, what you wanna achieve, and what timeframe you wanna do it. And not to like over promise yourself. I guess that if I'm not here by this point, it's not gonna be any good.

Like it's a stepping stone process and you need to take every little step to get there. In the end. There's no shortcut, unfortunately. I think, just creating a, a strategic plan and taking each step to create the tomorrow you want. Really?

Kingsley: I love that. Love it. Now tell us, where can people find out?

People might want to go, Hey mate, can you come and measure me up? I want some clothes, I want some advice on my styling, my fashion, or whatever it is. Where can people find you? I think the easiest ones Just jump

Michael: on Instagram. Yeah, just waves. Just that. So how do you spell? We ridges, W-E-Y-R-I-D-G-E-S.

Sorry about the accent. That's [00:38:00] I can't avoid that one. I tried to shake it off, but it's yeah, no, that's not happening. It's done. Yeah. So just on Instagram at We ridges. Yeah, that's it. That's it. Yeah. Okay. That's the easiest way. You can just throw us a DM on there and the website links on there as well.

But Instagram's good because you got inspiration of all our previous clients and what they've got on there. And

Kingsley: there's some great stuff on your Instagram.

Michael: Yeah. There's some interesting stuff as well. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Kingsley: Michael, thank you so much for coming in and, literally enlightening us on,

things with fashion, mostly with men. I know we've touched on, I know you do a bit of work with women as well and you've made clothes for women as well. But I really wanted to hone in on the guys. Yeah. One of the reasons is, 'cause guys have trouble often, excuse me, in. In dressing well and presenting well and knowing what to do, and hopefully some of these hints and tips and things that you've said today is gonna help with all of that sort of stuff and their confidence to, to be better at business and in personal life.

Michael: Yeah, for sure. Thank you for having me here. It's been amazing. It's been good.

Kingsley: Thanks, Michael. Remember, create the life you [00:39:00] want.