Of Style and Symbolism

“You never realize how much of your background is sewn into the lining of your clothes.” ― Tom Wolfe, The Bonfire of the Vanities

The Magician’s Dress Code

Magicians are notoriously bad dressers. Robert-Houdin tried to improve the situation, telling them that dressing as a wizard with a cape and pointy hat covered in stars was building a wall between them and their audience, counterproductive to the suspension of disbelief. Instead, he recommended that they dress like normal people of their time, with a top hat and jacket.

They saw, and still emulate, the pictures of a successful magician wearing a top hat, but did not read the text… Later, addressing mentalists, Al Koran recommended dressing “just one step” above your audience, to always look somewhat polished yet not overly removed from them.

In both cases, the core idea they were trying to convey to their audience is that the performer is a normal-looking individual who does impossible things. That the impossible is everywhere around you if you look for it.

You might not agree or care for the message, but what I want you to realize is that there is a message in the way those performers dressed.

Symbols

One thing that fashion magazines do not convey, but fashion designers are very aware of (and a big reason as to why fashion shows are so weird), is that clothes are symbols.

What you wear encodes information about you and the larger context. If someone wears a playing card-themed cravat, they are conveying their love for playing cards and, implicitly, magic (minus points if they do so during a magic show, a context in which this is likely superfluous information).

A mentalist wearing a suit is trying to project professionalism (trying, because some mentalists are painfully unaware of the dress code of the companies around them; I have been in places where a suit and cravat mean banking industry and would weird out tech company employees).
Harem pants and sandals encode an interest in New Age ideas and maybe psychic things (note that this is now indirect symbolism—we are working with subtext rather than writing “I like chakras” on our clothes).
A t-shirt with a fun cat illustration can communicate the fact that you do not take yourself overly seriously (also maybe the fact that you are a cat person, and young, which means likely open to less conservative topics such as LGBTQ+ ideas: note that we are again implying layers in your persona; also note that implications are fuzzy and might not be followed by all of your audience).

What Should I Wear?

What you wear tells your audience who you are, often in ways that are not entirely verbalized in the audience’s consciousness—mentalism at its finest.

More bland and classic choices communicate that you are a very commercial, bland, and classic entertainer. Someone no one actively dislikes, and no one ever got fired for hiring. But also someone who has very little personal things to say.

But you can also choose pieces that communicate information you want to come through, as well as your preferred distance from your audience: Are you rich? Are you wholesome? Weird and alternative? Old-fashioned? A fan of video games? If you were not a performer, would you be white-collar, blue-collar, rich unemployed, a retired spy, a teacher, or a farmer?

Obviously, do not state the obvious (!): your audience already knows that you are a mentalist or magician, so there is no need to have bunnies and ESP symbols all over you. Tell them something they don’t know or reinforce traits that might be more subtle.

I like to wear woolen items because I think of my persona as someone wholesome and cozy—not the mastermind reader, but someone who brings a somewhat rustic, warm, safe space with him. Julien Losa wears overalls because he is that fun friend who does weird things and does not take himself seriously. Both would probably be terrible choices for you.

Think about your persona; what you wear should flow from it. Who are you, and what does your dress say about you?