Point taken, but I'm now thinking of the smartest people I've ever met in my life, in the C-suite at a fast-growing tech company, who I had the pleasure of speaking to the other day.

Most were casually dressed in very nondescript clothes - not the tasteful rollneck sweater and expensive jeans, but Marks & Spencer basic grey hoodies and unremarkable trainers.

A couple were wearing their own authentic brand of weird, but it wasn't showy weird or fussy weird, more 'I was in a rock band in the 90s' weird.

See, they're not trying to signal their status in their clothing, but to tell you what they're passionate about, or what makes them feel comfortable.

They're not competing against anyone, because they don't have to. It's pure differentiation: there's nobody like them anywhere in the world, and it's not something they have to flex about, but just something they know. Quiet confidence.

They smile a lot and speak in soft voices. Their status is attained because when they tell you something, you keep turning it over and over in your mind because it alters the way you think about absolutely everything.

Then again, I guess the sort of people who are too easily impressed by suits would not be impressed by them at all, and that's fine. There's plenty of space for everyone.