What to wear when you're 15 and have no money

There's a lot of pressure at your age to own specific brands, and it's mostly nonsense sold to you by people who profit from it. A £180 pair of trainers doesn't make anybody think more of you for longer than about a week.

What actually works is short, and almost all of it's free.

Be clean. That's most of it.

Genuinely. Showered, clean clothes, hair washed, teeth brushed properly, deodorant on before school — not sprayed over yesterday.

An enormous number of lads your age skip some of that, and everyone notices and nobody says anything. Doing it puts you ahead of most of the room and it costs nothing at all.

Make things fit

This is the one that changes how you look, not what you spend.

• A t-shirt should end around your fly and the sleeve should sit mid-bicep. Not hanging to your thighs.
• Trousers should sit on your hips without a belt doing all the work.
• If clothes are hand-me-downs or from an older brother, ask whoever does the sewing in your house to take them in. It takes twenty minutes and transforms them.

Plain clothes that fit look far better than branded ones that don't, and everybody can tell the difference even if they can't say why.

A short list

• Two pairs of jeans or chinos in a dark or neutral colour
• Three or four plain t-shirts
• A hoodie in one plain colour
• One shirt, for when it matters
• A jacket that isn't your school coat
• Clean trainers — clean is more important than which ones
• One pair of smarter shoes

That's a wardrobe. It isn't expensive and it works for everything you actually do.

Keeping trainers clean

Since this is the thing people look at: a toothbrush, warm water and a little washing-up liquid, five minutes once a week. Stuff them with paper to dry, never on a radiator.

Clean cheap trainers beat filthy expensive ones every single time.

On brands

If you genuinely like something and you saved for it, wear it and enjoy it. That's completely different from buying something because you're worried about what people will say.

The second one never ends, because there's always a newer thing, and the people you're trying to impress by it aren't the ones worth impressing.

The part that actually matters

Being decent to people will do more for how you're seen than any item of clothing ever will. Clothes get you three seconds. What you're like gets you everything after that.

Sort the three seconds cheaply, then go and be someone worth knowing.