TL;DR: Fashion is extremely important. If your fashion sucks you better have top 20% genetics.

Body:

I guess we all know the saying: Clothes make the man.

For years I dressed like crap even though I have pretty good genetics. I was skinny, had a dead end job with no real career path and few girls had interest in me as I didn't project much.

Later on I moved to a large city in China where smart casual fashion started to become readily available and I started to expand my wardrobe and developed some fashion sense.

I immediately noticed that I got a lot more IOIs from women who probably presumed that I had a higher status than I actually did.

Congruence is key and if you don't have the money for an upscale looking car and don't live in a big city where everybody but the very top x percent takes cabs or subway dressing in a $1000 suit would come off as a bit weird, however it's easy to look great in smart casual at ever lower prices.

Just the other day I brought some great looking pieces at Zara which were on sale for $30 each for example, so even really broke people can afford to look top notch these days.

Some brand recommendations:

Zara: Pretty much every city got one. Great style, shoes tend to be rock bottom quality however and will be worn out in 6 months even if you're careful about not putting too much wear on them. Some stuff is a bit overpriced for the quality but nothing tends to look too cheap material wise.

H&M: Rock bottom prices, rock bottom quality, but you'll can mostly find some gems of decent quality for the money that don't look cheap like denim shirts etc.

Uniqlo: Branches in some major cities outside of Asia as well as an online shop. Smart casual japanese brand that offers very high quality for the money. Anything you buy will last you.

Asos.com Free shipping and free returns in lots of countries. The house brand is mostly H&M level quality but cheap enough for the most part.

Urban Outfitters: Only been there once but the selection is stylish and the quality seems high, although the prices are quite high for some items as well.

Esprit: Mid range pricing, good quality.

These shops can pretty much cover the smart casual basics. When you're in a major international city you're also bound to find higher priced boutique brands that either offer unique styles or higher quality items.

Splurge once in a while on those and you should have a great and unique wardrobe.

If you have a hard time finding good fitting off the rack clothing its usually not hard to find a reasonably priced place that does alterations anywhere.

I tend to hand wash in cold water with a detergent for delicates as this will make your clothes last much longer and retain a fresh looking color longer. Learn to iron clothes on youtube so it looks crisp and not all wrinkly.

I can't help you regarding suits, but someone else can probably chime in. The only thing I can tell you that polyester usually looks cheap to anyone, so don't bother with those $100 suits.

As suits are pretty much beta bucks territory these days in western countries and you'd have to look pretty dapper to impress a woman that is unaware of your status in a company even if you're a CEO.

Some inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W27PnUuXR_A

Lessons learned: Dress like shit and you're basically ignored unless you got top tier genetics. Dress well and people will treat you well and women will show much more interest.