So, you’re going on a date. An actual, physical date. First things first: congratulations. The hard part – finding a match, charming them with your witty emoji-based banter, then successfully shifting things offline – is over. Don’t get too excited, though, because you’re not out of the woods just yet. First impressions are not made in the chat window of Tinder but in real life, and sooner or later you’re going to have to step out from behind that carefully crafted internet persona and introduce them to your true self.

Notice here that we said your true self, not your whole self. A first date is not the time to come clean about your less-than-endearing habits, your intellectual or athletic shortcomings or your love of cosplay. (Or, indeed, Coldplay.) Rather, the goal is to reveal a brief, enticing glimpse of the person you are and the partner you might become. To do so, you’ll want to portray yourself in the best possible light, accentuating your positive traits while shrouding everything else in a veil of mystique.

This is harder said than done in the world of first dates, where pretty much everything you do or say will be scrutinised for some early indication of the type of person you are, and where even textbook plays don’t guarantee success. Let’s face it: there’s no such thing as a magic formula for guaranteeing compatibility with somebody, and nor should you want there to be. The uncertainty of dating is part of its magic. We’ve all dated someone who offered promise on paper: good-looking, funny, smart, great job, but we just couldn’t get past their [ insert annoying habit here ]. It happens.

That’s not to suggest, however, that you shouldn’t do everything in your power to give yourself the best chance of making a good first impression, and one way to do this is through the way you choose to present yourself. Contrary to popular wisdom, it’s not at all superficial to form an initial impression about someone based on how they dress. Clothes, shoes, fragrance and watches are all potent forms of non-verbal communication with the power to express a great deal about the person wearing them: not just their interests and tastes, but their personality type, too. Dressing well is also a form of respect, sending a message to your date that you think they’re worth making an effort for.

How you dress for a first date is, of course, dependent on where you’ve chosen to go, which itself also says a lot about you. (Complicated, this dating business, isn’t it?) For that reason, we’ve designed five looks for five very different first-date scenarios.