Is ironing essential to look polished?

Yes. People are saying if you don’t you are lazy, or look dirty, or don’t inspire confidence in your competence.

I said I don’t look rumpled. You agree. Good.
I stop listening when anyone uses ‘lazy’ as a judgement of perfectly normal behaviour.

It may not look ironed, but how on earth can it look rumpled? That would need it to be rolled up in a ball on the line.
I still maintain that after being under a coat and a seatbelt for 10 mins you can’t tell.
Plus I don’t really care if you can. I’ve never noticed, or cared, whether anyone has ironed something. I’m more interested in who they are and wha5 they say and do than what they wear.

So you agree clothes that aren’t ironed aren’t rumpled then? Because that’s the accusation I responded to…
You also said they look dirty, which is just odd.

Many of the people on Instagram will be wearing brand new clothes when posing for pictures. That white crisp shirt will be brand new, it won’t have been washed, tumble dried and ironed 20 times.

You absolutely can tell and it does matter imo. Obviously not for all clothes (I don’t iron the DC pyjamas or jogging bottoms!) but for anything I might wear which is ‘smart-ish’ trajectory or the DC’s uniform, absolutely ironing makes them look better

You're missing the point, the ironer is ironing because they prefer to wear ironed clothes and think they look better in them

.Is anyone saying they think it makes yhem a better person?

Thank you, I am in work atm but redundancy is looming and I am intermittently stressing about it as it's going to cause a lot of difficulties unless I can find a unicorn of a job.

I'll keep them in mind for the future though, you never know - though I'll still look scruffy, I think my very presence induces scruffiness in smart clothes! From watching others, a lot seems to come down to hair. The most elegant, polished people I've seen all have tidy hair and I don't have the faintest idea how they achieve it.

Respect for other says you need to waste time and money doing something with no purpose other than virtue signalling?

I’m going to miss ironing school shirts.

I loathe ironing, but I love clothes and they always look better pressed.

Who doesn’t live the smell of ironing fresh from the line clothes.

You're right. Can always tell.

This may not be relevant for you, @EilonwyWithRedGoldHair - but it might be helpful for anyone struggling to afford new clothes and shoes for interviews:

https://www.smartworks.org.uk/

I'm screwed then as I need a new job.

Not that ironing would particularly help me look smart, I can't do polished looking at all. My hair won't behave and my skin won't cooperate with make up. I do clean my shoes but they're really old so look a bit scruffy anyway. I am generally clean though!

I think you do need to iron. I iron and wouldn’t wear anything that wasn’t, and I can tell when people haven’t ironed it’s really obvious a lot of the time

Yes but straight off the line isn't crisp and polished looking either.
It might not be a rumpled mess but 'straight off the line, too lazy to iron' is not the look the op is going for.

I line dry my clothes but I must have the wrong kind of wind as there's no way a T shirt could ever look ironed or unrumpled when it comes in off the line

the range of "what doesn't need ironing" is variable. Even those polyester "no iron" shirts look much better when ironed.

I think, as with all our youngsters when meeting our customers, it's a matter of respect. If they turn up looking as though they just rolled out of bed, we're not getting the business. and for a lot of people looking as if you just rolled out of bed also has a wide variance.

@Bjorkdidit My DS moved out a few months ago. He visited yesterday and I instantly noticed that his shirt was not ironed. He used to iron his shirts when he lived here but seems to have got lazy with it since he moved into his own place - even though I gave him an iron and ironing board!
He does wfh so he can get away with it most of the time but I disagree that you wouldn't notice!

Yes.

I am absolutely obsessed with ironing school clothes. For a start 'non-iron- shirts' are a nonsense. They always need a press of some sort.

Ds1 has a range of SEN and is bullied alot. I can't necessarily control that, but i can control that he is always clean, washed, smells good and has a neat appearance.

I completely agree with you. A friend once tried to tell me I didn't need to waste my time ironing school uniform because she doesn't and her boys look fine - no they don't, they look a crumpled mess and I can tell those shirts have never seen an iron! (I didn't say that out loud as that would be very rude). Un-ironed uniform might be okay by her standards but it's not by mine.
It's not a time thing either, I work full time and she's a sahm with school aged children. It takes about an hour a week to iron everything that needs doing.

It's just much nicer to have ironed clothes. I find it helps them last longer too and keep their shape.

I always iron everything and still don't notice on anyone else if they do or not. I have no idea how different all our clothes look or not. I iron because I far prefer how clothes fit neatly in drawers all ironed than how they look once worn.

Yes I think you can tell if someone has intoned but a crease down the sleeve is not great. I always use a sleeve board IF I iron.

I detest ironing however I still do it. I can't bear clothes not ironed. I even iron my husbands work clothes and my sheets. a bed looks so much better when the sheets are ironed. I only go into the office once a week so need to look smart then. but even my wfh clothes are ironed. it's the difference to looking presentable and tidy and ut actually takes little time and costs little. my boss is a male and does all the ironing in his house. I don't wear much synthetic fibres like polyester or viscose as it doesn't agree with me.

Maybe there’s a ‘crease erase’ filter on Instagram and in real life they all look like a ‘bag o washing’’