Down with casual dress! Up with fancy dress!

The grumpy foraging for jazzy socks and work-appropriate chinos, often left in a wine-splattered ball since last Friday, marks the beginning of the run-in to the weekend.

There is a lot to be said about dressing down at work on a Friday at otherwise suited and booted city firms. It helps to create a convivial atmosphere in the office. What's more, comfortable trousers - the jegging a notable example, better facilitate the consumption of doughnuts.

But there is so much further that we can go with it.

We could be dressing up! Not down!

This could be a valuable opportunity to express what we are really like, not the chino-clad image of what we think we should be like.

But what type of fancy dresser are you and what does this choice say about you?

The aspirational superhero
Fake muscles aplenty.  You are ambitious. You know the superhero that you could be, if only you had the time. You stand for courage, leadership and for the greater good. Your heart is most definitely in the right place.  Your ego is perfectly formed, even in the absence of any great musculature.

Alas, your fears of living up to your own ideal can make you prone to bouts of self-doubt, "am I the superhuman leader that I am portraying myself to be, or am I one big polyester fake?"

The idealist
You choose a noted character that you resemble in some way - physically or ideologically; Churchill, Austin Powers or the 118 118 man. You align yourself to their beliefs and you are well-researched to 'live' your character. You take your role as ambassador for this ideal seriously. 

Your loyalty knows no bounds, but your natural inclination to follow perhaps betrays a lack of self-confidence, "people would never see me as a Buzz Lightyear kind of person, but I do have a similar moustache to Biggles."

The Comedian
You dress as a banana, or an egg, or a TellyTubby.  Your role is to improve the day of others around you, irrespective of your own personal discomfort. A smile is easily worth a bucket of sweat to you.

But why do you do it?  Like many comedians, you may conceal the sadness of the real you behind a physical or metaphorical mask and be prone to bouts of self-loathing, "how stupid do I look? I'm dressed as a giant breast and therefore can't work, or eat."

The Promoter
You choose a costume which promotes an area of your physique which has driven results for you in the past - sexy firewoman, morphsuit, mankini. You recognise the impact that your body has on others and you enjoy the attention.

Like many exhibitionists, you occasionally worry about trading on this asset, and hate yourself for it, but not too much. As Kelly Brook very sensibly said in today's edition of The Times, "If people are interested in my body, then OK, that's it. I'm not going to fight against it..."

The Don't Dress Up-er
Lack of commitment to your work. This is your shop window, and you didn't want to dress it. That, or you don't have a sense of humour. Or you don't fancy revealing the character trait behind your character selection, thus inadvertently revealing a different trait in the process. We are getting into modern game theory here.

Scrap the whole stupid idea. Especially since, for women, there is really only one option according to the online fancy dress outlets, and that is to dress as a stripper (albeit a stripper dressed as a firewoman, nurse, schoolgirl, superhero...) Even the fried egg is sold with stockings. This may suit many of Promoter inclination and/or fine physical form, but without offering the opportunity to distinguish you from other fancy dressers, it is no better than a chino.