Best dressed 2012: Charlie Pickering

COMEDIAN Charlie Pickering heads WISH magazine's Best Dressed 2012 list.

WHEN Charlie Pickering arrived on set for this fashion shoot he was greeted by photographer Max Doyle's West Highland terrier and it was like two old friends meeting after a long absence.

You can tell a lot about someone by how they react to a strange dog and when Pickering told us he has a Westie of his own, as well as a Scottish terrier, we knew the shoot would go well and he'd like the clothes our fashion director Ken Thompson had chosen for him.

We decided to dress Pickering, who hosts Network Ten's The Project, in Burberry's 2012 Autumn/Winter collection, which was like an ode to classic English tailoring. Burberry's chief designer Christophe Bailey has always had a certain Brit sensibility in his collections for Burberry but this season's men's collection was all about tweeds and hound's-tooths and other very British fabrics cut into sharply tailored suits, which, of course, were topped with trench coats. Bailey even sent models down the catwalk sporting umbrellas for that extra touch of English elegance (for more on Burberry's new men's tailoring service see our story on page 18). Somehow a Westie, its presence unintended on this shoot, seemed the perfect accessory to go with this particular Burberry collection and for Pickering.

A Melbourne native, Pickering graduated in law at Monash University but soon gave up a legal career for one in comedy; he made his first appearance at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2002. Since then he was worked widely on Australian radio and television, including as a regular as Generation X team captain on Ten's Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation and as the creator of Foxtel's The Mansion, while maintaining a successful stand-up comedy career and publishing his first book, Impractical Jokes, in 2010. Since becoming one of the hosts of The Project, Ten's week-night infotainment (for want of a better word) program, he has shown something of his serious side. The show, which Pickering co-hosts with Dave Hughes and Carrie Bickmore, presents a refreshing take on the day's events and manages to be serious without being earnest and entertaining without being silly and satirical. It's the perfect fit for Pickering.

When it comes to what he wears on television each night, Pickering knows what he wants and says his personal style is his and not that of the network's wardrobe department. "I decide what I'm going to wear on the show," he says. "I have a great wardrobe team at Ten to help find it all but I do get to make the call on whether it's something that goes into my wardrobe or not." As he goes through the racks of clothes we've assembled for him, it's obvious Pickering knows a thing or two about fashion, not just what he likes but what will look good on him. And he's decided what looks good on him is a classic suit and tie.

"In the early days, I had a bit more creative room and I would occasionally wear a vest instead of a jacket and maybe work in some patterns or checks, and I was a bit more adventurous with my choices, but over time it sort of settled on a suit," he says. "So now it's just down to choosing the right suits and the right ties."

Wearing a suit and tie to work is an easy option for a man for no other reason than you don't have to think too hard about what you're going to wear. But for Pickering it's paramount that he looks like he belongs in his suit. "The one thing I don't want is to look like is[some] newsreaders or, you know, sports presenters, who look like the only time they wear a suit is when they tell you who won the match on the weekend. That's what I never want to look like in my suits."

Plus, it's all about the appropriate style of dress for the occasion. When it comes to his stand-up comedy performances, Pickering is likely to be in jeans and a T-shirt, which is, after all, virtually the uniform for stand-up comedians. But for social outings, he says he's started to lean towards the suit-and-tie option (well, when you're on to a good thing). "If I'm going out I do like to make the effort because, I don't know, I think why not? If you're going to bother going out somewhere nice for dinner you may as well dress up for it.

"Why have jackets and ties in your cupboard if you're only going to wear them for work?" Pickering continues. "It doesn't really make sense to me. I think you should wear them because they're nice to wear and wear them when you're just going out, rather than feel that you have to wear them because your boss expects you to wear a suit and tie at work."