"Dress for the job you want" is good advice delivered badly. It usually gets read as "dress more expensively" or "dress more formally." Neither is quite it. The real question is narrower: what does someone at the next level need people to believe about them in the first three seconds, and does your wardrobe currently say that?
Start with the room, not the closet
Before touching a single hanger, get specific about where you're actually headed: board meetings instead of team standups, client pitches instead of internal reviews, stages instead of desks. Every one of those rooms has an unspoken visual baseline. You don't have to match it exactly, but you do have to know what it is before you can decide how close to play it.
Upgrade the signal, not just the price tag
A more expensive version of the same outfit sends the same message, just louder. What actually reads as "next level" is usually fit, care, and consistency: a blazer that's tailored instead of just bought, a smaller and more deliberate rotation instead of a closet full of almost-right options.
Keep one foot in "still you"
The goal isn't a costume. If the wardrobe update makes you feel like you're performing someone else, it won't hold up under real pressure: a big meeting, a photo you didn't expect, a day you're tired. The most effective upgrades take the parts of your existing style that already work and simply raise the level of intention around them.
A simple gut check
Picture the exact meeting you most want to walk into with total confidence. If you already know what you'd wear, and it doesn't currently hang in your closet, that's the gap to close first. Everything else can wait.