Search Results: first impression

When I have a first date, it is usually a result of an online meeting through a dating site. We have each seen a few pictures of each other, exchanged a few DMs, and usually spoken on the phone once or twice (although I occasionally "meet" a woman who wants to proceed directly from DM to meeting for dinner.

She's looking at me, forming impressions, and by the end of that first date, she knows whether she wants there to be a second date. I'm doing the same thing, of course.

One of the things I look at is how she is dressed. A first date for me is almost always dinner at a very nice restaurant. I look at whether she is dressed appropriately for the place, and whether she has obviously put effort into making herself look as nice as possible. She doesn't need to be wearing the latest designer fashions to look nice and she doesn't need to have spent $100+ preparing for a date (new dress, new shoes, etc.); I just want to see that she made an effort because that tells me that she treated this occasion as important.

Do you form impressions based on how your date is dressed? How important is his or her appearance on a first date?