Fabafterfifty Article

The clothes you decide to wear will tell everyone all about you

With that in mind, try thinking of your wardrobe as a language and each item in that wardrobe as a word.  What message are you giving out when you put your clothes on?  Are you telling the world what you want them to know, or are you giving out a different message entirely?  You see no-one puts anything on by accident, so the clothes you decide to wear will tell everyone all about you.

Wear styles that suit you and enhance your skin tone

As you can imagine, there are many things about image that we cover on our courses but let’s look briefly at a couple of things.  If you need to be perceived as someone with influence, whose opinion is worth listening to, then obviously your clothes need to be appropriate.  But don’t make the mistake of thinking that you need to wear a uniform or a suit and certainly don’t feel that you have to do any “power” dressing.  It’s far more subtle than that.  It’s learning how to bring out your best features by wearing styles that suit you and enhancing your skin tone by wearing colours that are right for you.

How military uniform equates to what we wear today

In thinking about this, the analogy of the military is quite helpful.  As you know, the higher the rank, the more decorated the uniform.  If we look in more detail, one of the highest ranks is a general and he will always wear a hat.  This equates to our hair and our ear-rings.  He will always be clean, neat and tidy.  We should be too and this includes our make-up.  His medals are equivalent to us wearing a brooch or a notched lapel.  His tie is our necklace or scarf.  (Indeed, in medieval times, this would be our jugular protection as we went off to joust)!  His body armour is our jacket.  This can also be thought of as our protection and therefore our comfort.  The rank on his sleeve is our watch and bracelets.  His sword or rifle is our belt.  His shield is our bag.  The stripe on his trousers is a well pressed crease in ours.  His shoes are always polished and looked after.  Ours should be the same, noting that heels can give a sense of power.

The more of these tools we make use of, the more authority we exude

Whilst the right clothes and accessories will give a positive impression about us, be aware that the wrong clothes can so easily give the wrong impression.  Indeed, there are some very basic things that break the rules such as visible tattoos, multiple body piercings, ankle chains, huge over-stuffed hand-bags, too much make-up or not enough make-up.  You need to think very carefully too about the scent that you wear.  Imagine you are meeting a very important client but unfortunately you are wearing the perfume his x-wife wore (the x-wife who has just cleaned him out in a divorce)!  Obviously, you are at an immediate disadvantage.  Or in a different scenario, someone might be spending all their time trying to remember the brand of perfume you are wearing, instead of listening to you.

First Impressions have a habit of lasting a lifetime

Please never kid yourself that clothes don’t speak because they speak volumes!
Taken from a presentation by Pauline Harwood from House of Colour For further information and details of how you can change the way you look, contact Pauline:Email: pauline.harwood@houseofcolour.co.uk Article edited by Deborah Smyth from Talking Words www.talkingwords.co.uk