水曜日, 8月 10, 2011

Dress For Success

Most of us learned through training or from reading self-help books that we need to dress smart to dress for success especially when the time calls for it - such as business meetings, encounters with high soaring executives.

I took the meaning quite literally - how to dress smart means to be in suit, to look serious and mature and that includes toning down the fabric shades. For a long time, it was mostly black and white in suits and smart casuals. Oh, and dressing smart is an overall package, meaning, that includes the hair and make-up. Busy IT professionals like us would rather spend as much time as we can in bed than face the mirror painting our faces and blowing out the hair to perfection.

But moving on from the IT world to the retail fashion world, I have learned a few new things. That dressing smart doesn't necessarily mean suits and bland shades. It means that you also have to put it in context - that's what smart is all about. I work for a casual brand and it would be OFF to wear something formal I have to wear the brand's passion. Today I have to make a presentation to the country's new managing director. It's about my updated 3-year strategy. I'm wearing a rugged jeans and a very simple limited edition fit tops from our brand. It's comfy and in ways I'm telling everybody that I intimately know the brand.

Makeup was a challenge but I took classes last year - first out of complex because my ex- would always complain that I'm never a girlie and that I don't wear make up. So I did learn a few tricks, and I can do it in 5!

The hair --ahh the hair. I'm trying to grow it long and because it's summer I found a practical solution. Got myself several fashionable clips so I can just gather it in one bundle (without even combing it) and then I'm good to go! And I stand by myself - to blow dry only in the colder season lol!

I didn't wake up realizing all these flexibilities. These are wisdom gained from previous experiences - failures, successes and those that will be in my WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN list.
As for my presentation later today, I know what I'm going to say. I believe in my strategy and I'll have fun as I learn new ways and means to talk the language of those high ranking execs.

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