Dress For Power

Clothes are powerful things. Okay, perhaps not per se (although I did once have a fight with a pair of jeans shrunken in the wash) but powerful in making first impressions.

I guess this is especially true for the workplace. Without going all psychoanalytical on you - I'll leave that to the experts - most people would agree there is a clear correlation between body language and getting hired. A boss makes his decision ‘the second you walk through the door’ dependent on posture, how you walk, eye contact, your hand shake etc etc........ but surely some of this is also on what you are wearing, too? 

dangly earrings: THE reason to hire her
Image: studye

Clothes are an effective tool in helping you make the impression you want and maybe even landing you a job.

Over Easter I did an intern with a financial PR agency. Chatting to one of the guys who had just started there full-time, he told me how on the first day of he came in all ‘suited and booted’ as it were(cleache, but that's the phrase he used). You know - new tie, suit, cuff-links, polished shoes....He told me how he was way too over dressed and, after seeing that most people went for the ‘smart casual look’, quickly removed his tie and blazer in embarrassment. 

Image: Cartoonstock

However, this story got me thinking. What impression would he have made when he walked into the office dressed like this? Surely a positive one. Yes, he may have looked as if he was trying too hard. But so what? As a 21 year old graduate starting his new job, at least his clothes showed that he was looking to please and was taking the position seriously!

A rule of thumb? If in doubt = overdress. Don't wing it. Turn up in a crumpled shirt and an old pair of trousers and you run the risk of looking like Shaggy - not the best first impression you could make (and this is from someone who loved Scooby-doo). Turn up in a suit and the response? Well he means business.

For us ladies who don’t need to make the black and white decision of ‘suit or no suit’ overdressing is pretty hard to do. There is now so much overlap between formal and informal that you really can get the balance right! To go back to my intern, on the first day I wore a long black fitted skirt, vintage blouse and Topshop blazer. The dress code was ‘smart-casual’  - a notoriously difficult requirement to get right as I'm sure you'll agree! But because the blazer and skirt took care of the ‘smart’ bit, ‘casual’ meant I could wear my comfy black loafers – painful heel-driven blisters suck on that.

When the going gets tough, the  tough gets going heels come off
Image: modelinia 

Even without my patent black heels (which, btw, have found a comfier home beneath my desk than on my feet) I was still one of the smartest girls in the office. After three days of 'fashion observation' - there's only so much EXCEL spreadsheets one can manage - I released that I could probably take it down a notch. But am I glad that I dressed so smart day one? Most definitely. And I’m sure that that guy was too, when he started his job there.

 So I guess the point to make is that both inside and outside the workplace, clothes really are key for creating first impressions, feeling confident in yourself and perhaps even landing you a job.

Hey, who would have thought a clothes could be such powerful things!? 

Image: izquotes