Fashion and Lifestyle Sense for Real Women with Real Bodies!
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Fashion and Lifestyle Sense for Real Women with Real Bodies! |
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10
Steps Guaranteed
Therefore, heed this advice: Commit the breakdown of business cultures in this book's Business Wear section to memory. Ignorance of the culture of the business you are applying to - Orthodox, Reform or Trendy - can get you excommunicated before you walk in. Remember that we're only talking about what you wear for the job interview. You have a lot more flexibility in what you wear after you get the job. Think of it this way. There's a lot of difference between what you wear on your first date with someone and your twenty-first. Now let's do a quick check from head to toe. 1. HAIR Keep it clean, medium length and a color found in nature. If God wanted you to have purple hair, he would have made you an eggplant. Also hair that is teased "high and wide" has negative class connotations. A Buzz Cut is open to too much interpretation. Unless, of course, it's a "Trendy" work atmosphere. In that case, it's a plus. Come to think of it, purple hair might also be a plus in this situation. The bottom line for the more traditional office is to keep your hair tasteful and conservative. Besides, the hair spray needed to maintain a highly teased style is murder on the ozone. 2. MAKE-UP Make-up should never be a mask. Use just enough foundation to even the skin tone. Lipstick, blush or eyeshadow should be of the palest shades. Tricks, like deep shading and highlighting, only call attention to themselves. Remember, they're hiring you, not your cheekbones. Don't use make-up to try to appear much younger than you are. The first thing the interviewer will do is look at the date of birth on your application. 3.
BLAZERS 4. BLOUSES/TOPS Blouses are a blazer's best friend. The best colors for blouses at an interview are white, off-white or the palest of pastels. The best fabric is cotton or silk. The best neckline for an interview is an open neck blouse (not too open) with a simple collar. It looks professional and comfortable which is what you are. No turtlenecks, unless you're applying to work at a coffeehouse. No plunging necklines unless you're selling something other than your skills. Try to also stay away from very high necklines and lace collars. You'll come off like a "school marm" who's rigid and no fun to work with.
To be
on the safe side, keep skirts to no more than two inches above the knee.
A tailored dress with the right scarf can work wonders. Like skirts, dresses should rarely be too long and never too short or tight. Keep the colors muted and the patterns small.
Outside of the fashion world, the ability to accessorize is not considered a job skill. Jewelry should be barely noticeable. Keep the "big rocks" at home. Limit earrings to one per earlobe (video store applicants excluded). Make your hose flesh-tone (whatever color that means to you), snag free and sheer. And carry a tasteful bag, not too big or too little. Try to make it look expensive in material and design. Like your hair, keep your shoes slightly conservative. Unless, you're auditioning for a national tour of Les Miserables, there's no need to call attention to your feet. Shoes with heels too high, in bright colors or that are in bad repair say more about your management skills than you think.
Unless you live in the tropics, your best bet is to buy your interview outfit in year-round fabrics. Hopefully, you won't be looking for a job all year but if you're going to spend a lot of money for something, it's best if you can get your money's worth. A good, fine, wool gabardine works most of the year except on the hottest of days. Silk can also work year round but works better with blouses and lined jackets. Skirts and pants in heavy silk are good in all seasons but tend to be dressier than you might want to apear at an interview. Cotton is a little casual for the corporate workplace, and linen wrinkles horribly. 9. COLORS Entire industries have been built around color and its effects on how people perceive things. Dark colors confer an image of power. Pale colors make you people friendly and reds are overpowering.
A good physical impression depends on more than just posture. Make sure everything you wear fits correctly. And don't even think about going for an interview with hanging seams or missing buttons. Elmer's glue applied sparingly is a quick temporary fix. If you don't know how to use the business end of a good bar of soap, box of detergent or curling iron, learn fast.
Even if your dress is perfect, your hair is perfect and your shoes gleam, chances are you will remain unemployed if you go to an interview with the wrong attitude. Just be poised and confident. Even when a very young Charlie Chaplin was rummaging through garbage cans for food, he believed himself to be the greatest actor in the world. Charlie Chaplin had an attitude that became a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yours can too. ****** Janet Behmer and Shirley Pierce are the authors of the book that's changing the way women think about clothes and themselves -- Dress Me Now: How to Make Your Wardrobe Behave. http://www.dressmenow.comCopyright (c) 2006 DressMeNow.com. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be copied, published, broadcast, or otherwise distributed or reproduced without the prior written permission of DressMeNow.com. Click here for a free preview of Dress Me Now - How to Make Your Wardrobe Behave! |
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