How to Dress for
Women Entrepreneurs
By Patti Wood Body
Language Expert, MA, CSP
If you want to insure that your “brand” is current. Here are the fall fashion trends.
1. A little black leather or leather look jacket or top. My
highest recommendation is that you always wear clothes that are on trend. You
want your company brand to be current not fuddy duddy or dowdy. The Little
Black Jacket: this season the little black jacket is being hailed as, "The
answer to every fashion question." The little black jacket can dress you
up and make you look youthful if you pair it with a little dress or slender
black pants and a high quality little white shirt! Make sure it fits. Leather
is hot you just keep the design simple and tailored.
2. Pants: Ankles are this season's bare-skin. Store any pants that don’t match
this seasons. Pick up a magazine. Skinny pants, lots of ankle, gauchos that look
good on only a few women.
3. Skirts: Classic cuts, short, but not too short. If it is age appropriate you
can try a fitted skirt with a small flounce. They are very in. Make sure you
pair it with a fitted top.
4. Tops: While jackets and blazers that don’t look dowdy are sometimes hard to
find they can give you a crisp pulled together look. You can wear a short
jacket with the new style of long blouse if you wear it with narrow pants. You
can also wear a jacket with a shorter fitted skirt.
5. Dresses: Still very on trend. Some of the new dresses have a skirt that
swishes slightly rather than pencil thin all the way down.
6. Colors: black, bluish or brownish red, sage to sage tinges gray, pink (not
fuchsia not pale), teal, and orchid purple are the front-runner colors of this
season's pallet. Black and white block patterns on fabric, are popular.
7. Legs with attitude. Hose with pattern. Subtle not fishnets!
8. Bow with a blouse. They are narrow and you don’t actually tie
the bow, it is more to create a color contrast and act like a necklace.
9. Victorian blouses lace and leather details are hot. But just
use one in an outfit.
10. Rhinestone statement broaches are in again. But in different
shapes, stars, bows and flour de lease. If you wear a broach just make sure the
rest of your outfit is hip. So you may want to wear the latest narrow pants
with the ankle showing, or a shorter skirt.
When it
comes to work clothes, we are in a new era — the era of Mark Zuckerberg's
hoody, and Mary Barra's "jeans allowed" policy. Where 20 years ago,
dark power suits with sculpted shoulders emanated prosperity and productivity,
now people seem to think henleys do the trick.
Even in
corporate environments that have not adopted the casual, start-up ethos,
business casual is the new business formal; weekend wear is the new business
casual; and pajamas are legitimate uniforms for the growing ranks of
telecommuters and freelancers who work from the privacy of their bedrooms.
Suits are gross.
Given
the changing fads, you may not want to start showing up at work in a
three-piece suit and a tight half-Windsor, especially if you work at a
flip-flop office. But there's some evidence that for most of us, a return to
slightly more formal work attire may be a good thing. Even if you work at home.
Clothes
can make you smarter
The new
phrase is “enclothed cognition" — an offshoot of "embodied
cognition," the idea that aspects of your thoughts are shaped by your body
— entered the b-school vocabulary. The term came from Adam D. Galinsky, a
professor at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, who found that when
people don a white lab coat they believe belongs to a doctor, they become more
focused and careful — effectively a little smarter when performing cognitive
tasks.
For the
study, Galinsky assigned 58 under grads to either wear a white, doctor's lab
coat, or simply the street clothes already on their backs. He then used
incongruent trials that tested their focus and mental acuity. He found that
those who wore the lab coat made about half as many errors as those who wore
street clothes.
In his next test, he assigned 74 students three sartorial
options. Some would wear a white coat, and were told it was a doctor's coat.
Others wore an identical coat, but were told it was a painter's coat. And a
third group merely looked at a white "doctor's" coat. The subject
then took an attention test where they were asked to point out differences between
two images and speedily write them down. Those who wore the
"doctor's" coat performed significantly better than the other two
groups.
Though
the results were white, doctor's coat-specific, Galinsky's work implies that
merely wearing an item associated with intelligence can improve your cognitive
abilities. "Clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a
different psychological state," said the New York Times about Galinky's
findings.
It is
up to you whether you want your PJs invading your mind while you work, or
something a little more smart and attractive.
Clothes
can also make others think you're smarter
Of course, we're not implying you should show up at the office tomorrow in a
white coat with a name tag that says "doctor, not artist." But it's
worth thinking about what symbolizes smart and effective in your own office.
Tracy
Morris, a professor of psychology at West Virginia University, for years
studied how attire impacts perception. For one test, Morris asked a group of
professors to dress in three types of garb — formal professional (full dark
suits), business casual (slacks or skirts and nice shirts), or casual (jeans, a
plaid flannel, sneakers). I should mention here that she conducted her study in
the mid-90s.
The
professors then gave lectures. Controlling for content, as well as non-verbal
behavior like eye contact and smiling, she then asked students to rate
professors on several attributes involving competence, character, sociability,
composure, and extroversion.
What she found:
Perceptions of professional attributes, like competence, composure, and
knowledge, "are effected most by dress, with formal dress resulting in the
most positive perception." Perceptions of instructor competence were
highest in the formal condition, with business casual a close second, and the
lowest ratings for the casual wear.
Of course, the study took place in the 90s, and the
definition of formal business attire in most industries has shifted toward the
more casual (though thankfully away from flannels). Nevertheless, it's worth
thinking about what is "formal" in your industry and dressing
accordingly.
It also
impacts how you see yourself on the job
This one is directed at those who are wearing jeans and sneakers in a mostly
slacks and oxfords office — meaning, those who tend to dress more casually than
others. Even if you're not violating a dress code, some evidence says dressing
"properly" has an impact on how you see your own skill set.
In a
1994 study, Yoon-Hee Kwon, from North Illinois University studied how clothing
impacts the way you rate yourself on ten occupational attributes:
Responsibility, competence, knowledgeability, professionalism, honesty,
reliability, intelligence, trustworthiness, willingness to work hard, and
efficiency. Cross-referencing these attributes against broad guidelines like
"properly dressed" or "not properly dressed," she found
that when wearing appropriate clothes, a person's sense of these occupational
traits were augmented.
Once again,
the idea is not to show up at work dressed for a gala, or even to wear anything
obtrusively businesslike if your office is casual. The idea is simply, if
you're dressing like a schlub for work, maybe step it up a notch.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at
www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at
www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at
http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS
