Do you want to impress your clients, or influence and stand out among team mates? If YES, here’s how to dress for success as a woman in business and at work.
Working women face a lot of challenges as they work their way to the top in the workplace and knowing how to dress is certainly one of those challenges. As a woman, you want to dress in a way that flatters your body, but at the same time, you want to avoid being trashy or dressing in a way that draws negative attention to yourself.
If you are an employee, it helps to find out if there are any dress codes at your place of work, and then invest in work clothes to suit that dress code. Below are some helpful tips to help you dress for success as a working woman or business woman.
How to Dress for Success as a Woman in Business or at Work
1. Invest in Some Quality Suits: You can never go wrong with suits especially skirt suits because they can fit into almost any corporate environment. You want to stock up on some dark-colored skirt suits with skirts that are neither too tight nor too short. If you are more comfortable wearing pants, a pant suit is equally good.
2. Avoid Revealing Dresses: Clothes that reveal your cleavage or hang too tightly to your bottom, are not great choices for the workplace. You can leave those ones for your social outings. Choose dresses that are not too tight or clingy but fit your body frame perfectly. You can wear clothes that accentuate your great body feature but if you want people to respect you and you want to avoid sending the wrong message, it is important to stay covered up.
3. Wear Moderate Jewelry: Jewelries are very nice accessories but loud, ‘blingy’ and long jewelries are not appropriate for the work space. A simple earring with a moderate neckpiece, and a medium-sized wristwatch are best suited to the work environment.
4. Invest in Very Good Underwear
You must understand that your underwear contributes significantly to your overall look. Buy bras with good support, and make sure you wear the appropriate type of bra for any dress you choose to wear. Wearing the right type of panties for the dresses and skirts you wear is also important; you don’t want the outline of your panties to be visible through your dresses and if you are wearing a thin or light colored outfit, avoid wearing panties with loud colors that can be seen through the dress.
5. No See-through Wear: It is never a good idea to wear see-through outfits to work; just don’t do it.
6. Groom Yourself: Women should not only look good to work, you should also smell fresh, and feel like a million bucks. This helps to boost your confidence and subsequently, your performance. Make sure your hair is neatly made, your teeth are clean and your breath smells fresh, and any unwanted hair is shaved off. If you are using perfumes or body sprays, avoid those ones with strong odors that may be offensive to other people.
7. Avoid Overdoing Corporate Casual: Corporate casual is more like shirts on denims; it is not an excuse to wear yoga pants, beach hats or slippers to work. Corporate casual means that you can dress down but you still have to follow the simple rules guiding workplace dressing.
8. Wear Comfortable Shoes: Try to walk in those shoes before you wear them to work. If you can’t survive on those heels for a long time, then there is no point wearing them to work. Remember that you may have to move around a lot while you are at work so it helps to choose comfort over fashion.
9. Wear Colors That Flatter You: Find out which colors work for you and invest in such clothes. It also helps to avoid colors that are too loud or flashy.
10. Avoid Oversized Handbags: Handbags can say a lot about the person carrying them. Carrying oversized handbags makes you look unorganized hence you should avoid carrying them except when it is really necessary that you carry them. Small or medium-sized handbags are more suitable for work because they make you look professional.
11. Don’t Skip Manicure Sessions: If you love painting your nails, make sure you always get your nails repainted as soon as the paint starts to chirp off. It makes you look unclean when you walk around with half-painted nails.
12. Wear Light Makeup: There is nothing bad about wearing makeup to work; in fact, you should wear them. However, you must avoid loud or excessive makeup when going to work or business meetings.