How Important Is The Way You Present Yourself?

‘Dress for success’ may have been coined in the ’70s, but today, image is still everything and cultivating a personal brand is the norm. So, what are the new rules for looking the part, professionally?

- Abigail McDougall

The way we dress, be it in our social lives or at work, has always mattered. Whether we choose to conform to trends or to explore our individual styles and stand out, what we wear is considered a signifier for who we are and often – since we spend a big chunk of our lives at work – the job we do.

Although professional dress codes have loosened up slightly in recent years, especially in the creative industries, there are certain preconceived ideas of what it means to look professional that still hold strong. Anecdotes confirming this pop up everywhere: a young man working in an accounting firm was once disciplined for not wearing socks with brogues (true story); a woman who held a top position in a wellknown media company was shocked to learn that the dress code would be included in her annual review; a young lawyer doing her articles was called in by a senior partner at their small firm and told that she had to wear make-up.

In an article for Entrepreneur.com, entrepreneur and executive coach Jeff Giesea writes: ‘The difference between today’s workplace and the “dress for success” era is that the range of options is so much broader. Norms have evolved and [become fragmented]. In some settings, red sneakers or dress T-shirts can convey status; in others, not so much. The professional image for a 50-something executive working at a manufacturing company may be completely different [to that expected of] a young CEO at an ad agency. Plus, whatever image we present is magnified by social media services such as LinkedIn. Millennials, it seems, face the paradox of being the least formal generation yet the most conscious of style and personal branding. It can be confusing.’