It’s no secret that what you wear influences the way you feel and the way that others perceive you. Previously, power dressing meant trying to emulate a male wardrobe, but it doesn’t mean that any longer.
“Every woman in power today has grown up seeing clothing as a powerful force in popular culture,” says the fashion historian Bronwyn Cosgrave. “The savvy ones know how to utilize their image to send out strong messages.”
In your career, you’re mainly dressing to convey a message to your bosses and colleagues. This is the point of power dressing, as well as making you feel good, clothes are supposed to convey competence, ambition, and reliability.
The mind-set is simple and direct: You visually represent your business, and what you wear can say as much about you as your LinkedIn profile. – The New Rules of Workwear WSJ Asia
“What you have on is your business card,” the managing partner of Q Social Media Ltd., told The Wall Street Journal. In this way, you need to choose carefully what you’re putting on. Wearing minimalistic dresses and separates with signature jewelry is reliable and easy to achieve, as well as being comfortable and making you feel confident.
Not only do you need to dress the part in the office no matter what, you should also focus on how you dress if you’re starting your own business or freelancing. You never know what opportunities will present themselves based on the way you’re dressing.
At the Women in the World summit last October, British Prime Minister Theresa May said: “I’m a woman, I like clothes. One of the challenges for women in politics, in business, in all areas of working life, is to be ourselves, and to say you can be clever and like clothes.”
She told the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs that if she were cast away, her “luxury item” would be a lifetime subscription to Vogue.
With Hillary Clinton in the presidential runnings and Michelle Obama’s style stakes being just as important as her policies, it’s obvious that nowadays being fashionable can also go hand-in-hand with setting policies, being intelligent and being in charge. Women are allowed to use clothes to express their personas, convey a message and only let what they wear define them by their own terms.
“Women no longer have to look tough because we are tough.” – Giorgio Armani