No more corporate dressing for me!
That's it. There are no more suits in my wardrobe. I have to
confess that I haven't actually worn a suit in ahem, over six
years… ever since I got pregnant with Tal, my first. I got
extremely big very quickly and opted for a more comfortable variety
of clothes. After I had him, I found that I didn't actually need to
wear a power suit to be taken seriously. So I discovered that I
could still be effective while being able to dress in comfort and
express my individual style.
But I held on to the very expensive suits 'just in case'. The
little voice in my head kept telling me that the time would come
again when I'd need them to be taken seriously.
That time never came.
Finally, my husband pointed out that there was really no reason
for me to hold on to them anymore now that I'm in the 'online'
world, where - presumably - corporate dress doesn't matter. And
that got me thinking about how my choice of corporate dress has
reflected stages in my career
I am a self confessed lover of clothes. I do try to keep my
slight obsession at bay and, with two young and very messy
children, my investing in designer clothing might not always be the
wisest choice. But I still buy them! And I put them on for those
special occasions when I actually interact with people in person,
and then quickly slip back out of them before the chocolate
/play-dough /yoghurt covered hand reaches me.
So do I think corporate dressing is an important and worthwhile
topic to think and write about? ABSOLUTELY. People do make first
impression judgments that are very hard to break, and clothes play
a big part in those first impressions. .
As Sarah and I talked about this piece, she told me how she
still remembers me on my first day at work, with my very grey suit
and the little French Connection silk scarf around my neck. I
remember it too, 
and then as now, I really don't much
like scarves around my neck. But the difference is that when I
started out I thought that was how I OUGHT to dress as a young
professional, much like I felt I OUGHT to behave in certain ways
that might not have been who I actually was.
At the Boston Consulting Group at the time, there wasn't much
choice in the matter, so I kept wearing those power suits (and
scarves!),even though I didn't like them and didn't think they
suited me much. Once I left and started working on the merger that
created Fonterra, I opted out of suits and spent most of the time
in comfortable clothes due to that aforementioned pregnancy. But
once I'd had Tal, I re-thought the whole dress thing and decided I
could get away without suits and could express my own individuality
in the clothes I wore.
Was I working in such a different environment? Yes, partially.
But I also had more confidence to be who I was and to wear what I
liked. Very quickly, I realised that as long as I was comfortable
with who I was and with what I wore, no-one was going to make a big
deal of it. I must add that I don't think I ever wore inappropriate
clothes, but I would describe them as definitely more
'individual'.
In retrospect, the road from feeling comfortable to wearing
things I actually LIKED to work, to experimenting and strategising
with clothes depending on the situation I was in, was a very quick
(and perhaps slippery) one.
What do I mean by 'strategising' with clothes?
Say I was about to have a difficult meeting which I knew would
inevitably involve a partial or full confrontation about a topic,
I'd put my 'especially purchased for the situation' very red and
very high heeled ankle length boots. I'm relatively tall, and with
these boots on I probably topped 180cm. I'd only ever wear these
boots under pants so that they barely showed, but being that tall
and with red boots always gave me the extra courage I needed to
have the 'face off'. It got to a stage where my closer work mates
would comment, "See you've got those boots on again, having a
difficult meeting today?"
I even started wearing pink to work! I never ever used to wear
pink, not through my adolescence, uni or nor early work years. I
felt that as a young, assertive, and opinionated woman it was an
incredibly inappropriate colour to wear. But having facilitated a
fair few intense workshops with mainly dark-suited men, I decided
I'd experiment with colour and it might as well be pink. So I wore
pink. No one commented and if nothing else, at least it made me
stand out of the crowd as the facilitator! Again, it made me feel I
was being truer to who I was and that I wasn't trying to pretend I
was something I'm not. And maybe, I was making my own statement
about not being afraid to stand out of the crowd.
Looking around, I see many senior women who seem to follow that
path… women who choose to express their individuality in their
clothes even if their attire doesn't fit the 'what you'd expect'
style of dress. I do, however, think that it is that much easier to
dress in a way that expresses individuality when you are a taller -
and I must add 'experienced' (OK, you can think older) - looking
woman. As I said before, first impressions count. If you're in a
man's world, and you're slender and young looking, you might not be
taken seriously if you don't dress the part.
Those are my musings on corporate fashion now I'm not in the
corporate world any more. I'm sure you have your own views on this,
and I'd love to hear them!
© Professionelle Ltd 2007