What Is Appropriate Business Attire

What is appropriate business attire? That's sort of like asking, How long is a piece of string? It's not a one size fits all proposition. For depending on your line of work , your corporate culture, and your audience, it can mean different things to different people even within the same organisation. Tricky? You bet.

Figure it out and combine it with strong skills and the sky's the limit in your field. But fumble on the dress code even if you're technically competent and your climb will slow considerably, if not stall completely.

How you look will open (or close) the door to opportunity; what you know will keep you in the room.

Here are the three basic things you need to consider when figuring out what`s appropriate for you:

YOUR LINE OF WORK

* Traditional businesses like law, banking, finance, accounting, high-level corporate, etc., require traditional business attire: a conservative suit in dark colours with classic lines. The message: authoritative, conservative, and competent.

* People businesses like teaching, Real Estate, sales, medicine, social work, etc., call for clothes that both convey expertise but are non-threatening: two piece dressing, good quality, no jacket. The message: trustworthy, approachable, and knowledgeable.

* Artistic businesses like advertising, art, fashion, writing, entertainment, decorating, etc., call foror dare I say it?expect a more expressive mode of dress. Three piece dressing, with a tie, scarf, or jewellery being the third piece. The message: creative, unique, and contemporary.

YOUR CORPORATE CULTURE

The next thing you have to look at is your corporate culture.

While one company may have a very strict dress code, another company in the same field may be much more relaxed. If you adapt your wardrobe to fit in with your company, you'll succeed much faster (in terms of promotions and/or getting staff compliance) than if you simply resign yourself to the notion that everyone is either over- or underdressed, in your opinion, and you'll march to your own drum, regardless of what they do.

YOUR AUDIENCE

Who is your audience? The people who most influence your pay check: your clients, potential clients, management, colleagues, staff, students, etc. You're dressing to:

1. Be relatable to them. 2. Fit their perceived image of someone in your role.

If you intimidate your clients, embarrass your manager, or have people look you over from head to toe in disbelief, you probably haven't dressed for your audience. You also aren't going to get very far. You need to dress how they'll feel most comfortable doing business with you.

Imagine if you were selling a $300,000 harvester to a farmer in Timaru. What would you be wearing to make the sale? Jeans? A button down shirt? Work boots? Now imagine if you wear selling a $300,000 diamond necklace to a socialite in Wellington. What would be appropriate? A suit? Polished shoes? A manicure?

Try switching the sales people. How would the socialite respond to a jeweller in jeans and work boots? She'd probably think him a crook and the necklace stolen.

What about the farmer and the suit? He'd assume the sales person had never done an honest day's work in her life and that she didn't know the first thing about harvesting.

Same dollar figure, similar commissions. Completely different audiences.

Okay, that's an extreme example, but it's told to drive the point home: to get what YOU want, you have to give people what THEY want. And what they want, at least initially, is someone they can relate to or someone who fits the perceived image of the role.

If you pass that test, then they'll go to the next level of learning more about you. If you don't, the ball stops there.

In a lot of ways, it's almost like dating: if someone catches your eye, you might want to know more about him/her; if not, you pass right over.

So the next time you're standing in your closet trying to figure out what to wear, think about with whom you're going to interact that day, and dress for your most important client. Diana Pemberton-Sikes is a wardrobe and image consultant