Creating A Super Brand Out Of Your Super Style!
By Wendy M.
Head Stylist, Smitten With Style
The start of the new year always brings about new resolutions. New diets and exercise regimes, new commitment to a carefully planned shopping budget (I fell off that wagon on 4 January), new vows not to date your loser ex (again), another resolution to stop swearing (again, 4 January for me) and so on. In fact, if I never see or hear the phrase “new year, new you” again, it won’t be too soon!
There is however one new year resolution that I do believe in, and that is building your “personal style brand”. This isn’t about your broad “personal brand” – again another phrase that I think is overused – but about building your fashion style so that it really reflects who you are and how you want the world to see you.
What do I mean by that?
A personal brand is your asset of traits, appearance, knowledge and presence that leaves a distinctly unique and positive impression on those you meet.
A personal style brand is how you “package” and express your brand through your exterior appearance, which usually includes (but isn’t limited to) your clothing, accessories, grooming and body.
Why is it important?
In terms of your career, getting your personal style brand right can help you:
- Create the “wow” impression you want when interviewing for a new role. While your resume clarifies what skills and experience you possess for the role, your personal style brand can convey in seconds that YOU should be hired over someone else who may have a similar background and achievements.
- Enhance your credibility, particularly if you have increased visibility due to a change of role or if you are aiming for a promotion. You may have heard of the saying ‘dress for the job you want, not for the job you have’ and this could not be truer. Think of it this way – if you are willing to pay a premium for a particular brand of champagne that is packaged in a beautiful and distinctive box instead of paying less for the local sparkling wine with your bog standard label, then your personal style brand can help increase your ability to “charge” a premium as well!
- Create a positive connection with the person/s you are communicating with which therefore helps promotes your objectives. Politicians more than anyone else understand this. Our respect and trust increases when they are well dressed and we assume a certain level of knowledge and experience. Imagine if Barack Obama wore a collarless shirt and shorts throughout his presidential election campaign!
It needs to reflect YOU
A personal style brand is organic and it needs to be authentic. It’s organic because it does (and should) change and evolve with you as your grow older, wiser and as your body changes. It needs to be authentic because it needs to truly reflect who you really are and what you really want to achieve or do.
For example, a male client of mine had a long history of working for innovative, dynamic and young IT development companies where he’d worn jeans, tees and some jewelry in the form of several rings and an earring. He had just taken a role as a business development manager for a much larger and well-known IT software company and had to wear a suit when meeting clients, but one look at him and you could see this wasn’t him. He looked and felt uncomfortable and that was evident in his business meetings.
While I fully agreed he needed to wear a suit (you have to stay within the boundaries of your work’s dress code at the end of the day), he needed a “piece” of himself to really “own” that look. He needed to feel he hadn’t lost his personality and personal style beneath the suit he had to wear.
In the end we gave him beautiful, well-cut wool suits with gorgeous heavy cotton shirts, and styled it up with quirky ties. For the finishing touch we found a solid silver ring that wasn’t too ostentatious for him to wear on his pinky finger. The quality and cut of the suit and shirt said “I mean business” but his tie and ring said “I have ideas and think differently”.
In the end a personal style brand is really about who you are and what you see as your core “features”, distilled into a consistent and work-appropriate style of dress so people see it even more clearly.
Working it all out
It isn’t always easy to figure out what your personal style brand is as often you’re too close to the source. You can get started however by asking yourself – and those around you – what it is you consistently look great in, what you haven’t always looked comfortable in, what you love wearing, and what – when you wear it – makes you feel like you can touch the sky.
You might unearth a number of things! You may discover that wearing turtlenecks to work makes you feel dowdy and dumpy – and that may affect how you carry yourself at work. Your colleagues may tell you that you appear more confident in certain outfits. You may notice that people seem to make eye contact with you when you are wearing an accessory like necklace or a scarf that draws attention to your face.
The “how to” of personal style branding
Once you find your personal style brand, stay true to it. Don’t let it get staid and wear the same things over and over again, but do use it as a guiding principle before you make your next work wardrobe purchase. Ask yourself if your purchase will add or detract from your personal style brand.
Make sure that whatever you decide is unique and distinctive about your style, is relevant and not unnecessary. Twenty bangles stacked on your arm doesn’t necessarily spell “what a great employee” even if you are applying for a job at an accessories retailer!
And remember this: you will always have the skills and experience that you have – no one can take that away from you and it is ultimately what employers look for in job interviews and the workplace in general. But as in all relationships, we look for chemistry too – that “zsa zsa ju”, in this case your personal style – that will help open the door for your skills and experience to shine.
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Smitten With Style is a leading corporate and personal stylist who works with corporations and individual clients to best represent themselves through their dress and grooming. With over 500 clients, it is their aim for men and women to dress and look confident at all times, whether at the workplace or at play.