APU Careers Careers & Learning

Dress to impress

Have you ever watched the show, “What Not to Wear”? Each of the show’s hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, might be accused of perpetuating superficial conceptions of beauty and a superficial aesthetic governed by arbitrary trends in fashion. However, each adheres to the valid yet unpalatable truth that how you project yourself—the clothes you wear—helps to determine how you will be received by society and can affect how you measure your own self-worth. London and Kelly’s mantra, which is an extension of this view, is repeated in almost every show, “Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.”

Although dressing to impress may be difficult to achieve day-in and day-out, making an impression through your dress is not as difficult as you may think if you keep in mind the following tips.

  • 10 minutes makes all the difference. Even if rolling out of
    bed thirty minutes or an hour early may not be in the cards for you, when
    it comes to dressing to impress, getting up as little as ten minutes early
    could make all the difference. Getting up ten minutes early provides you
    with an extra ten minutes to spend working on your wardrobe, and could
    mean the difference between wearing a tie, ironing your shirt or skirt, or
    throwing some product in your hair to spruce up your look.
  • You don’t have to spend a lot to assemble a killer wardrobe. Each
    season stores empty their shelves to get ready for next season–and slash
    the price of last season’s apparel dramatically. Thus, finding good deals
    has more to do with timing than luck and every winter I capitalize on this
    opportunity and stock up! In addition to this, there is no shame in
    shopping at discount or outlet department stores: Marshalls, Ross, and
    Loehmann’s, are all examples of discount department stores which
    specialize in selling quality (or sometimes even designer) apparel for
    less. Why spend $60 on a collared shirt when you can buy the same
    one—usually free of defects or flaws—for $15?
  • Even if dress is business casual, don’t be afraid to sport formal
    wear every now and again.
    London and Kelly really hit the nail on the
    head (so to speak) when they say, “Dress for the job you want, not the one
    you have.” Even if you are not required to wear a tie to work and are
    permitted to wear boat shoes day-in and day-out, you should consider
    sporting business formal attire every now and again. By putting on a tie,
    and replacing your boat shoes with a pair of polished wingtips, you will project
    a professional image and will demonstrate to your employer that you intend
    to put in as much effort into your work as you do dressing yourself each
    morning.

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