Personal Branding in a domestic world

‘Brand’, a term used to distinguish a product, service or concept in terms of a ‘personality’, is assumed to refer to business, so what place does this have for me if I’m a homemaker? I can hear it now….

 

‘I clean the house, manage schedules, play ‘taxi’ driver, make sure the ‘machine’ of ‘home’ works to support everyone’  but too often people lose their sense of self in serving others in this way. 
 

Enter stage left the ‘young person’ who honestly believes and declares that 'it doesn’t matter what you wear these days, people don’t judge you on  appearance.  It begs the question, do you dress for yourself or dress for others?  Maybe in the past we dressed more for others but the younger people of today dress more for themselves. 

 

 

The heightened focus on the Duchess of Cambridge’s attire, in her many roles, tells us that it’s still important to dress for your audience but more leeway’s given to dressing for comfort and style.  Ultimately, when you dress to flatter yourself, people notice YOU, the person. 

 

 

We need labels and categories to help us make sense of the world but, as individuals, we frequently resist labels (boxes, categories, structure) in favour of the ‘freedom of self expression’ -  it’s the conflict between belonging and needing to express our uniqueness.

  

Early in my career, I distinguished 2 main motivators for people searching out my services:

- Emotional: recognising the connection between how we look and how we feel enables us to take control of the ‘looking’ element to empower and strengthen the ‘feeling’ element, thereby enabling us to improve and enhance our feelings, increasing inner confidence  and self-belief, leading to a sense of inner peace and frequently, greater success in work, social and business life.

 

- Practical/Financial: the dawn of realisation in this group of clients was making the connection between how they look and money.  Whether it was sales attracted through being self-employed or in a sales role, promotions, pay rises or additional sales and, in the case of the self-employed or management, an increase in confidence.  As a result of ‘looking the part’, business increases.

 

Often client gender could predict the motivator but not always.  As a graduate, it was important to make the most of my limited budget so that clothes I bought for work were going to work hard and earn their keep in my wardrobe.   A very practical reason which led to me experiencing an increase in confidence and self-belief.  Within a year I’d experienced a pay rise, new job role, improved training opportunities - one thing led to another in a positive way.

 

 

 

A trigger at the ‘emotional’ stage, caused by a life change, relationship, job, status, moving from full- time employee to full-time mother is a culture shock for many and with plenty to keep yourself occupied, appearance is often the last thing on people’s minds!  Reverse that shift, as the children grow older, and try to return to the workplace with a different figure, body shape, lifestyle, budget and time constraints plus a need to reclaim your sense of identity, the offer of a consultation with House of Colour appears at the right time.

Personal Brand may not appear to sit in this ‘domestic’ world in the same way, but our need to have a clear sense of identity, who we are, our values, strengths and weaknesses, balanced against the need to be unique and that of fitting in, enables us to confidently negotiate the path between dressing how we are ‘supposed’ to look and dressing for ‘ourselves’. 

A Sense of Proportion

Many of you will have seen this picture before, but not all.  What do you see when you look at it?  A Young woman or an old Hag?  They’re both there, suggesting that it's your perspective that gives the perception of reality.

In some ways, ‘looking good’ is just an optical illusion – the trick is knowing what to draw the eye towards or away from and how.  Knowing what we've got to work with and then dressing it with a little magic and a dose of common sense.  

We all have things that we think are ‘wrong’ with us, but maybe it’s just our perspective which is ‘wrong’ – try these:

• "My bottom is too big!" – or are you enviously curvaceous?
• "I’m short-waisted!" – or is your shorter torso balanced with long legs?
• "I’ve got no hips/bust!" – if you ‘haven’t’ got it, then you can add more detail to balance the other part of you… unless you have that straight androgynous body shape that looks really stylish in something simple, straight and boxy.

Understanding your body shape and proportions is a vital part of the Style Class.  You learn how to ‘redress’ your balance to create interest in a deliberate or intentional way - using emphasis to reinforce a statement about yourself that could be any number of adjectives such as ‘creative, reliable, knowledgeable, sporty, rebellious, relaxed’ and many more.

And for you non-believers?  There’s hope!  The Gestalt Principle “...maintains that the human eye sees objects in their entirety before perceiving their individual parts”.  In Michael Tuck’s detailed article about using the principles of design, it’s refreshing to read that good design can be intuitive, a natural ability.

“Gestalt Principles aren't artificial constructs that people have concocted to apply to design; they are attempts to describe and verbalize how we naturally perceive things....… in at least some sense, "design talent" is an ability to naturally — and perhaps even unconsciously — understand how human perception works, and how to create designs for websites, paintings, or wedding dresses that are artistically beautiful and functionally efficient by appealing to it.” 

A relief to know!

“Some of the best designers in the world know nothing of Gestalt Principles. They use them intuitively; when designs look and feel right, usually they incorporate these principles whether the designer recognises the terminology or not.” 

So, back to you; what of those features which can't take clothing e.g. 

• "I’ve got a big nose!"  Let’s be honest, these 'family features’ be it nose, chin, eyebrows even skin are not usually declared in a positive light. 

Wearing clothing and accessories that suit you in a way that compliments you, we call being ‘In Focus’; your look is balanced and attractive.  When you’re not wearing things that compliment you, you’re ‘out of focus’, out of balance and appear less attractive.  The feature you’d rather diminish often becomes more prominent.

Therefore, if you have a 'distinguishing feature', it’s amazing to watch it blend and harmonise when your whole look is ‘In Focus’.  We all have fabulous parts of our bodies, unfortunately we’re hard-wired to notice the negatives rather than highlighting the positives.  

One lovely client, a size 20+, arrived wearing palazzo pants and a long over shirt, complaining that when she was younger she had a waist!  I pointed out that she still had a waist, maybe bigger than it used to be, but still a waist that needed defining to show off her figure – demonstrating how to do this in a way appropriate to her current size and shape meant she immediately looked slimmer and gave her a massive boost of confidence. 

And then there was the male client who thought his legs were ‘long’ because he had difficulty finding trousers long enough.   I gently pointed out that at 6’4”, a 34” leg length while long, wasn’t disproportionately long, if anything it was a little on the short side for his height!  This left him able to focus attention on his clothes by getting the emphasis right on his torso, redressing the balance.  

There are few universally applicable rules.  In order to emphasise your uniqueness, we need to work with each of you individually.  Lisa Wade wonders “what it would be like to live in a world where the fashion industry encouraged us to “emphasise” our differences from one another, instead of trying to make us all look the same?”  You're all unique individuals; we focus on your uniqueness. 

You may have heard this from me before– it’s not what you’ve got but what you do with it that makes the difference!  

Getting a sense of proportion allows you to make the most of yourselves - you deserve it!

Gok’s Style Secrets and Showing your assets

Gok’s back, Girlfriends!

A new 6-part series with tips on dating, finding self-confidence and love.  A bit more than style secrets, but if it makes a positive difference in someone’s life, I’m all for it! 

At House of Colour, we have never professed to the latter, however, after nearly 30 years’ experience of Personal style and branding, we have seen people, time after time, finding self-confidence, which frequently leads to positive life changes. 

The good news?  It’s not much of a secret.

The secret, is confidently dressing your true self, i.e. KNOWING what works for you.  Therein lies the problem, KNOWING is a challenge given that it’s difficult, if not impossible to be objective about yourself.    Friends and family knowing you well can’t usually provide objectivity either.

Zoe, tonight’s subject, kept her familiar [safe] territory, Goth!  

With a full bust and a complex about having a large midriff, Gok immediately identified and revealed her waist as her best asset.  Hiding under androgynous shapes is inappropriate.  Straight gothic looks are appropriate for straight body shapes, not Zoe’s.

By drawing attention to your assets, your body transforms, big bums, become curvaceous hips, team this with a full bust and waist and you have an hourglass figure – a million miles from androgynous.

When a client who didn’t like her ‘big boobs’ was told she could show off her cleavage, she was absolutely fine with that!   

It’s all about perspective, how we see ourselves gives how we dress for the outside world. 

Given the gift of objectivity, we are able to reverse the process.  Presenting your true self to the world can change the way you see yourself, often leading to a confidence boost.

 “The thing that changed me is being able to feel like a woman and liking myself”

Congratulations Zoe!  Couldn’t have said it better! Great job!