Last week I attended a one-day course on Business Etiquette and Projecting a Corporate Image . The trainer, Ms Elaine Heng, is very pretty, slim, approachable and friendly. She’s a beauty queen too.. check out her website at www.elaineheng.com.
The one day course, while useful was too short to cover much. We learned general tips on colour matching (Cool-cool and warm-warm), dressing for body proportions and hairstyles for faceshapes, but all these were just a rough guide. Eg: Body proportions doesn’t talk abt bust size, while faceshapes doesn’t include facial features in recommending hairstyles.
Nevertheless, here are some quick tips to share with everyone (and to remind myself). The tips are meant to help everyone look stylish (and not fashionable).
HairMessy Hair is deemed the number 1 image destroyer for both men and women. Women with long hair should tie their hair back and keep it away from the face. A quick test to determine how long is long: Look down on the floor and look up, does the hair come down on the face and requires the hand to sweep it back?
Styling hair – use hair mousse before styling. It gives volume. After styling, use hairspray to fix the style.
ColoursCool colours go with cool colours, warm colours should match with warm colours. Simple as it sounds, determining which pink, which brown, which green are cool / warm / neutral shades can be a big headache as it is so subjective. Contrary to general knowledge, black and pure white are more towards cool colour family rather than neutral.
Blue and purple are good colours for work wear as they project the right authority and image, while pastel colours should be avoided as they signal ‘gentle, meek, weak, powerless’.
The other thing about colours , is also looking at its depth – light, medium and deep colours. Bright vs Muted.
Colours that suit everyone (and can be matched with warm/cool colours)
1) Soft white/ivory
2) Medium Grey
3) Taupe
4) Medium Navy
5) Dark Chocolate
6) Medium Purple
7) Buff
8) Salmon
9) Teal
10) Periwinkle
11) Turquoise
12) Watermelon Red
Now I know why LV bags look good on anyone who is carrying it. Cos they use these universal colours which matches with all colours.
FaceshapeThe ideal face shape is oval. Hence whatever faceshape you belong, the hair style aims to balance the face to make it look more oval. Eg. I’m heartshape face. Need to have some curls at the chin to balance the narrow chin.
ClothesLength of pants should touch the floor without shoes on.
Length of jackets should touch the wrist bone with elbow at right angle.
Length of skirts - shortest you can go is up to where the thigh lines start to widen. Longest length of skirt is up to widest part of calves. Otherwise, just wear a long skirt that ends at the ankle.
Length of belt should be just nice to buckle at the middle hole
ShoesColour of shoes should be same as hemline or darker (to look taller).
PostureWhen sitting down or getting up from the chair, back should stay straight.
Walk with legs as close together as possible. Best is to walk in an imaginary straight line (but not to be exaggerated).
Applying what I have learntStarted off by reorganising my wardrobe. Though the trainer did not analyse for me, I think I am more towards the warm colour family, bright colours and deep tones.
I started off by reorganising my wardrobe into the various colour schemes. Unfortunately, about 2/3 of my clothes were wrong - cool colour family, light tones, muted colours. A good reason to revamp my wardrobe?
Next, hair do. My current hairdo is passable. But let's look at the past - wedding photos.

Right colour (warm), wrong tone (light) and wrong hairdo (too straight).
Fail

Wrong colour (cool), right tone (deep) and right hairdo.
Just passed

ROM pics
Right hairdo , neutral colour (ok).
Passed.
No wonder I prefer my ROM look to my wedding album pics. But I think I was constraint my sizes, design and colours available during my gown selection for photo shoot. Better to go for customised gowns.