We all have those “problem areas” that we wish we could hide behind right? I know I certainly do. An easy fix that will make you feel comfortable and look fabulously stylish is the ever-classic wrap dress. Whether you’re having an “I hate everything in my wardrobe” day or an “I look horrible in everything I put on” kind of week, a wrap dress is definitely the right solution. Because the style of this dress literally wraps around you, without clinging to your body, you’re going to find that it highlights your waist while taking attention off other areas. In other words, this dress does all the “work” for you! Here are some of my picks for summer casual daytime wrap dresses. Most of these options will also double for summertime in the office – awesome! Check out the wrap dresses I’ve picked out for you. Diane von Furstenberg Millicent Dress Robert Rodriguez Leopard Jersey Dress Rory Beca Maya Shirttail Wrap Dress Milly Wrap Dress Kaufmanfranco belted washed silk-satin wrap dress Karen Kane Plus Sleeveless Wrap Dress Enjoy!
Summer office attire offender: The Flip Flop!
Really? Do we need to talk about how terrible flip flops are for an office environment? Common sense should tell us that flip flops are meant for the beach or maybe even a casual summer day…. not a professional office environment. “What’s the big deal?” you might ask. Well, for me, there are a few reasons why flips flops just don’t fit into a professional environment: Footwear is part of your overall professional image: you may have a great summer dress and think that a pair of “dressier” flip flops would look great with your outfit. Wrong! While dress codes are generally relaxed during summer months, you still need to put forward an appearance that is professional and put-together. Flip flops say that you’re ready for the beach, not that upcoming client meeting. This goes back to the question I ask all my clients: what do you want your style to say about you? Too much foot for the office: simply put, flip flops show off too much foot! An easy and reliable way to tell if your footwear is a good idea is to look at how much shoe and how much foot is showing… maybe we should call it the shoe to foot ratio (shoe:foot). For a professional office, I’d suggest you make sure you have more shoe than foot showing. The awful sound: I just hate the sound of a flip flop slapping the bottom of a foot. It can be very distracting in an office environment. I often hear from critics who say that heels also make a loud obnoxious sound. Do they on office carpet though? Nope. Flip flops do. That’s very petty of me to argue but honestly, that slapping sound is distracting. I found an interesting article that I’d like to share. The one line I want to draw your attention to is this: “Flip-flops say you’re not fully engaged in the business environment. You’ve got one foot in the office and one foot on the beach. It makes a very loud statement about casualness.” Next time you feel like wearing flip flops to the office… just don’t.
Personal branding: Think it’s not important? You’re wrong.
I had an interesting experience today. I’m putting up new closet doors in my home and I accidentally bought the wrong door handle. All I wanted to do was exchange the handle I had – and didn’t need – for the correct one. Sounds pretty simple, right? I decided to call the store first to make sure they had the item I was looking for – instead of wating time going to the home-building store, where I made the purchase originally( I hate wasting time… ). Rather than help me, by going to the shelf and looking for the product I was inquiring about, the sales associate, who picked up the phone, did his best to tell me that they didn’t have any, insisted I call another location of their store, and rushed me off the phone. What type of impression do you think I had after this call? …. A very poor one, not only of the individual but, more importantly, the company! I would describe the interaction with the sales associate as: Unprofessional Rash Mediocre Thoughtless I decided to call the store back because I was confident they had the item I was looking for… I was there a few days earlier and saw several of the door handles I was looking for in stock. As I made the call, I was gearing up to have a very assertive, yet professional phone call with whoever answered the phone (nobody tosses this lady around). I was pleasantly surprised when an overly helpful young man (I make it sound as if I’m ancient) did his best to help me find what I was looking for. He spent quite a few minutes looking for the item but kept me posted every so often so that I didn’t feel that he had abandoned me on the phone. He finally found the item I was looking for and said he’d keep it on him (like in his pocket!!!) until I came to the store to do an exchange. What type of impression do you think I had after this call? … A very positive one of the individual and a VERY confusing one of the company! During and after this call, I thought that THIS person was: Professional Adding value to my customer experience Internally-motivated Extremely helpful I could go on and on about this minor event in the day but what I truly took away from both of these interactions is how two people, working in the same department, for the same company, treated a customer completely different. Then I thought of you…. What these two gentlemen showed me is what THEY (nothing to do with the company here) are known for; they showed me just a sliver of their personal brand and from that, I formed a very strong impression of who I’d rather do business with. We do that all the time. Sometimes we only eat at certain restaurants because of the great food and great experience, or go see a particular banker