We all decided to try something else different

by Melisa
(Australia)

It's OK to say yes to a “just-for-you” dress! I am pretty timid with my clothing style. In the past, I kept all my business clothes confined to Talbots and had a personal shopper. But, then I worked with some other women engineers and I realized how mechanical my dressing looked. It was so obvious that I was not dressing myself and my lack of personal style made me look a bit out of control-- like it was my mommy and not my Talbots personal shopper who was dressing me. I saw that these other women had never made it past middle manager either. So, two of us geeks-manager-women went to lunch and started talking about what was different about the women we knew who had broken through. And, one of the main differences was the way they dresses-- unique, bold and really put together. I guess we had always thought about them as buying those clothes after they became successful. But, we all decided to try something else different for the next cocktail party that was scheduled for our team project. It was a meeting of top executives who were working with our consulting firm. Each of us felt that the evening went better for us than previous meetings. We met with more people and had a more positive response. We really seemed to stand out from our “wonk” reputations. And, for me, at least-- the success translated into better water cooler talk the next couple of days after.