Be right in appearance wherever you are - part 2

For a special date:

- Stay natural & look hygienic
- Study the persons taste and select your color & style accordingly
- Preferably red, orange, purple, black colors
- Don’t overdo that’s what will make u sexy
- Let your outfit depend on the venue & time of your date
- Do something with your style which makes u memorable eg: Tattoo,piercing, designer sleeves or scarf, unseen hairstyle, any unique accessory that define u and only you.

Attending a Wedding:

- NO red & too not much of gold jewelry
- Don’t dress up like a bride or groom (even if you are looking out)
- Respect the culture and dress up according to their respective tradition. Eg: don’t drape your saree in a gujarati style in a maharashtrian wedding
- Dress rehearsals is a must if you are the Best Man or Best Woman at the wedding
- If planning to get drunk and plan to rock on the dance floor: Men: avoid layering clothes and blazers go in for Indian ethnic wear. Women: No heavy or lengthy lengha, saree well draped (hope u get what I mean :-))

Getting ready for a Party:
- Birthday, anniversary, house warming, get-together, bachelor, pyjama party, divorce etc all sorts of parties...
- It’s difficult to list down the dress codes as each occasion is different. So ppl have this theme style dressing.
- While sending out the invite do mention the dressing theme eg: Bollywood, Jungle, Traditional , Tribal, Towel, Disney, Geeky, Historical, Rainbow etc

Visiting spiritual places:
- It’s a very sensitive issues, so lets be very careful while dressing up
- Tikkas & Bindis : NO – Church, YES – Gurudwara, A Must – Temples
- Westerns clothes still not well received in south Indian temples
- No designer or branded shoes & sandals… you'll know why

Traveling:
- Be comfortable. Avoid layered cloths & too much of accessories
- Long flight or connected flights carry an extra pair of cloths
- Avoid hairstyles & plaiting of your hair girls
- Shorts, Capri, spaghetti, tunic tops or flowery scarf and a jacket is a must

Movie/Theater show: - The funkier the better… go ahead with all ur experiments. In Spain I had seen bunch of teenage girls with painted face, lovely hats, uniform frocks with pencil heel sandals walking in to the theater… u see how it builds in the right excitement :)

And what for trekking? Well I really don’t know. Allow me to come back to you after this weekend as I am heading for an adventure camp.

“Keep experimenting… Style is something you cultivate when you know who you are”

Be right in appearance wherever you are - part 1

It’s hard fact that most of the people including you and me judge a person based on what he/she wears. In my case most of the time my judgment has failed badly, as I said in my previous post, styling is more of experiments.

Sharing with you’ll some style tips for these special occasions:

Attending an Interview:

- No oily hair and don’t afford to have a bad hair day
- Avoid red & pink ties/shirts/skirts
- Girls please tie your hair, we are not here to win best hair award
- T-Shirts with bold slogans & prints plzz NO
- Pin your dupatta well & place it in the right position
- No dark makeup & strong perfumes
- No rolled sleeves & appreciate your shirt tucked in

As an Interviewer:
- Dress up causally & just try to be yourself
- Avoid bold colors, preferably White/blue
- Girl interviewing a guy “Please no lip gloss or dark eyeliner”. It’s distracting most of the time
- Stay away from drinks or smoke for a day before the Interview
- No raised colors…let Australian cricketers enjoy that style.
- No red eyes, don’t scare the prospective employee with the company work culture
- Guys don’t go extra miles or fall for doing stuff for your favorite female candidate
- Don’t smell as if you have jumped out of perfume shower, girls like me will faint

First week in new office:
- Don’t try outing new cloths; carrying something which you have always felt comfortable wearing.
- Be sober & not like F-TV models. Take time to understand the company culture & people’s taste with whom you would be working
- Avoid too many jewellery, exception to newly wedded bride :-)
- No bright colors – preferably black, dark blue, off white outfits
- Hair well pinned & no shinny headbands or clips

Participating in a conference:
- As you would be closely interacting with prospective business leads keep your nails clean & use mouth fresheners every 2 hrs
- No deep neck shirts or gowns
- Girls with long hair to be more comfortable go for French braid
- Avoid too much of colorful & mix & match outfits
- Cotton with thin border & no embroidery sareer are total YES.
- Black spegitte with blazers on formal cotton trousers looks NICE.

In a customer Meetings:
- Formal shirts/skirts tucked in with a combination of nice leather belt. Closed shoes a must
- If your presenting use gel to assure that even if you move your hair does not take weird shaped & makes you look funny
- Apply lip moisturizer or lip balm to avoid liking of your lips during the meeting
- Today I see most of them wearing denim jeans and its well accepted but with a formal color shirt or blazer
- Owning side & front slit skirts like me don’t worry - wear leggings. Yes back slit shirts are said to be formal in Europe.

While in a NGO activity:
- No fancy or branded cloths
- No formals just dress up with a simple nice quoted T-Shirt with pair of jeans
- Girls go with traditional Kutras & cotton churidar
- No skin show

Blog is getting lengthy hmmm…. Dressing up for a date, workshop, wedding etc all coming up in the next blog post.
*This is totally based on my experience & my conclusions. You’ll are totally welcome to put in your comments if you’ll disagree.

Wardrobe styling & Image makeover workshop

A first impression is built by 55% look, 38% style, tone & body language & 7% what you say. Most of the time what we are and like is never depicted in our outfit. To avoid people misinterpreting you, we need to get our dressing & styling right. I participated in this workshop hosted by iReboot by Babita Jaishankar.

Color Analysis:

According to the color worn people make conclusions that you are conservative/introvert/extrovert, sophisticated, friendly, down to earth, business like. Skin tones are categorized as Cool tones or Warm Toned.

Cool Toned colors recommended – (Blue undertones) Rosy Pink, white, dark brown, true olive, ruddy-pinkish red.

Warm Toned colors recommended – (Yellow undertones) Golden, dark blue & green, ivory, NO black.

Body Style:

Body style is categorized in 4 types:

1. Hourglass- Balanced hip and shoulder width, defined waist
2. Triangle – Shoulders narrow than hips
3. Inverted Triangle – Shoulders wider than hip
4. Rectangle – Balanced hip & shoulder, no defined waist

After analyzing which body style you fit, select the outfit accordingly. Few tips:

Triangle: Outfit which adds volume to shoulders eg: Padding shoulders, puff sleeves, avoid sleeveless & tube tops, pocket less trousers, no frill skirts.

Inverted Triangle: Outfit which adds volume to hips eg: Frill Skirts, pocket trousers, pleated skirts, trousers, low waist trousers, anarkali kurtas.

Wardrobe basics:

Must have in Men’s wardrobe – Suite, Dress shirts (White & Blue), Trousers fit, Khakis, Statement watch, dark denim, cardigan/sweater, belt, shoes, ethnic wear, Polo’s & Tee’s

Must have in Women wardrobe – Skirt suite/Pant suit, formal trousers, Fitted jacket/Cardigan, Formal shirts & blouses, kurtis & chudidar, black dress & saree, watch, accessories, purse, closed shoes, dressy sandals, denim & tees

Skincare:

Before going to bed apply cleanser (to remove all makeup), apply toner and then moisture which has no SPF. Oil massage hands & legs and some Castor oil massage round the eyes. Morning avoid using bath soap on the face. Apply moisturizer which has 30% SPF with UVA & UVB projection.

Haircare:

Oil your hair once in a week. Add 1 spoon of Castor oil, 2 spoon of olive oil & 3 spoon of coconut oil. Warm it and then massage it. After an hour use shampoo for wash. Apply conditioner and serum after the wash. Hair wash is recommended twice in a week and not regularly.

Quick Notes:

- No pinks, orange and red outfit for Interviews

- A person who dares to dress out of the norm’s has a “I don’t care" attitude

- Thin and lean people fall in cool tone

- Red color indicated assertiveness & dominance, Blue (trust), Orange (no diet), brown (Negative)

- Shampoo with Conditioner is a big NO

- Night cream need not contain SPF

- Girls whose face is longer than compared to neck avoid closed neck outfits

- Darker lipstick makes u look aged

- Guys should read book “Style & the Man”

- Shorter people should avoid mix & match.

- Almond oil is recommended for face message

- Don’t step out without sunscreen

- Cosmetics brand suggested – Mac, Avon, Amway, l’orial, oriflamme

- Drink lots of water and intake fruits & vegetable & avoid cigars, alcohol. Include rock salt in your food

- Never use products having alcohol in their ingredients list

- While travelling to other countries, study about their dress & attire culture. Just because U care J

If you next meet me, don't expect me to be perfectly dressed. Don't believe all that's written about fashion go out try new stuff.... Its all about experiments & welcoming compliments & most of the time criticisms. Stay beautiful!