The Situation: Professional to professional casual dress
Jayne’s company has gone casual in the last few months. It has been four years since we last worked on her wardrobe. At that time, she had just been promoted to an executive vice president reporting to the CEO and met regularly with the board of directors.
The company went casual in the US while Europe stayed with a relaxed professional dress. She wanted to keep her leadership presence but still be appropriate for the organization and the team. She needed to move from professional dress but desired to retain the look and feel of the senior leadership team. We decided to use professional, and not business, casual as a guide to update her wardrobe.
The Solution:
Jayne wanted to have presence but not be too formal. We added to and updated her wardrobe. First, we updated pieces and donated the items she did not wear. Jayne tried on all the pieces for jean days and for professional casual. We updated suits to wear for board meetings and making presentations. We added contemporary sweaters, blouses and shirts (some solid and others with prints) and altered some slacks to fit the current style. We included modern jeans for casual days, jean days and retreats. Elegance was added to her leadership presence by pairing jewelry pieces with casual outfits. We kept three color combinations, using black, brown and tan slacks as the foundation for all her shirts, blouses and sweaters.
The Outcome:
Jayne now has a professional casual presence that aligns with the new culture. She is more comfortable in senior team meetings. Also, we inputted all of the clothing options in a PowerPoint so she could quickly look up the best choices for travel, presentations and meeting situations. Jayne is usually home just once a week. The rest of her time is spent out of the country. This clothing review and arrangement made Jayne’s professional and business social life much easier. She has the confidence to walk into a room and not worry about her appearance.
People seldom notice old clothes if you wear a big smile.
Lee Mildon