Your New Look for Your New Season
One of the things I find myself often saying is, “It’s all connected.” What does that mean? Well, in a professional context, to me it means: how you perform is connected to how you project yourself. How you project yourself is connected to how you feel about yourself. How you feel about yourself is connected to your health. Your health is connected to your rest, your exercise, and what you put in your body.
What you put in your body is connected to what you see when you look in the mirror… and by the way, this isn’t linear. If you were trying to put this formula into Excel, you’d get that annoying error box that pops up and says “circular reference.” (I crack myself up).
So I thought that while we’re in the month of new beginnings, it’d be a great time to think about a fresh start you can give yourself – when you look in the mirror.
I realize that at first blush this sounds a bit shallow, but hear me out. Even though “it’s all connected” is anecdotal, it is anecdotal truth. For example, if you’re presenting while wearing a blazer, the audience is 40% more likely to retain the information. That’s a pretty compelling argument for caring how you look.
After reading about business casual for men, one of my clients took Emily up on her offer. A few weeks after his wardrobe overhaul, I overheard some mutual colleagues talking about him, “He looks so sharp these days… check out that blazer… Did he hire a stylist or something?… I gotta get her number.” I should also mention that around the time I overheard this, the commenter became my client’s client. His sharp new look couldn’t have hurt…
Today, I want to introduce you to another Emily: Emily Katz. I met her through the global group FemCity on my visit to D.C. a few months ago. She’s an Image Consultant and Master MakeUp Artist. And when I say “Master,” I mean that she’s the make-up artist behind celebrities like Minnie Driver, Michelle Williams, Selma Blair, and even Bradley Cooper.
I recently spoke to her about using your look to jump start a new season. Even though we’re literally entering a new season, I really mean a new season of life or work. And since our last style focus was on the men, we’re going to talk more about the ladies today…
Emily, hi! Let’s start really simply. I’d love to hear, in your own words, what you do as an image consultant and what gets you fired up about it.
I help business women ellevate their look and image externally, so that it amplifies who they are internally. We take their magnificence (which they may be holding back from the outside world), embrace it, and amplify it for others to see. The smallest addition, like eyeliner, isn’t just about looking prettier; it’s about empowerment.
What I’m most passionate about are the stages of life that women go through. As we females get older, our “invisibility quotient” expands. Ironically, as we embrace our inner wisdom, we seem to get dismissed more. My personal mission is to mitigate that.
When a new client is referred to you or finds you, where is she? What does this “invisibility quotient” look like? (Kind of an ironic question, I guess).
Women typically try to solve this problem by (a) over-fixing themselves or (b) letting things – like their look – go. Chances are, they started feeling invisible gradually, unintentionally starting to think, “No one cares; they’re not paying attention to me anyway.”
Or, they’ve gone through biological changes. You may have a new-ish mom, who’s had a baby, and her body’s gone through tremendous changes. She’s in a different body; and perhaps she’s working outside the home too and doesn’t have time to exercise and afford herself the self-case she used to.
Later in life, we have menopause. We’re physically losing elements of vitality, we gain weight, our body is changing again! This causes physical changes and leaves us questioning our identity.
Oof, you are scaring me off from both of these things, thanks 🙂 You mentioned that often women are kind of sliding into these changes without knowing it. So, how do they even know to ask for your help?
When it comes to moms, about 75% of them have an “oh my gosh” realization at some point. The kids are entering elementary school, and they’re getting back into the traditional workforce. Their clothes fit differently, style has changed, and the job market is competitive. It’s intimidating to attack all these things at once. And sometimes, there’s an added whammy: their husband may be losing interest. They feel a wake-up call to reassess their identity.
Birthdays are another big milestone, especially when we turn 50. We’re able to afford nice things, and our kids are older, and we’ve repossessed our identity.
But as one client said to me, “I look like the executive I am… but I also look like my mother.” This is a different kind of wake-up call!
In this client’s example, we didn’t touch her wardrobe. We cut and colored her hair, and it knocked ten years off her age. She instantly looked fresher and more modern, and she gained ten years of confidence.
Let’s re-focus on the professional world. I imagine that there are many professional women (I talked to one of them yesterday) who counter this kind of talk with, “I’m successful because of my merits, not how I look. What I wear [should] have nothing to do with my work accomplishments.”
You’re right. People often assume that image consultants help people “dress for success.” That more expensive clothes are better. But a good image consultant starts with “What’s your goal?” Then, we make your image relevant to that. People come to me because they want to shift into something new; that doesn’t always mean a promotion.
For example, a few years back, an entertainment lawyer came to me. She’d built a lucrative, high-profile career; and she was making a big professional change to help people transition out of prison! Her goal was to still feel great and confident about herself, yet fit into her new context. Designer suits were obviously no longer appropriate, and she needed help shifting professional identities and building out an appropriate new wardrobe.
Projecting the right image in a professional context means that others look at you and think, ‘She knows what she’s doing.’
What does it actually look like when someone works with you? Is there a step-by-step process? A dramatic, one-time overhaul?
It’s a process; this is incredibly personal, so we do it gradually. Often, we start with face and hair, then work into wardrobe. If anyone out there is thinking of hiring an image consultant, that person should be willing to do a “trust walk” with you first. (S)he should be supporting you in whatever way you’re ready to move forward.
In my experience, I’ve seen many women who want to begin a transformation but want to lose weight first. So, we start with a make-up lesson. Then, hair cut and color. These alone have enough power to begin the paradigm shift and make a woman feel beautiful.
When we’re ready to move onto clothing, we start with a closet review; everyone should do this every five years at a minimum. If there’s no wardrobe budget or desire for new things, we can usually work with what someone already has!
We look at fits, colors, and new combinations. People are always surprised at how they can use what they already own. New combinations freshen things up.
A great time to do this too is before a move. You should always clean out your closet before you move! You don’t want the bad energy of dragging stuff from your former image around with you.
Clutter takes up space. And the amount of space we have dictates our ability to perform in the world.
How does someone know if she should hire an image consultant?
Thirty-six and fifty are popular ages when people seem to find me. Or, if the answer is yes to any of these…
- Am I going through a job change?
- Have I made a life change?
- Do I want to start dating?
- Is my weight fluctuating?
- Am I going after a new type of client?
- Do I want to play bigger in my network and career?
- Am I moving and don’t know how to dress in my new climate? <cough, Julie, cough>
To bring us back full circle, why would you say that people – women, especially – should be intentional in controlling their image?
The world is so visual right now. We live on soundbites and visual bites. We form opinions in nanoseconds. A small change can make a big difference in how others perceive us. Why wouldn’t you want to look smarter, more relatable, more competent?
And most importantly, when you look good, you feel good.
Thank you so much, Emily!
If you’d like to see more of Emily’s beautiful work (on some familiar faces) or want to inquire about her services for your own image, you can find Emily at EK Truth.
