Dress For Success - or confidence is the key.

You hear it all the time. You should ‘dress for success’. It is true, though. But what is dressing for success in today’s world. In today’s world, you are more likely to see a CEO in jeans and a hoodie than a three-piece suit. If you mention dressing for success to a woman it usually invokes thoughts of gray and black pants, shirts, and skirts.

If your office is truly just a casual work environment you may want to take it up a notch and wear business wear for big meetings. It makes you look competent, trustworthy and put-together. If you only have things in gray and black then consider a really stand out necklace.

If you are a working for a tech company people might think that you are out of touch with the younger crowd if you dress in a suit every day. Consider a really nice pair of good jeans, and a dressier top. Wanting to be trendy isn’t a bad thing but you need to consider your field, age, and audience. Mr. Wonderful from Shark Tank said it best when he was quoted as saying, “It’s not about having money,” he said. “If you have a suit that only cost $150, go the extra mile and get it tailored. Shine your shoes. Make sure you manicure your nails. It’s the simple things that people notice, that take you far.”

Then there is dressing for what suits you best. We’ve seen it time and time again. Women wearing something that beautiful, but that is totally unflattering to their skin tone or body shape. It is time that we are honest with ourselves.

If you are unsure of your skin tone try this little trick. The skin on your wrist, elbows and temples is very thin and, therefore, the blood vessels are close to the surface. If your skin color is light enough you will be able to see the veins through the skin in these three locations.

• If your veins have an olive or greenish color, you are warm-toned
• If your veins have a bluish color, you are cool-toned
• If you really can’t tell, or if there is a mix of both colors, you are neutral-toned.

Even with the best clothes in the world one day you will eventually look at your closet and proclaim “I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!” Simple accessories can turn the Blahs into the Yas. Here are some of the biggest and best fashion accessories tips to add to the new clothes that will compliment your skin tone.

• If you are in the cool skin tone category you will look best wearing pieces in platinum, white gold, and silver. If you are looking at gems consider pearls, Blue Sapphires, Amethyst, Aquamarines, Rubies, Emeralds, Opals, Paraiba, Tourmalines, Tanzanites, and Zircons.
• If you are in the warm skin tone category go for the classic yellow gold, rich rose gold, pewter, brass and copper. They look amazing against your skin. For gemstones think of Alexandrite, Citrine, Garnet, Morganite, Peridot, Ruby, and fancy yellow diamonds.
• If you can’t make up your mind well then there is always the old standby. Diamonds. There is a reason they are called a girl’s best friend. That is because they look amazing on any woman regardless of age, skin color, hair color, or race.

To help you a little further here are a few more tips on accessories based on the shape of your face

• Heart/Inverted Triangle/Diamond Shaped Face
• For earrings choose dangle or drop earrings. They will help to lengthen the face
• For necklaces chose chokers. They will help contrast and soften the sharp angle of the chin
• Round/square/triangle shaped face.
• For earrings try an elongated shape like ovals or angular shapes like rectangles.
• Square shaped faces look really great in teardrop earrings
• For necklaces try necklaces that elongate your face. This typically means necklaces that extend below the neckline (28’ to 32’)
• Rectangular/Oblong shaped face.
• For earrings choose round or short earrings to contrast your longer face.
• For necklaces, chokers work the best if you have a long neck
• Oval shaped face;
• Try short dangle earrings (don’t go too long) and have them be preferable angular shaped
• For necklaces, they can either be long or short. If you have a long neck chose a shorter necklace.

Dress to make yourself feel good. Because when you feel great you are almost unstoppable.