Office Dress Codes-What to Wear for office

what to wear to work polished, professional looks

Getting dressed for the office doesn't mean leaving your personal style behind. Find out which looks give you a polished, professional look and which fashions can be a career killer.

Polished, Not Fashion Victim

Your goal to getting dressed for work is to project a professional, competent image, regardless of your employment level or career path.

The styles, colors, lengths and fit of your fashion choices will speak volumes about your ability to do your job. If you are concerned about your career, you'll be more concerned with looking professional than looking cute or trendy.

In general, the more distracting a piece of clothing or jewelry is, the less appropriate it is for office wear.

More guidelines to looking polished:

Color plays a big part in professional image. Traditional career colors include red (aggressive), navy (trustworthy), gray (conservative) and black (chic). Most of these colors work well in pantsuits, skirts and shoes and mix back with softer feminine colors that are appropriate like ice blue, lilac, soft pink and ivory. Loud colors like hot pink and wild prints are much riskier in the office, but some creative types can still pull them off.

Jewelry that jangles (chandelier earrings, stacks of bangles) is distracting. Opt for stud earrings or single bracelets.

Slouchy handbags look sloppy. Choose structured styles that project an organized image.

Most of what constitutes a polished image is in the details: manicured nails, run-free hose, scuff-free shoes, neat hair.

Fit is everything when you are talking about tailored work clothes. Pants should be fitted, but free of visible panty lines. Skirts, especially straight styles like pencil skirts, should be loose enough to sit down in comfortably. Jackets should be able to be buttoned. And blouses shouldn't gap between buttonholes.

Designer labels are great, but heavily logoed clothing and accessories look cluttered and frivolous in the work place. A small designer bag is fine; a logo trench coat looks ridiculous. Choose well-made items that are free from obvious designer labels for the most professional look.

Dress Like Your (Female) Boss

Don't know where to start working on your career image? You're not alone because most companies don't have specific guidelines about what to wear to work.

One of the best clues to company dress codes is what your boss wears. Just think about the styles that the highest-level woman in your organization wears and use them in your wardrobe. Does she wear mostly skirt suits? Or does she rely on pantsuits? Does she wear hose or bare legs? Open-toed shoes or pumps?

If you don't have a reliable female executive to emulate, then trade on what the men are wearing. If they don suits and ties every day, your best bet is to use pantsuits and skirtsuits: the most formal of business looks.

Some organizations encourage employees to dress as well or better than their customers, especially for sales people and others that meet clients outside the office. For information technology professionals, this may mean corporate casual (more on this below), for pharmeceutical sales it may mean a pantsuit, for a lawyer it may mean a matched skirt suit. One way to always be prepared is to keep an extra "meet the client" outfit at the office for surprise meetings.

Career Killers

Unlike a fashion faux pas, a career killer outfit can do your professional image permanent damage.

Looks to avoid in the workplace:

Too sexy: see-through lace, miniskirts, spaghetti straps, sheer sundresses, strappy stiletto sandals.

Too casual: jeans, shorts, T-shirts, hats, sneakers.

Too sloppy: wrinkled clothing, too many layers, baggy-fit clothing.

Business Dress Codes

Formal Business Attire- For women this constitutes business suits (a matched skirt and jackets) and, in most workplaces, pantsuits (matched pants and blazer). Closed-toe shoes (no sandals), blouses, hose and conservative hair, jewelry and makeup are expected.

Corporate Casual Looks-Working women have interpreted this to mean everything from shorts to sundresses, but in its most literal sense it means "smart business." Dressy pants and a blouse, sleek jersey knits and skirts and tops are all examples of corporate casual. Denim, T-shirts and flip-flops -- all '90s phenoms -- are only acceptable in the most casual of work environments.

Casual Friday - Depending on the business, this can mean anything from corporate casual instead of formal looks or "Wear your company logo polo and jeans." If in doubt, ask a superior.

how to contour your face

How many times have you forlornly scanned through beauty glossies and envied models with perfectly-carved features? Well, you too can achieve the same, by simply applying your make-up the right way. Whether you want to make your jaw line more distinct, narrow down a large forehead or downplay chubby cheeks, contouring your face with a compact, highlighter or foundation darker than your skin tone can help you create that illusion.

“Contouring is all about drawing attention to your facial features so that it gives an appearance of a strong jaw line, defined cheek bones and a slimmer face. It is about shadows and light. Just like darker colours make you look thin and lighter colours makes you look fat, shading is done with a darker colour to push an area inward and highlighting is done with a lighter colour to pull an area outward.” Grooming expert Diana Hayden suggests, “To shade and contour your face, use a powder, bronzer or foundation, which is darker than your skin tone, but no more than two to three shades darker.” If you’re contouring with foundation, shade it after applyingfoundation and before applying powder.

Make up tips and tricks

Want to slim down that stubby nose? For a sharper nose, shade on either side of the nasal bone. You can also make your nasal bone more prominent by applying a thin layer of concealer on it.

If you have chubby cheeks, starting from the outermost edge of your cheekbones shade under the cheekbones and towards your mouth. Blend the edges into your cheeks.

For a well-defined jaw line, shade from the outermost edge under your cheekbones, up to three-quarters of the way to your chin, following a line from under your cheekbones to your chin, curving towards your chin halfway. Lightly shade under your chin, just below your jaw line.To narrow down a broad forehead, gently shade the sides, as well as the top of your forehead along the hairline.

Says Sachani, “Using the right brushes is very important for contouring and highlighting. Bigger brush can be used for bigger areas like under the jaw line. Make sure you keep a separate brush for your blush and your contouring powder so as to not mix the two colours.”

Look natural
Avoid obvious colour indifferences and streaks. Work lightly and build up gradually. Blending is very important while contouring so that there are no harsh lines visible.