Business Fit Magazine November 2018 Issue 1 | Page 54

Pashion Fashion
'Clothes make the man', or so they say, and
many a male CEO has established credibility,
professionalism, and (let's be honest) a bit of
swagger with an expensive, well-cut suit. But when
it comes to women in the boardroom, it all gets a
little more complicated.
Dressed for
Success:
Is Your Business
Wardrobe Holding
You Back?
Olga Anderson
54
Photographer: Yuriy Romanyuk
Professional women often find themselves
having to walk the line between dressing
'appropriately' for what was a traditionally
male dress code, and their own sense of style.
Most choose to eschew their femininity in
order to be taken seriously and regarded as an
equal, especially in past decades where sexual
harassment was rife. The result is the soulless
uniform of boxy trouser-suits and matronly
black dresses that you'll still find in the
workwear section of any department store. It
was exactly this lack of choice and imagination
that led me to found my couture label, ‘Olga
Anderson’, which aims to empower working
women with elegant, feminine, beautifully
crafted fashion. I'm passionate about helping
these women reclaim their femininity and
personality in what they wear, in part because
rather than elevating them, that dull office
uniform may actually be holding women back.
We all know that what we wear affects the way
we are perceived by others, and that a first
impression, once formed, is hard to overcome.
It may not be fair, but all of us judge other people
on the way they look, forming ideas about their
authority, trustworthiness, intelligence, and
financial success, among other qualities - all of
which can influence your career advancement.
However, others' perception of us based on
what we wear is only one half of the story.
Recent research now also shows that the
clothes you wear and the perception you have
of yourself in those clothes can actually affect
your own mental and physical performance.
In studies reported by Scientific American,
so-called 'enclothed cognition' can increase
abstract thinking, enhance focus, and make
us feel more powerful and creative. Informal
clothing even influenced negotiations in one
study, with subjects who were dressed up
securing more profitable deals and showing
higher testosterone levels than those who
were not.
Clothes can also have a profound effect on our
sense of wellbeing, particularly when it comes
to colour. Many of my clients have limited
themselves to a safe zone of dark colours,
effectively hiding themselves from both
notice and criticism. In contrast, think of how
The Queen wears a bright array of colours,
so that she is easy to pick out of a crowd. "If
I wore beige, nobody would know who I am,"
she is once reported to have said. Different
colours can be subconsciously associated
with psychological traits, allowing us to project
confidence (red), trustworthiness (white), calm
(blue), or approachability (pink), for example.
These colour associations also influence our
own moods and attitudes, and dark colours
can leave us feeling depressed, sad or even
aggressive.
Olga Anderson’ aims
to empower working
women with elegant,
feminine, beautifully
crafted fashion.
55