Tips to Dress for Business Success?

Question

What tips do you go by in dressing for day-to-day, whether for important events (e.g., high profile meetings) or managing?

For example, one rule of thumb I go by is to wear my eye color in a meeting, to both draw attention to my eyes and better project myself.

Answer 1

General rule of thumb is to dress to the level of your boss, manager or supervisor. Sure you can work on color coordinating, but if you're a landscaper, wearing a tie just makes you look silly... even if it matches your eyes.

Answer 2

I look at the material first. Some material collects lints, others wrinkle and yet others turn simple water spots and stains into massive messes. Also some material is more comfortable than others. Right now I'm looking at dark greys for suits with shirts that are 65% polyester and 35% cotton for hot days where the material has to be thin (and therefore prone to wrinkle more than thicker fabric). Browns look horrible with water stains and blacks collect lint, dandruff and even ash/light colored dust.

Then I look for fit and comfort in the material and fit (you don't have to suffer to look good). The main problem for me is that the armpits are bulky in bad fitting suits. When I raise my arms it looks like my suit has sprouted wings. Shoes are another problem. I have wide feet for my size so the shoes for my size I often end up seeing are either oddball looking shoes or a color that doesn't fit most of my clothes. At least pure black shoes will take some attention off any oddball look.

Answer 3

Make sure what you are wearing is clean and fits properly. If the suit fits correctly, everything else is secondary. Dress conservatively. Make sure your hands are clean and your nails/manicure is correct. Make sure your shoes are shined and not run over.