FRESH LOOK
ARE YOU DRESSED FOR SUCCESS? If you need a career boost then it’s not Are you stuck in a rut? Do you feel that all the hours that you’ve been putting in at just the skills that need to be fine tuned despite work, your career seems to be going nowhere? If but also the wardrobe. BY LISA-ANN LEE this sounds familiar, perhaps the solution lies not in continuing to work harder but going in for a personal rebranding exercise. Given the competition in the work place, it’s no longer sufficient these days just to have the right academic credentials if you’re looking to advance your career. Cultivating the right personal brand and image is equally important. Indeed, studies have shown that a few seconds is all it takes for someone to form an impression of your character, social background and credibility. So why not use this knowledge to your own advantage? As a wise man once said, only a fool doesn’t judge by appearances. That said, getting a leg up in your career is not the only thing that a confident self-image can give you. There’s also the matter of a confidence boost, which has led Sweden’s largest makeover company to set up shop in Asia. Observes Sauman Ng-Beckett, co-owner of The Studio, “After years of working with models in the industry and seeing for myself how low self-esteem affects many, I thought, ‘Why is the limelight only given to size-zero models? What about giving the same opportunities to ordinary people? The idea behind The Studio is to allow everyone to look and feel gorgeous...and help them build and increase their self-esteem.”
HIRING AN IMAGE STYLIST: WHAT TO EXPECT For many, the notion of having someone tell them what to wear is an unsettling one. After all, isn’t style a matter of personal taste? What qualifies someone to tell them how they should dress? Veteran fashion stylist and image consultant Vik Lim wants people to know that there’s more to an image stylist’s job than helping clients shop for clothes. “When I perform this service,” says Lim, “I don’t just tell my client what I think he or she needs to
24
MAY 2011
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