Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [6]
As we were about to reach the door to the studio, it opened, and down the steps clattered the four members of a punk-rock band.
The two female members of the band were wearing what you might expect—leather jackets painted and studded with rivets and rhinestones, lacy blouses that looked like lingerie, very short skirts, and high-heeled boots painted in bright colors. One had blond and green hair, and one had brown and blue hair. Each had on a dozen pieces of jangly jewelry. Their makeup was heavy and stark, and both were cracking gum.
The two male rockers were dressed similarly, only minus the lace and with somewhat less makeup and jewelry.
As the band squeezed by us on the stairs, the senator stared at them, turned to me, and blurted out, “What do they have to do with arms control?”
Fighting to keep a straight face, I explained that the show we were taping that day was not a theme show, with all interviews being on one subject, but was instead a mix of subjects, both serious and not so serious.
I sometimes call this little incident “the collision of the clothes”—a rather extreme lesson on the fact that your appearance is important, that you are instantly judged by others on how you look.
In fact, other guests who came into the studio over the next few days to appear on that same talk show included a North African ambassador dressed in his long flowing robes, a Catholic priest in his black suit and white clerical collar, an athlete dressed in her Olympic warm-up jacket, and a Country-and-Western singing star in her bouffant hairdo and glitzy dress. The appearance of all of these people made them readily identifiable.
The clothes you wear in public may not be as easily recognizable as these people’s clothes were, but they do, nevertheless, say a lot about you.
The choices you make as you create your own image can, if well chosen, transmit a statement about you and about what you think about yourself.
FEELING GOOD ABOUT YOURSELF
People do judge you during the first few seconds of merely looking at you—and before you even open your mouth. Whether you are making a business presentation, giving a speech, or even being interviewed on television, this is especially important for you, a person who is appearing in public or among your peers.
If your appearance is attractive, you can get an audience on your side before you have even said a word. Likewise, you can alienate an audience if your appearance is not quite right.
But there is more to this thing of having an effective personal appearance. It is essential that you feel good about yourself, because by doing so you reveal your personal conviction to your audience. When you know that you have taken the time to be well groomed, tastefully dressed, and in reasonably good physical shape, you exude confidence in yourself. When you sense that something is wrong or below your own basic standards, you tend to center your attention on that inadequacy. Even though others may feel that you look fine, you know that you may not look your best, and you can unconsciously transmit that negative feeling.
You do not dress to impress members of the opposite sex as much as you dress to please yourself, and for your own self-esteem and satisfaction. You, the wearer, are the important part of this equation.
Certain well-known public figures have been almost transformed when they finally found out what makes them look good.
Barbra Streisand is an example of such a person. Pictures taken earlier on in her career show a rather plain, almost gawky woman whose appearance said little about herself or even that she didn’t seem to care how she looked. As she developed as a singer, actress, and movie producer, pictures of her began to show a very different woman—one who learned how to wear her hair and apply her makeup to diminish “faults”