Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [8]
Once you are confident that your clothes work for you and fit your own image of yourself, you can forget all about them and focus on the task at hand. That’s why we are discussing your personal appearance in the first chapter of this book—to get you well dressed and well groomed and send you out ready to face the public, whether that public means colleagues, clients, reporters, or a national television audience.
In this chapter, we will be referring often to what effect your clothes and other aspects of your personal appearance have when you go on television, since in front of TV cameras you must be particularly careful about how you look. You may never actually go on TV—you may only be seen by customers, clients, or professional associates—but since these days so many successful professionals are eventually asked to make some kind of TV appearance at some point in their careers, you should be aware of the rules of the game.
YOUR CLOTHES
In this section, we’ll be discussing the clothes that work best when you are the person “up front” and all eyes are upon you. In private, you can indulge in your flights of fancy and wear whatever you choose. But as a public person, your choices now have a different focus—they must not attract too much attention to themselves because their role is to allow you to transmit your message. In short, your clothes should work for you, not overpower you.
The right outfit can do wonders for the effect a person’s message has, and should be considered a key component of this preparation. Just look at Ann Richards, treasurer of the state of Texas, who was chosen to be the keynote speaker for the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta. As one of her consultants, I was asked to find a dress that would be suitable for such an important occasion. She had already looked at many dresses—some sent to her by well-meaning friends—but had found nothing among them that she particularly liked; they were all too frilly or ornate or severe. In order to choose her dress, I had to keep in mind the following:
• The background color of the podium area was gray;
• The front of the podium was “busy,” with a stylized version of the flag in muted colors of red, white, and blue;
• The lights would be susceptible to the blue range, would be “thrown” from a long distance, and would be brought up and down, from bright to dim;
• She would be seen in person by thousands of people from every walk of life, all staring at her and sizing her up. She would also be seen by possibly millions of TV viewers, and the TV cameras being used would be very sensitive and would be focusing from close up to a long distance;
• Members of the live audience would be moving about, dressed in many colors, and would be seen in the TV camera’s long shots;
• The photographers would need a color that looked good in black-and-white and color, on video tape and film.
After studying hours of video tapes of Ann, I was aware of her delicate coloring, the halo of silvery hair, her chiseled features, the blue-green color of her eyes, and her strong, vibrant personality.
As I recommend to all my clients for whom I select clothes, the dress shouldn’t be red, white, black, boldly printed, or striped. What was really needed here was a plain dress of good design, soft fabric, and in the middle of the color spectrum—possibly near to her actual eye color. I ended up trooping through a dozen or more stores until I found the perfect outfit—a jacket dress with a plain neckline. It was simple and elegant and was of a lovely aquamarine blue.
To see how the dress would look, the day before the convention started we had Ann hold up the dress on the actual podium she would use during