How To Dress For Success: 5 Tips To Looking More Professional

As a freelancer, it can be tempting to spend your entire day in a pair of sweatpants and slippers. When you’re working from home, you don’t have to bother with office attire. Instead, you can just roll out of bed and get to work, right?   

Well, just because you don’t have to abide by a strict workplace dress code, doesn’t mean you can say goodbye to your office-wear forever. There’ll still be times in your freelancing career when you’ll need to dress for success. If you attend a networking event or meet with a client, you’ll need to look the part. Otherwise, you’ll never convince your colleagues that you’re the right person for the job.

These five simple tricks will help elevate your outfits so that you can always appear polished and professional when the situation calls for it.

1:Start With The Basics

What you wear matters! Even the professionals agree. In a study published by The Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, it was found that subtle changes in your attire can affect whether people perceive you as confident, successful, or trustworthy. So, if you truly want to dress for success, then you need to get every aspect of your outfit right!  

Let’s start with the basics: Every freelancer should have a set of wardrobe essentials that they can call upon at any time. These include a well-fitting blazer, white button-down shirt, slim-fit sweater, and a pair of slacks. If you’re a man, you might want to add a couple of nice ties and a pair of chinos to your collection. If you’re a woman, you could add a classic black dress into the mix or swap out the button down for a chic cami. The most important thing is to pick timeless pieces in neutral colours.

When it comes to looking polished and professional, there’s no need to make things too complicated. Simply mix and match your wardrobe essentials and you’ll be well on your way to looking effortlessly put together.    

2 When In Doubt, Always Choose Business-Casual

Figuring out what to wear can be a confusing business, especially when you’re a work-at-home freelancer. It can be difficult to work out where the boundary between casual home-wear and professional workwear starts and finishes.      

For example: Is it okay to wear a t-shirt and jeans if you’re just meeting a client for coffee? Truth be told, we don’t think it is. When it comes to work meetings, we believe business-casual is always the way to go. At the end of the day, you want your colleagues to take you seriously. So, it doesn’t matter whether you’re meeting in the office or just at a café, you should always try to dress up.

This is when your wardrobe essentials can really come in handy! If you need to dress up your go-to t-shirt and jeans combo, simply throw on a well-fitting blazer and your client will know you mean business.  

3 Use Simple Accessories To Appear More Polished  

One of the easiest ways to appear more professional is to accessorise!

The right accessory can really finish off a look and transform your outfit from casual to business-casual. The trick, though, is not to go overboard. We suggest that you choose a couple of pieces to help you appear more sophisticated. The best accessories for professional attire include an elegant watch, classic, understated jewellery, a stylish belt, a good, comfortable pair of shoes, and a structured handbag or briefcase.

You’ll be surprised just how much one or two of these accessories can really make your outfit shine.  

4 Pay Attention To Grooming

It’s important to convey your professionalism from the top of your head all the way down to the tips of your toes. As a result, you need to take your personal grooming seriously.

Before you leave for a work meeting, don’t forget to brush your teeth (and tongue), trim your fingernails, moisturise your face, and use deodorant. If you’re going to spray perfume or aftershave, err on the side of caution and only use a little bit. You don’t want to smell overpowering. Similarly, don’t leave the house with wet hair. There’s nothing worse than arriving at a work meeting with wet patches on your shirt.

Last, but not least, be sure to finish off your look with a few final touches. Before you walk out the door, flip down your collar, tuck in your shirt (the french tuck from Queer Eye always works a treat!), and, if you wear glasses, don’t forget to clean their lenses. The devil’s in the details, after all.

5 Iron, Iron, Iron!

 This last tip may seem obvious, but it’s one that many people tend to overlook. Ironing your clothes is essential. Even if you put together an incredibly polished outfit, all your hard work could be undone by a couple of creases. So, don’t let an unironed blazer put a wrinkle in your first impression. Take the time to iron your outfit and we promise that you’ll look a thousand times more professional!