Fashion faux pas’ and tips to make sure your colleagues make it through the 2015 New Year celebrations without any awkward feelings.
It’s time for Christmas and New Year parties at work. That annual party where you’re surrounded by your colleagues and probably your boss. Take care because end of year stress and alcohol can be an extremely dangerous combination. Add to that an impossible fashion faux pas and you can forget that promotion. Of course you should pay a little extra attention to your outfit and make-up, but it is important to grasp that you’re not with family and friends.
Tips
* Ask if there is a dress code and if there isn’t, ask your colleagues what they’ll be wearing.
* Knowing what time and where the party or drinks will be held will help decide your outfit. A lunch in a local cafe requires something different to an evening in a chic restaurant.
* You mostly see colleagues during work hours. This party is not the moment to showcase how you behave out of work. Stay yourself, the person that you are on the work floor. Whoever that may be.
* Be aware of the culture within your work environment. If you work for a hip media company, the dress code will be very different than if you work in a decent little legal office.
A lunch in a local cafe requires something different to an evening in a chic restaurant.
* In all cases: do not show too much skin. Even slightly too much cleavage or an ultra short skirt are not of the order.
* Take care with too much glitter: it is not the intention to try and imitate a Christmas tree. Shine and glitter should be worn in moderation in the form of earrings for example.
* Don’t do silly, like wearing a reindeer-tiara on your head or something like it.
(I will never forget the director of a well known publishing house who said his speech (think Gerard and Gordon) with a boa around his neck and a brightly coloured cowboy hat on his head. I have never taken him seriously again).
(I will never forget the director of a well known publishing house who said his speech (think Gerard and Gordon) with a boa around his neck and a brightly coloured cowboy hat on his head. I have never taken him seriously again).
My closing advice is to adapt to the culture of your work environment, do not drink too much and remember that the LBD – little classic black dress – is the safest and best option in this case.
