Presenting yourself

Had the privilege to attend Jill Lowe’s presentation and dressing course at the start of the year. Was surprised to see a petite chinese lady instead of a tall angmoh lady. Jill is a Singaporean Chinese, but becos her surname in dialect is spelt as “Lowe”, it becomes pretty classed - Jill Lowe.

I found her very inspiring and motivating, because she is pretty sincere in imparting her knowledge and genuinely wants us to do better. Some pearls of wisdom from Jill:

- dun carry big handbags. Small bags are more classed.
- hang your handbag on your elbow at a distance from your body. The nearer the bag is to you, the older u become.
- every blusher applied 1cm below the lowest point of the nose, ages you by 5 years
- jeans / denim are for the farmers in the past. The fact that it’s a fashion item now doesn’t increase its ‘class’. So wear it sparingly
- brown eyeshadow is ‘class’, blue eyeshadow is ‘cheap’
-flat hair gives people the impression you are a poor man’s wife.. no wonder the indonesian ibus always have beehive hair.
-dun bend your knees when you are standing. makes you look cheap.

Alot of the things she said, contradicts with what I have been trying to do in my quest to improve my appearance. Eg: I should have short layered hair (the recommended styles were very ‘auntie’). But a lot of people have commented I look nicer with long hair. Some of the recommendations were in conflict with my personal tastes. Eg: I like pink lipsticks. But I am supposed to use orange-brown lipsticks to match my skintone. Yikes, so garish.

So how am I supposed to reconcile these? It’s easy (in theory). Jill is teaching me to dress and present myself such that bosses will look at me and think I am deserving of the promotion or at least think that I am a capable person. Previously I have been learning to doll up to look like a pretty girl so as to attract guys. But now, I want to attract bosses to my capability, not my looks. So, out with the long hair, and the pinks.