A book A Guide On Professional Appearance (A. Jasilionytė, 408 psl. ),  ISBN 978-9955-903-00-0, lithuanian language

You have to be responsible for your professional appearance so that it:

• immediately creates an impression of a reliable, stable, and friendly person;
• creates an impression of your being feminine and attractive or masculine and precise;
• represents your personality and professional achievements;
• represents your vision of life.

Why image is so important to your career?

An image that meets top requirements enhances the message about:

• quality,
• responsibility,
• success.

If you introduce a product or a good in a convincing and efficient manner, you gain more self-confidence, improve the feedback from the clients and business partners as well as you gain an obvious advantage in the market:

• you focus your attention on work and service provision,
• you improve your potential to develop and get promoted – you become appreciated by the company.

What?

A casual outfit at work has to be defined clearly and comprehensively. The outfit must correspond to the aims, goals and business branch as well as management level, status, and geographical region of your organization. It is impossible not to communicate with others even if you do not say a word. Employees who efficiently represent their organization can make a distinct feature of your field of activity. When someone communicates with an employee of an organization, he/she accepts the employee as the representative of the organization and forms an opinion about the organization itself.

How?

You can create an image that best represents you and makes a good impression on others by the means of business casual and appearance. The looks of your employees has a great influence on the general image of the organization, i.e. your company is evaluated by their behaviour and manners. The outfit of employees makes a certain impression about the organization on consumers, customers, patients, society, marketing of the business branch, and promising employees.

Though we tend to think that people contact us for our professional and technical competence about the organization, market research has revealed a very important fact: people usually decide whether to communicate with us in the future by the first impression we make. What you wear conveys different information about you.

For whom?

This book is aimed at leaders, managers, administration employees and everyone else, who seek career, as well as those who are interested in style and want to make a good impression.

Where?

The book discusses the aspects of professional appearance of men and women: the first impression, stance, facial expression, self-confidence, colours and shapes, clothing silhouettes, dress codes, how to choose accessories and prepare oneself for business trips.

The first chapter introduces you to the components of personal image and their importance in our everyday life. The significance and the power of self-confidence, polite manners, beautiful body language and great looks. As soon as you meet a person you take a look at his/her body, which means that you take a look at his/her clothes. How to create an effective image? An impression about a person is long-lasting. An impression a person makes today has been forming for years. Values make the essence of our personality. External, visual image is usually an expression of internal, implicit image. Business partners or employers may not necessarily be aware of your experience and qualifications, therefore, professional skills and capabilities are estimated according to the appearance at the beginning.  The image of employees represents the organization or….

The second chapter discusses the main aspects of visual appearance and wardrobe forming. A wardrobe is the unity of style, textures and colours. They have to be in line with each other. You will learn how to recognize and identify colours and styles, which will help your business and communication. What textures should be chosen for professional clothing? How to create sets of clothes? What to look for and how to do reasonable shopping? How to form a wardrobe from the clothes you have and by minimum efforts and expenses? How to organize a wardrobe?

The third chapter discusses the aspects of women’s self-care, the choice of haircut and accessories according to body shape and face, day and evening make-up. Points when everything is beautifully balanced, and when too many details are too many. Scent is also important – there are so many pleasant memories associated merely with scent. However, can scent disturb and embarrass? Figures can be different, so how do we select clothes suitable for our body shape, how do we hide what we do not wish to demonstrate and how do we point up our advantages. What style is appropriate for a certain situation? Usually two styles dominate in woman’s wardrobe. How many sets of clothes do we need to have when making a career and when already being at the top of career? How to look better while spending less? Is colour important when choosing an item of clothing? How do we create our own wardrobe? How many items of clothing do we need in order to look great seven days a week and not to worry that “I don’t have anything to wear”?

The fourth chapter speaks about the aspects of men’s self-care, the choice of haircut, types of figures. What style and suit silhouette are the most suitable? How to select clothes by body shape, how to conceal what we do not want to demonstrate? What and how many set of clothes do you need to purchase when making a career and being at the top of it? What clothes fit and what are the details of wearing them? The shape of the face and the choice of the collar. How to properly do a tie? Ways of taking advantage of your imagination. How to properly tie a scarf and a bow-tie? What should be paid attention to when choosing a new item of clothing? How to match colours and prints of your tie, suit, and shirt? The importance of accessories to the finish of appearance.

The fifth chapter discusses in detail modern styles of business casual and what is typical of them, what item of clothing suits certain occasion and how it is related to business branch, trips and work positions, place and time. How to prepare for a business trip and how many items of clothing do we need to take, how to properly pack a suitcase. Quite often we cannot decide what to wear everyday. What are the standards of business casual? Dress codes raise a number of discussions, therefore, the book provides a few tips on the matter. Four styles of business casual: traditional – classical – fashionable (smart) – leisure. You will be able to make a distinction between business casual and casual weekend outfit and you will make an impression of being reliable and professional. The influence of business casual on organizational culture and what style of business casual suits your organization. Suitable clothes for events: from smart to casual. Solemn outfit.

When you go on a trip you should also pay attention to the country you go to, its culture, and activity you are going to follow when being in the country. Your aim is to make an impression of a professional, reliable, attractive person. Answers to frequently asked questions.

Annexes provide a table of sizes, a list of preparation for a trip, a table of clothing care, shoe care, advice on how to choose glasses.

So,

If you want to make a good impression, you have to look good and feel good. Personal outfit and body language, etiquette and communication are important elements of the image. These elements are achievable and interesting to learn

Sincerely,
Alvyda Jasilionytė
Mobile: +370 687 33 462
www.alvyda.com
e-mail: aj@alvyda.com

Response:

Our outfit, good manners and proper application of formal protocol can be crucial in order to make and maintain successful business relationships. Therefore, I am convinced that this book is an excellent personal adviser for everyone who want to create his/her own professional style. Exhaustive pieces of advice, attention to details will help you better represent yourself in different situations, as well as it will provide more self-confidence. I recommend this book to everyone who seeks personal development.

Andrius Pranckevičius, BALTICLAW, managing partner

Personalities dictate fashion. There are no “written rules” in fashion, only fashion development, which respects history and reflects the life style of today. However, a chosen life style sometimes demands to be aware of and to follow certain standards, rules, dress codes, protocol regulations formed by society and activity. To my mind, this book is going to be a good guide to a world of formal, protocol activity, where one can easily make a mistake without professional help. I sincerely wish everyone to learn and to be able to put in practice practical advice on how to behave, what to wear, so that behaviour or dress codes, uniforms and rules do not become our spiritual uniform.

Jolanta Talaikytė, professor of the Department of Costume Design, Vilnius Academy of Arts

In a modern world of business casual plays one of the most important roles, being aware of formal protocol particularly is important in terms of international relationships, which have become important due to the influence of globalization. Most of us have probably heard of an expression: “You meet a person by his clothes..”, therefore, how we look like is as important as what we know. Professional style is respect for yourself in the first place, and, of course, for your business partners. This book will provide with useful knowledge both business people and politicians, and people who know that professional outfit style is not a fashion, which comes and goes, rather, it is knowledge which helps us feel comfortable and confident.

Rolandas Vilkončius, TV host

During all times and in all countries management faces three most important problems – that of a manager, how to motivate employees to work, and that of harmonious relationships of employees.

Dear reader, you are holding in your hands a book, which analyzes one aspect of the problem of managers – not how to choose a manager, but how to train him/her, not the maze of his/her personal features, but how he/she has to look like. Indeed, success of an activity depends on his/her appearance, the first impression, the so-called image much more than we tend to think.

Though problems of management as well as of an image are universal, each period of time and each country with its culture features certain differences. There are plenty of translations on the matter, however, it is the first book that analyzes nuances in this country. This book can be a useful adviser for someone who wants to seek career, success of his/her organization, or needs to represent our country.

Assoc. Prof. Romualdas Razauskas