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Your guests are listening with their eyes. The right choices in clothing, accessories, and grooming will communicate trust and credibility whether you are working (or playing) locally or abroad.
Dress to communicate excellence. Style is nice but substance is better. The term universal standards is used when discussing first class grooming in the hospitality management arena.
The general guidelines listed below will help you in building a professional wardrobe.
Clothing
- Wear clothes made of good quality fabrics. A very inexpensive piece of clothing will lose its shape quickly.
- Better to invest in just a few good pieces of clothing at a time. Less is more. Add pieces as your budget permits.
- Make friends with the personal shopper at your local department store. This person will call you when appropriate wardrobe pieces are going on sale.
- Suits, jackets and sports coats add a look of competence for both men and women. Allow ½ inch of your shirt cuff to be visible below the sleeve of your suit.
Colors
- Blue tones (navy, dark blue, royal blue) project trust.
- For men, wearing brown can cause mistrust. This is not true for women.
- Navy and black are absolutely the best professional colors. These are followed by rich shades of green, red, brown and taupe.
- Dark charcoal grey is another excellent choice
- Avoid loud colors professionally. Your clothes should not be trendy. They should shout “excellence.”
Weight Gain
- We all gain (and lose) weight. This is never an excuse for wearing clothes that are too tight (or loose).
- Invest in yourself by investing in a tailor when you need one.
- You are a polished professional. Let your colleagues, guests and vendors see you in clothes that fit and are well tailored, pressed, and spotless.
- Psychologists tell us that your guests will make up their minds about you in roughly three seconds! Let those three seconds communicate your trust, credibility, and excellence.
Excerpts of blog taken from the book: Hospitality Management – People Skills & Manners on and off the Job.
Copyright © 2015 Lyn Pont, PhD
