Sunday, August 3, 2008
chapter 1: building a professional presence
The first impression after all lectures and tutorials on this workshop was: so theoretical. It specifies EXACTLY the right way to wear a business suit and the dress code for all workshops. Yes I am serious. From hairstyle, top, bottom, jacket to shoes, hosery, make up and jewellery. However, as time passes by, I realized the importance of power dressing. You not only will look good, it will also boost one’s confidence. I used to find it a chore to wake up at 730am in the morning just to dress up for workshops. However, now I feel that, if you are going to wear a sloppy business entire, then don’t wear it at all. It totally makes me feel disgusted seeing people in messy hair and tuck out blouse. Mr Nair was right that we should be proud that Hospitality and Tourism (HTM) students are the best dressed in the entire campus. 2 months ago, I attended Prize Giving Ceremony for Academic Excellence. It was no doubt that the bunch of students seating at the left of the auditorium are HTM students. This really made me feel very proud to be a HTM student.Some pictures to share with you that reflect power dressing:
Reference: http://www.brockport.edu/career/dress/images/MenOutfits.jpg
Reference: http://www.eiu.edu/~careers/students/prof_dress.php
They look smart, aren’t they?
Now look at this picture:
Reference: http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/1164058/2/
istockphoto_1164058_sloppy_business_attire.jpg
Imagine if you are on a business trip to overseas and your clients point this out to you. Won’t you feel embarrassed? And I am quite sure that your clients will have this impression: Doesn’t Singaporeans know to even dress well to respect us?
Bear in mind that what you wear represent not only you, but also your company and country.
Talking about this reminds me of an interview session with Singapore Flyer a month ago. My best friend, Yingfang, and I were selected for an interview with them for part time position. The first thing that came to our mind was to dress like how we dress for workshops. But guess what. When we arrived at their Human Resource department, we saw the other interviewees too. But they were all in jeans and t-shirts. Initially we do felt very out of place but we came to a conclusion that dressing well definitely creates good impression.
Now, read these 2 articles below. Extracted from the Sunday Times and Straits Times respectively. I will be highlighting the main points in bold.
Article 1: Who? Me, sloppy?
By Frankie Chee
If Singapore's collective dressing style goes by a motto, it is this: Life's a beach.
All over the sunny island, from shopping malls to cinema halls, people wear what has become the de facto national costume - T-shirts, bermuda shorts and slippers.
They turn up in their casual beachwear even at swanky fashion boutiques in Orchard Road, white-glove hotel lobbies and chi-chi restaurants.
From couples on dates to teenagers to parents with kids in tow, they all favour the dress-down look.
Just throw in a plastic pail and spade and the picture of frolicking seaside fun is complete.
A check along Orchard Road two Saturdays ago found that up to half of the men who strolled past flashy Gucci and Louis Vuitton boutiques were in bermuda shorts, and either sandals or loafers.
Similar attire was spotted in a restaurant and lounge of two five-star hotels in town, the National Museum, the classy Golden Village Gold Class Cinema in VivoCity and even on a Friday night out at fashionable Zouk nightclub.
More shockingly, a man in his 50s was seen standing at the crowded walkway outside Marriott Hotel in what seemed like boxer shorts and sneakers.
Many of these places do not have a dress code. A check with 15 restaurants, entertainments spots and hotels found that fewer than five have such guidelines for patrons. And often, even if they do, they may not enforce it.
Victoria Concert Hall's hall manager Collin Tan says the esteemed performance venue does not have a dress code as enforcing one would create problems.
'A casually dressed patron might tell us that he bought a $200 ticket and we're denying him entry into the hall, and he will probably demand his money back,' he says.
The line between casual and smart-casual is also not easy to draw, he adds.
'Some people might be wearing bermuda shorts but they still look smart, or we might have women in designer flip-flops. We can't refuse them entry,' he says.
So this raises the question: Is Singapore, whose airport and port have been rated top in the world, also No. 1 in producing sloppy dressers?
Yes, says Ms Eunice Tan, owner of grooming consultancy Image Flair. 'Singaporeans are too casually dressed. They care more about comfort than any guideline.'
Miss Alexis Wan, owner of image consultancy D'new Image Chapter, says: 'Younger people do dress up but they have the notion that the less you wear, the better it is, hence the shorts, miniskirts and tank- tops,' she says.
Miss Goh Jia Wen, 20, assistant cataloguing officer and her boyfriend Wu Sihan, 20, NSF, were in their weekend wear when they visited the National Museum. She was wearing a T-shirt and pants that ended just below the knee while he was wearing a polo T-shirt and long bermuda shorts.
She said: 'We didn't get any stares when we were in the museum and there were many other people who were dressed as casually as we were.''
University lecturer Danny Leung, 45, is one such under-dresser. Seen in a T-shirt, bermuda shorts and sandals in Orchard Road, he tells LifeStyle: 'This is comfortable and not too casual. I wear this even when going to the cinema or theatre. I won't dress up for the occasion.' He is not alone. Many of those LifeStyle spoke to also think their bermuda- shorts-and-sandals ensemble is good enough for any occasion.
'This is my usual outfit,' says education officer K.H. Teo, 37, who was strolling down Orchard Road in a T-shirt, bermuda shorts and loafers. His adolescent son was in similar garb.
'Singapore is too hot, something light should be suitable. I feel it's okay to wear this, it's not too casual,' he adds.
Indeed, most blame it on the weather, even though Singapore's malls, cinemas, the MRT system and even buses are air-conditioned.
Student Yeo Han Yao, 16, says:'The weather is too hot to wear pants. They're also not so popular now anyway.'
But the sweltering heat hasn't stopped other cities from producing style-conscious, occasion-appropriate dressers.
Businessman Terence Khoo, 37, who travels to China, Hong Kong and Indonesia frequently, notices that people there take more care with their dressing. 'Singaporeans tend to dress down. In Indonesia, everyone puts on their Sunday best when they go out.'
For Singapore's working crowd, the common excuse is that wearing a shirt and tie five days a week makes casualwear the natural choice on weekends.
Investment banker Cowan Phan, 26, says: 'I'm in office attire five days in a row, so as long as I'm not in an obscene pair of shorts and I'm neat, I think it's okay.'
Image Flair's Ms Tan says that dressing up doesn't mean wearing a suit and tie all the time - it is about putting on the right attire for the right occasion.
At the Esplanade last Sunday to attend a concert, 22-year-old student Richa Ahuja was seen dressed in a long-sleeved sweater top, jeans and high heels.
She says: 'I think everyone should make a conscious effort to dress up when they go anywhere because that will make their day a little more special. I mean, we dress down when we're at home, why do that outside?'
Talent manager Vicky S, 37, agrees. 'Dressing well is important because it's first and foremost, courtesy to others, and to yourself,' she says.
Additional reporting by Zaidah Rahmat and Benita Aw Yeong
I am also found guilty to sloppy dressing. To honest, my BESE is on Tuesday, and my outfit for Wednesday would definitely be shorts and slippers. I can fully understand the comments that the Singapore working crowd gave in the article above. Having to dress conservatively from Mondays-Fridays, weekends would definitely be the dress down period. Maybe we are too used to the sloppy sights, I do not feel anything wrong wearing shorts and slippers to Orchard Road. However, I disagree with the Victoria Theatre management comments. How could they feel that having a dress code could cause them problems? That is ridiculous. So what if the ticket holder is rich enough to pay $200? He should at least respect the performers.
This reminds me of the de-brief session for Service Skills Methodology (SSM) with Mr Goh last Monday. (For your information, this is the subject we are taking at Temasek Culinary Academy. Doing service at ToP Table and Sugarloaf.) He told us it was never a good feeling to reject your guests at the door, as they did not follow the dress code. However, he insists that every guest entering the ToP Table should be properly dressed and stick strictly to the dress code. I was really impressed with the way he deals with things and his self-discipline.
In conclusion, I really do not find anything wrong being in the “sloppy” wear. However, one should know when to dress down and dress up appropriately.
Article 2: 1st world status, flip flop lifestyle
By Lee Siew Hua
SINGAPORE is a land of wonderful contrasts. That's an element of our global branding.
Now it appears that we have a new one: First World Nation, Flip-Flop Lifestyle.
How about that?
It's a jarring contrast - rather than a compelling or profitable one that sings of our uniqueness or brings in dollars.
I was amused, and a little uneasy, when I read a recent Sunday Times report headlined 'Sloppy Singapore'.
The story posed this question: 'Is Singapore, whose airport and port have been rated top in the world, also No. 1 in producing sloppy dressers?'
If this is a flip-flop flap of no lasting consequence, we will simply move on. But if our choice of attire is a sharp hint of a heck-care or clueless national character, then it's a different story.
Many readers, in their e-mail responses, agreed that we're slouching towards sloppiness as a nation. A few others insisted on dressing their way.
Now I'm wondering. What do the growing numbers of flip-flop wearers in Orchard Road say about us?
Dressing defines a nation or an entire culture to a degree, like it or not.
Think of the drab Mao peasant suit, or the all-concealing Middle Eastern burkha. Fairly or not, they suggest control and subjugation.
In freer societies, the fashionable apparel and culture of Paris, New York and Tokyo make them citadels of style.
Sloppy = fun?
HERE in Singapore, we have the pristine white-on-white outfits of the People's Action Party that signify integrity and purity of purpose.
Though that colour code hardly counts as cool - even to PAP members, who contemplated its merits in 1990 but decided not to ditch it - it is an outward sign of a powerful impulse in 1959.
That is the idea that a new Singapore could rise, incorruptible, from the dust of empire.
Now, we don't want an abundance of the party colour on the streets. But do we really enjoy the prevalence of the de facto Singapore look - T-shirts, shorts and slippers?
Our 10.3 million visitors, who lack the luxury of time to know Singapore intimately, can be forgiven if they use our appearance as a quick visual guide to who we are.
Yes, to them the city looks beautiful and greatly modern.
But I wonder if the multitudes of flip-flops - designer or not - tell the world that we are a fun, relaxed lot?
Or that we're a people who compulsively don't care?
Sometimes, I suspect it's the latter, when Singaporeans still don't care to toss litter into bins, reasoning that cleaners are hired to do their thankless jobs. Last year, there was a record 21,269 littering offences.
Neither do enough people care to be punctual, not charge into MRT trains before passengers exit or give way on the road.
Maybe our dressing is not the pits yet. But one languid step surely leads to another.
In the United States, a relaxation of corporate dress codes may be triggering an equally casual attitude towards work.
'Corporate casual sometimes is misinterpreted as casual attitude time,' a senior New York executive told Cotton Incorporated, an industry research and promotion group, adding: 'We've experienced some problems with productivity and professionalism during meetings on casual days.'
We can imagine a similar parallel in Singapore. What if sloppy dressing leads to a sloppy attitude? Sloppy thinking?
We're always talking about putting the buzz in Singapore. We're very intent on creating a city of distinction.
But we have to wonder: What kind of buzz will be generated if more and more of the slipper brigade converges on the world's No. 1 airport?
Or when our professionals take their not-so-sharp habits of dressing abroad and attempt to do business?
There will be unintended consequences, and this isn't far-fetched.
There's a story of a Singaporean who was given hotel food vouchers to dine alone, because the person was too informally dressed for the high-powered nature of the mission of the group.
We have to make up our minds whether to hone every last bit of our competitive edge.
We may be strong in strategy and reputation, but if appropriate dressing is also intrinsic to business and image in a hyper-competitive world, then we must work on it before others out-run and out-dress us.
I'm not taking a dressier-than-thou position. I also know norms change actively.
But we should be interested in why we're a dressed-down nation, and in the recurring reasons that people offer for sticking to the same look in and out of the home:
· The weather is hot - but so is the climate in Thailand and Indonesia. Summertime in temperate lands can be just as hot and humid.
· It's the Silicon Valley look - hey, Silicon Valley has moved on.
· Give me freedom of choice.
But in tiny Singapore - the world's third most densely populated country - you can bet that the irritant quotient of bad drivers, noisy neighbours or even clueless dressers is exceedingly high.
Besides, it's a small act of courtesy to dress appropriately. No one should be garbed for the beach at a wedding, unless of course it's Bali-themed.
Flip-flops at the White House
IF IT'S any comfort, we're not the only place on the planet commenting on flip-flops.
In 2005, a mini-controversy arose when sandal-wearing college girls posed for a picture with President George W. Bush at the White House.
The photo of the Northwestern University's women's lacrosse team showed four of the nine young women in the front row wearing dresses and skirts along with flip-flops.
Some players were unrepentant. Family members were mortified.
Inspired by an e-mail sent to player Kate Darmody from her older brother after he spied the photo on the team's website, the Chicago Tribune ran this headline in its front-page report:
'YOU WORE FLIP-FLOPS TO THE WHITE HOUSE?!'
In Singapore, are our slipper habits an endearing quirk - or should we be presentable for a purpose?
You decide.
If this is a flip-flop flap of no lasting consequence, we will simply move on.
But if our choice of attire is a sharp hint of a creeping cluelessness or a heck-care national character, then it's a different story.
It's not that hard to step away from a slippery slope.
siewhua@sph.com.sg
Sloppy wear:
I personally feel that the main reason Singapore being moving towards sloppy lifestyle are the invention of designer's slippers. Do you notice that majority of the teenagers are wearing designer flip flops? For example: New Urban Male. They had such a wide range of flip flops- ranging from slippers, sandals and even to "slipper heels".
I do not see anything wrong with dressing down. However, we should know when to draw a line between work and after work. I personally feel that it is still a must to wear a decent business suit to work as like what the article had mention, sloppy dressing might lead to a sloppy attitude. Being in a business suit reminds one to be serious about work and to show professionalism.
On the other hand, I really do not see anything wrong with wearing flip flops to Orchard Road. However if you are to enter a 5 star hotel or attend a performance, PLEASE do dress appropriately. Please show our courtesy.
After shaking your heads while reading the article, it is time to show you what to wear for what occasion.
This is extracted from The Straits Times, July 31 2008.
