How you dress communicates with others through means of object language. The way you dress is interpreted, assessed and judged by others taking into consideration the clothing, hairstyle, shoes and personal ornaments. Proper dressing can result in admiration and respect by others. On the other hand, people may feel uncomfortable with you or may even look down up on you if the way you dress fails to meet the expectation.

How people dress creates important outer shell for them with value and meaning being initially assessed by those around them.

Despite knowing that judging people superficially with things they wear and the way they dress is improper, those who assess people through appearances seem to have strong feeling toward proper dressing. It is of personal liberty to choose what you wear but in order to remain respectable in the society, a frame is drawn to create mutual understanding and expectation for the people when they are out in the open such as at parties, formal engagements, meetings of executives, meeting with clients, recreational engagements and other kinds of social gatherings.

With over 30 years experience in working and meeting people, I have come up with a conclusion toward the meaning of the way people dress, which means more than just finding something to cover themselves, and expressing status quo, personal style and individualism. It is a tool providing opportunity in employment and encouraging friendship.

Proper dressing brings about employment opportunity. Success in working is related to proper dressing. We must dress properly in order to win a job. According to an attire consultant, in a job interview, the interviewee must first check how people in the respective office dress. Another consultant says those who dress up like models will get held up longer in interviews but fail to get the job. Not just for a job interview but also for good first impression that how you dress determines the outcome. The first meeting leaves appearance assessment as key evaluation of an entire person since his other quality is not yet known to others. Proper dressing helps create good first impression, while enhancing self-confidence, which is simply favorable to the interaction and establishing good flow of relationship.

Suitable outfit for professionals

I believe that employees' best outfit should be the uniform they wear. Several organizations especially factories and those with large number of employees normally have uniform for their employees. This creates order in which the value is given to. Order is good but for some environments where employees need to be creative, liberty in choosing what to wear may become more important if the management understands that freedom in choosing what to wear reflects on freedom of imagination. Executives who wear suits may not be as powerful in creating unity to the team as those wearing what the employees wear - becoming part of the team.

Suitable outfit for the work

Last October, there was a news report that several offices in the United States, probably the most liberated country in terms of dressing, have been fed up with the way their employees dress up and issued stricter dress code. Employees have gone out of control with the way they dress, as they no longer consider appropriateness and customer satisfaction. An employer says she once told one of her employees to go home and change because she could not stand the high-waist tight dress that employee wore.

I believe we can have freedom in choosing what to wear but of course with the image of the organization and the customers taken into account because the decision may determine how far everyone within the organization will go. A salesperson with old dress, dirty pants and unpolished shoes may win some sympathy but not the trust and respect needed from the customers. Being tidy and orderly means how much we are taking care of ourselves. It reflects our responsibility. In choosing what to wear, one must also consider the colleagues. Clothing with bright colors may disturb others, while employees who are not attended to their appearance may make the office feel uncomfortable.

Choosing the outfit helps make friend

Proper dressing does not only help in terms of employment but also in terms of encouraging friendship. Andrew Mathews says in the book Making Friend that "If we want to earn a friend or keep a friend, be careful with the way we dress." It is not an overstatement on my part because when we are in an engagement, we must be in an outfit that is favorable to meeting with people. We must realize that friendship and the way people dress are connected. People with strong personality may dress as they please without for one second thinking of those whom they are engaging with or the feeling of the host of the event. Some may come overdress to show off their financial advantages. These are the type that may lose their friends one day.

In order to select the right outfit for the occasion, one must feel compassionate and try to understand the expectation of the people. If the expectation is politeness and international acceptance, I normally go for suit attire. If it demands nationalism, a national dress or traditional Thai outfit will seem appropriate even though it may look a little strange to you since it is not something you wear everyday. The best seems to be that we are able to come up with an outfit that satisfies the host and ourselves such as being able to wear the dress in the color we like, which is also the color that goes well with the environment. With intention to meet the expectation of others, we can simply earn friendship through respect and expression of wanting to be part of the group. This is enough to make the engagement smooth. We stand to benefit from the joy and happiness every time people come along to offer their friendship.

Even though I see how people dress as important tool for creating opportunity at work and encouraging friendship, in my own time I would rather be seen in a casual outfit in the style and color I like the most because it makes me feel relaxed and free from all the rules laid out by the society. This is the moment I am myself, and kick fashion out the window.