You are about to meet a gallery owner, an agent, or someone who has a job or internship that interests you. You suspect that you don’t need to wear a business suit, but you aren’t sure what you should wear. What impact will your “presentation” have on the professional you are about to meet? What kind of impression do you want to make? How can you communicate that you should be taken seriously AND that you are a talented creative person?

Here are some guidelines to help you think about what to wear in professional situations. If you wish to discuss this in more detail contact the Career Center and schedule a meeting with your Career Consultant.

*note, this does not cover what to wear to an audition or performance. This pertains only to business meetings in the creative fields.

General advice

A good way to think of what you might wear, is to imagine that you are going to an opening, or an opening night and want to look your best and to exude confidence and a sense of who you are (you may want to begin to establish yourself as a rising professional, you may rather be seen as edgy). You probably won’t be wearing a business suit*. At the same time, you should not dress casual (blue jeans, t-shirts, shorts, etc.). You may wear all black, but you may also be more likely (and able) to work with interesting colors, textures, or patterns, than some of your non-artist friends. Dressing well for a meeting isn’t about selling out the more casual lifestyle you may be choosing as an artist. Dressing well for a meeting is about treating the meeting as important, showing your colleague or an interviewer that you thought ahead about the day and respect the time that you have both committed to meet.

*Designers and architects who are taking professional meetings/interviewing for summer or full-time positions are more likely to wear a suit. If the firm is progressive, you may not want to wear a blue or otherwise corporate suit, but rather a suit that is professional, yet non-corporate (colors other than standard blue, perhaps tailored a little more interestingly). If the firm is more traditional or corporate, then you should consider wearing a more traditional suit.

A few other tips:

1. Don’t feel pressured to dress a part that isn’t you. First and foremost, your art should speak for itself. At the same time, a first impression is extremely important. You need to look neat and clean -- not like you just walked out of the studio or out of rehearsal. For some, this might be a sophisticated blend of colors and patterns. For others it is something simpler. Either one is ok…just, as Professor Don Wadsworth has said “Look like you on your best day.”
   
2. Don’t wear something for the first time, to a meeting, interview, audition, etc. Sitting through a meeting, with clothes that you realize don’t fit well, or with a tag that is itching – these kinds of distractions may impact your ability to present yourself well. If you buy new clothes for the occasion, wear the clothes somewhere else first to be sure you are comfortable.
   
3. Be smart about your jewelry, piercings, tattoos, hair dye and the like. Take an honest look at your field. If you are meeting the owner of a progressive gallery, chances are you have more latitude to show up with piercings, dyed hair, etc. than if you are interviewing in a conservative architecture firm. So, one consideration is the culture of your field, and of the specific organization. A second consideration is whether your appearance may actually distract the interviewer.
   
   The most important information a potential employer or professional contact needs about you, is whether you have the skills to do the internship/job and whether you will be a good fit in the climate of the organization/a good fit for the agency, etc. If you are interviewing with an animation studio and the interviewer is so taken (positively or negatively) with your latest piercing, then he/she may not remember many of your interview responses and this could hurt your chances at getting the position.
   
   Are they a turn-off? A final and equally important consideration is whether piercings, tattoos, etc. might hurt your chances for getting a position because the interviewer is turned off. There are two ways to look at this. One is that perhaps you want to screen out any organization that won’t welcome you and your body art. Thus, if you show up to an interview with tattoos showing, and you don’t get a second interview (which may be because of the tattoos, though you probably won’t ever know), then maybe it’s a good thing, as you wouldn’t have wanted to work in such an organizational culture anyway.
   
   A second view is that if you have the ability to tone down the body art (e.g. cover a tattoo), you eliminate one more thing that might get you screened out. So then, if you advance in the process, you can get to an on-site interview and see for yourself how the culture feels, whether you can be yourself in that climate.
   
4. Remember, if you have additional questions, call the Career Center at 8-2064 and set up an appointment with your Career Consultant.

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