Interior Designer's Image: How to Dress for Success

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Good morning, friends!

If you are planning your own interior design business or already working in the industry there is one important thing you should never underestimate. Interior Designer is a very visual profession – how the client can trust you to make his home beautiful if he doesn’t like how you look?

I remember when I just started my business I struggled for some time to figure out how I should dress for the first meeting with client. I wanted people to perceive me seriously and I would dress in formal suits so I looked more like a lawyer than an interior designer (I also looked much older than my age).

I might get some rotten tomatoes thrown into my face right now but I strongly believe that successful interior designer will never have:

extra weight (I am talking about obesity here, not just couple of extra kilos)
dirty hair
untidy clothes
old shoes
vulgar make up or total absence of it
yellow teeth and bad breath

So now I want to mention these 4 crucial parts of a successful image – without them even if you wear the most luxurious dress from Armani the effect will be close to zero.

1. Posture

The main mistakes here will be rounded shoulders and hunched back – they scream insecurity and timidity. People are hiding themselves this way, they are afraid to be noticed. Good posture (shoulders back and align, straight stomach, chin parallel to the ground) allways draws attention and instills respect.

2. Facial expression

Harmonious facial expression (especially smile) means that you have accepted who you are and you love yourself. If you are trying to hide your face, turn your head away, make various grimaces – all the charm that you have by nature will instantly disappear.

3. Health

Here I am talking about fresh skin, clean hair, strong fit body, good hygiene. People are instinctively pushed away from anything unhealthy (the fear of infection, diseases). If you don’t do any sports, I can almost guarantee that your career will not develop either. I also recommend to do some body building (not talking here about becoming Miss Olympia) but strong muscles develop strong spirit.

4. Your personal style

This is the most challenging part of forming successful image. You can go to the beauty salon and do your hair, you can hire a private trainer and become slim and fit, but figuring out what is your personal style is much more difficult. I was already writing here on how I made a Personal Style board: start from mind-mapping and analyzing what attracts you and things you don’t like, collect inspiring images from the web and pin them on your mood board. Personal style is not a static thing, you will notice that your preferences will change with time and it is very normal thing. Interior designer’s image should reflect the style of interiors he or she creates. Let’s have a look at some famous and successful people in the industry.

interior designer's image — Kelly Hoppen is all about refinement and elegancy. She usually restricts the amount of colours she wears to 2 or 3. Her outfits, same as her interiors are very feminine and graceful.

When it comes to me, I still love to experiment with my wardrobe. I discovered that I mostly love to wear dresses for clients meeting (they make me feel very feminine and elegant), high heels (not only because I am very short but also because they give the sense of confidence and power). I mainly prefer black and grey (and actually use these colours a lot in my designs) and massive jewelry (big watches are my favorite) – same as I love eye-catching and unique art and home accessories.