It’s a widely recognised and proven fact that your image plays a huge part in what people think of you when they meet you for the first time and what assumptions they make of you.

On meeting someone for the first time, what ever the circumstances, statistics show that your image is 55% of what matters most, followed by 38% being how you speak and then only 7% is the content of what you actually say!

This is partly due to the theory that all of our communication is projection, in other words this means that as human beings we see everything through a filter of our beliefs and values. These beliefs and values are created from our past experiences, education, the media, our creative thinking and past outcomes.

Consider this:

Imagine when you were younger you had a bad experience with a scruffy looking long haired boy who played a guitar, he broke your heart, since then a friend of yours went out with a guy who played in a band and he treated her badly. To add to this your first boss, who yes you guessed it was a messy muso type was a dictator to you and drove you out of work. From these past experiences you will probably have been lead to form the belief that any guy who dresses down, has long hair and is musically inclined is bound to be a bit dodgy! So you are interviewing one day for a new creative director……and yes you guessed it this guy walks in – do you think he would get the job?


Now I hear you say, but if this is the case there is nothing we can do, people will think what they think of us what ever we wear based on what ever has happened to them in the past. This is true but there are also global beliefs, general beliefs almost like rules for what is a widely accepted dress code for certain situations. They are not written down anywhere, there is no law, but they have evolved over time. Certain colour combinations, styles of clothing, how well groomed we are, what make up we have on etc all subconsciously give off different impressions.