Power Dressing

The right antidote to a bad day is “Power Dressing”. I got up groggy eyed and with a fat face and slowly limped to the washroom. I had slept right through a 12 hour of shut eye and through the alarm like a log. It was really cold and last night’s rain shower had turned the winter morning into an icy chilled atmosphere. I could hear the traffic on the road and the crows outside my window cawing and I grunted vaguely to myself. “This is going to be one of those days!”, "and surely, I was going to be late to work, yet again"!

Unfazed, I switched on Yanni’s musical notes to soothe me back to the land of the living, dried my hair and reached out for my best “feeling” attire on the rack while a thought passed through me, a quote.

"Dress sharply and they notice the dress. Dress impeccably and they notice the woman" – Coco Chanel,” quotes financier Sigourney Weaver to underling Melanie Griffith in the ‘80s movie classic, Working Girl.

Being noticed is possibly not my intention at work today, but feeling good about how I look does, especially when morning portrays bad luck in sign languages. I am not terribly fashion conscious as a person, not as much as others anyhow. But, whenever the disposition entitles, I reach out for my “feel good” clothes. This includes bright colors, such as red, blue, orange and yellow and anything that I know I look good in. Blacks, browns and grays were always left for the “mid-week days” when my body is in high mode of continuous activity and extra endorphins are not required. Sometimes with browns and whites, dark shades of brown lipstick and good eye makeup also assists me with extra mood lifts.

The whole idea of power dressing for me, rears its head and takes over whenever I look into the mirror and feel like screaming. It makes the D-day seem to hang like a proverbial Damocles sword over my head. The friendly, gregarious happy person that I usually am suddenly does a disappearing act and instead a dowdy alter ego stares back at me, or so it seems.

Just as my thoughts had predicted, there was excessive traffic jam, which hasn’t abated even though the Islamic festival is over. It goes without saying that I was late to work and to add to the misery of it, I left my mobile phone in the car. Even though the morning proved to be an ordeal, I was on cloud nine when I got on the lift at work. I flashed a dazzling smile to sleepy colleagues and sat down at my work table with extra vigor. So, imagine the art of Power Dressing. The whole idea being feel good, look good and stay good, throughout the day!