I remember one day when a client at Chykeann Consults had an urgent need to travel and needed to retrieve his passport from our office. The passport was at the head office on the Island but he came to the Festac office. I had to call for his passport to be sent immediately to Festac while he was at the office waiting. There was this former colleague of mine who was at the Island office at that time and was about to come to the Festac office too, so I begged her to bring the passport along.
A journey that was supposed to take a few minutes or a few hours at most turned out to last for almost the whole day. We kept calling her and she kept giving one reason or the other for the delay, from Traffic to branching at the pharmacy to buy meds, to having foot ache and so on. The client at some point got tired of complaining. I got tired of calling too. Eventually, the lady came and the first thing the client said on sighting her was, “Is this the kind of person you gave my passport to bring”?. He didn’t wait to hear from her, he drew his judgment from her looks.
Her look sensed the wrong signal even when she was a nice lady. She was wearing a short red-coloured afro wig on heavy make-up, with a pierced nose, studded ear cuffs and heavy jewellery. It was a decent awkward look. Though to me, that impression was diluted because I know her better than the client who judged her from the first impression.
I am a firm believer that one’s look and sense of style should align with his/her personality and as far as looks are concerned, I judge a book by the cover. I have hired many people based on looks just like I have patronised people for the same reason.
Looking good is not by merely dressing well. The aura and the air in one’s look convey the person’s value, and social status and can tell their religion, lifestyle, coordination, beliefs, values, creativity, self-consciousness, desires and so on.
Some children have lost their innocence through their looks. They dress way beyond their age, accessorise their looks and by implication, look more than their age. Sometimes it is not about what they wear but how they wear things that make it odd.
As we evolve in life, our style of fashion should evolve. Just like parents know when their daughters have outgrown ball gowns, young adults and adults should know when they outgrow some styles of dressing especially given the setting and occasion of the dressing.
Whether you’re dressed in revealing clothing, designer outfits, simple attire, dirty clothing, classic or trendy, there is a personality behind each look and the impressions they create are as inevitable as the breath we take.
Believe it or not, we’re judged by how we look and appearance makes a powerful statement. Though this judgement is not in all but in some facets of personality, it somehow communicates who we are, what we value and how we feel. It validates how we want to be perceived and shapes how we want to be addressed.
✍️ Amara Ann Unachukwu
