Remember When Scarlett O’Hara Didn’t Have a Thing to Wear?

You Don’t Have to Take Down the Curtains. Just Look for Mark-Downs to Dress for Success on the Job.

By Victoria Secunda

t is an article of occupational faith that if you don't look the part, you ain't gonna get the gig.  Meaning:  If you are bucking for a promotion at work, or interviewing for a job, or just trying to hold onto the one you've got, it behooves you to look as though you deserve a title on the door. 

     The most memorable dress-for-success scene in movie history illustrates the point. In Gone With the Wind, Scarlett O'Hara, down on her luck in post-Civil War Georgia, decides to sweet talk Rhett Butler into lending her $300 to pay off back taxes on Tara, the family homestead.  But she's got nothing to wear.  Knowing that no one would fork over three C's to a person who appears to actually need it, she gets a servant to run up a frock mad from green velvet draperies.  The ploy almost works, until Rhett spots Scarlett's hands, callused from working in the fields, prima facie evidence of a bad credit rating . (I don't make the rules.)

      Set aside, if you will, that Rhett had more than commerce in mind; the lesson is apt.  In business, packaging is everything, and you don't have to pillage the tiebacks, nor plunder your credit cards, to make a good impression.  What follows is a list of tips, drawn from personal experience, on how to look like a million when the exchequer is low.

1.  Wait for the Second Mark-Down.  In my early-career years, I worked around the corner from Saks Fifth Avenue and spent my lunch hours swooning over racks of clothes I couldn't afford.  One day I found a designer suit so beautiful I nearly wept, marked down 25 percent but still beyond my budgetary reach.  Two weeks later, the same suit was reduced to one-third the original price.  I snapped it up, wore it to work, and soon thereafter got a raise. Coincidence?  I think not.  Remember: There's always a second mark-down, sometimes even a third.  You might get lucky. 

2.  Make Marshall's Your New Best Friend.  There was a time when I wouldn't be caught dead in such deep discount emporia as Sym's or T.J. Maxx.  But that was before my daughter, the laser-eyed bargain-hunter, dragged me by the hair into Marshall's and made me try on a gorgeous Calvin Klein look-alike coat, priced at $50.  That's right—50 samolians.  I haven't been in Saks or Bloomies or Neiman's since—cured, as it were, of paying list prices.  True, my stars were aligned during that shopping spree; you may have to return again and again until your knockoff number comes up.  But a little patience in less expensive stores stretches a dollar from here to Paris.

3.  Haunt Consignment Shops.  You might feel as though you should wear  surgical gloves and dark glasses while poring over other people's castoffs, but it's possible to find couturial gold among used-clothing dross.  Donna Karen, Yves St. Laurent, Escada, they're all to be found, albeit in less than virginal condition, sooner or later.  What do you care if they're, ahem, pre-owned?  After a buff up at the dry cleaner's, they'll look like new. Even the high priestess of elegance, Jacqueline Onassis, is said to have disposed of her clothing overflow via consignment shop.  I defy you to find a better sartorial role model.

4.  Have Your Dated Clothes Refitted.  Remember when Joe Namath shoulder pads were the rage?  I do; I fell for a designer jacket that made my head look like a dot, and the jacket languished in my basement. Then an impecunious but flawlessly attired friend of mine suggested that I have my jacket, and several ancient suits, cut down to size, and she gave me the name of her tailor.  He ripped apart and reconfigured my duds, charging me roughly $150.  I ended up with the equivalent of an entirely new wardrobe. 

5.  Buy Classic Black.  You've heard this a million times, and it is as true today as when Coco Chanel first kicked up her signature slingbacks in the 1920s.  If you've got one really good basic black outfit, no one will ever remember it—except, that is, that you always look chic in it.  Black goes anywhere, including, these days, to weddings.  You can always rely on classic black, and it never goes out of style.

6.  The "On Sale" Trap: Ask Yourself, Would You Pay Retail for It?  As you may have gathered, I am a sucker for a sale.  But not every swank item you find on the "reduced" rack is necessarily something you'd actually wear.  Once I purchased a drastically marked-down hot pink silk dress at a smart New York boutique.  I am here to tell you that the dress, with its price tags, ended up, never worn, at the Salvation Army.  Reasons: It was too dressy for work; my social life was the pits; and then I met and married a guy who took me no place (first marriage, don't ask).  Moral of the story: If you wouldn't pay full price for the outfit, you'll probably never wear it and you'll hate yourself.  As my ex-father-in-law used to say, you might as well open the window and throw your money into the gutter.

7.  Learn How to Sew.   Go ahead, laugh.  I know you're busy.  I know you've got obligations.  I also know that you staple or sticky tape fallen hems because your mother never taught you how to put needle to fabric.  Trust me, if you are familiar with the business end of a sewing machine, the world is your fashion-plated oyster.  My granny, who made all her own clothes, taught me everything there is to know about sewing, from top stitching to hand-setting zippers, from fitting plackets to making darts and bound buttonholes.  For years, I wore designer clothes I sewed myself, including my masterpiece, a Dior dress cum jacket lined with paisley silk. Still laughing? Try this: My yearly salary, in the beginning, was the equivalent of pantyhose money.  But I always, if I do say so myself, gave the appearance of a six-figure income.

8.  Know When to Spring for the Best.  I have saved this tip for last because there are times when only the best will do and, accordingly, it'll cost you.  My mother raised me with this fashion rubric: "Spend on the accessories, save on other stuff."  She was always soignée, from her fingers (handbags) to her toes (shoes), because that's where her most expensive items were on display.  Her attitude was that if the accessories were timeless and elegant, everything else on her body would look likewise.  When it comes to accessories, especially shoes, you can't fake it; quality will out.  Put another way, the only thing worse than a bad hair day is a bad shoe day. Given the choice between two inexpensive pairs of "dress" shoes or one top notch divine pair, opt for the latter.

      Think of it this way: You'll be putting your best Ferragamo-ed foot forward, and the rest—i.e., better job prospects—will

surely follow.

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  The ever-elegant Victoria Secunda is the author of many books on family relationships, a frequent lecturer on topics of interest to women, and (lucky us!) the  Executive Editor of

MAKING BREAD magazine.

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