How to look authoritative and stylish at work like these style icons

Claire Underwood (House of Cards) and Jessica Pearson (Suits)

Two style icons with a powerful, authoritative look. The two women display very distinct clothing styles. Here we deconstruct their style to help you create your unique image at work.

Claire Underwood

Personal style characteristics: Powerful, Masculine inspired, Classic, Minimalist

Claire’s personal style is a great example of how to do more with less. Her hair style is the key feature of her personal style statement.

 

Her wardrobe consists of well fitted dresses with barely any decorative detail, creating a clean silhouette.

She combines classic shirts with tapered leg trousers or pencil skirts and cuts a very sharp, no fuss, professional image.

Accessories: A classic handbag and black pumps complete the look with rest of the accessories kept to the minimum.

Jessica Pearson

Personal style characteristics: Powerful yet feminine, Accessorized, Style details

Jessica’s style is different from Claire’s as she supports more feminine styles of clothing. Unlike Claire who prefers to wear boatneck and simple angular necklines, Jessica’s necklines are differentiated with a twist in the design.

To add femininity to her look instead of wearing classic skirt suits, her skirts and jackets can be a combination of colours. We often see her wearing jackets that have a peplum or pocket details and cowl neck tops.

Accessories: She likes to accessorise, supporting necklaces when wearing simple necklines and even a statement ring on some occasions.

While Claire’s outfits are dark or colours combined in high contrast, eg: white shirts with navy or black trousers or skirts, Jessica projects slightly less severe formal image with medium contrast colour combinations, like burgundy and grey, beige and grey, black and beige.

Our image consultant’s tip:

Don Claire’s style if you don’t like fussy details and like to keep your silhouette clean. Fabric quality is key for classic styles like Claire’s, hence invest in quality rather than quantity.

If you prefer Jessica’s style, do watch out when adding peplum’s or pocket details across the hips as these draw attention, these details will work best for those who have hips narrower or equal to their shoulders.

Hope these style tips can help you enhance your corporate image.