7 Dressing Mistakes That Undermine Your Authority

Most dressing mistakes that cost female founders authority come down to sending the wrong signal in the first 100 milliseconds. The common ones are dressing too sexy, chasing trends, dressing down to be liked, having no signature, poor fit, dressing for the wrong medium, and overdoing the power armour. The fix across all of them is a 70% structured, 30% soft formula, tuned to you.

I used to work as an international business lawyer on the Champs-Élysées in Paris, and I grew up spending my summers at my grandparents' château in the south of France. Today I help female entrepreneurs dress better so they are taken more seriously and make more money.

Here are the seven dressing mistakes I see female entrepreneurs make all the time, the ones that quietly undermine their authority and get them paid less, along with exactly how to correct each one.

Does dressing sexy make you look less powerful?

Yes, and the penalty grows with seniority. There is a belief, strongest in American culture, that looking attractive reads as powerful. It does the opposite. Emphasising your body makes people process you as a body instead of a mind, so their attention goes to your figure rather than your professional qualities. This is not people being unkind, it is how the brain is wired. Researchers showed the same woman as a receptionist and as a manager: the sexy outfit cost the receptionist nothing, but it dropped the manager's perceived competence and drew negative comments. The higher the role, the bigger the penalty. A revealing outfit also reads as sexually available, so people think intimacy before competence, and it signals you do not know how to dress for the room, which reads as low emotional intelligence.

I once stood at a trade show in Las Vegas and could not tell whether the woman at the booth across from me was the head of sales or a hostess. She was clearly giving orders, yet a very short black dress, towering platforms, elaborate hair and makeup, fake lashes, gel nails, and an obvious designer bag undercut all of it. When the CEO of Yahoo posed reclining on the cover of Vogue in 2013, people said it took away from her vision and her leadership, because she was putting forward her beauty instead of her ability to run a huge company. Put a man in the same pose and people would wonder what was wrong with him too.

Is patriarchy the problem? Yes and no. Women should be free to wear anything without fearing for their safety, that is a given. But being aware of how clothes are read is itself power. We cannot change how other people's brains perceive us, but we can decide what we put in front of that brain. Instead of dressing sexy, dress professionally with a twist of feminine: powerful, structured elements softened by flow, a flowy blouse, dress, or hair, framed by structure.

We don't have the power to change how other people's brains perceive us, but we have the power to decide what we put in front of that brain.

Why do trends make you look less credible?

Wearing trends removes credibility because a trend-follower reads as a follower, and a business leader has to read as a leader, someone thinking ahead of the curve. Chasing trends also signals that your validation comes from outside rather than from an established sense of self. A confident person has a style and expresses her identity through the pieces she chooses. Someone who feels she needs to look like enough reaches for whatever is trending to feel worthy. Since people judge competence, trustworthiness, and likability in about 100 milliseconds (Princeton research on first impressions), and the time after that only reinforces the snap judgement, you want to look like you are in charge, not like you are catching up with whatever fashion is doing.

The fix is to build a consistent personal style and lead with it. Use trends sparingly, if at all, as the occasional accent, never as the basis of your look.

Do you have to choose between looking warm and looking competent?

No, and believing you do is the third mistake. Many women dress down to seem approachable, worried that looking sharp makes them read as a cold ice queen. But warmth and competence are not a trade-off you make through clothing. Your warmth comes from your voice, your face, and your smile. Your competence comes from how you dress. People read you as one whole: they sense your energy and see your presentation at the same time. This is also why copying a Pinterest look rarely works on you. You do not move, speak, or carry the same energy as the person in the photo, so the same clothes tell a different story. You do not need to underdress to be liked. You need the style that compensates for whatever you have naturally.

When I build wardrobes for clients, I take into account the tone of their voice, the way they stand, whether they are curvy or angular, and whether they speak fast or slow, because in those 100 milliseconds people assess the person and the clothes together. The two have to land in the sweet spot of warmth and competence. So soften if you read strict, sharpen if you read soft.

Why do you need a signature in how you dress?

Without a signature you blend into the wallpaper, reading as just another lawyer, accountant, or agency owner. If nothing about you is distinctive, there is no category to file you under, and being unfileable is being forgettable. This is why singers build big visual brands, and why some extraordinarily talented performers stay unknown: the visual brand matters as much as the voice. A signature does not need to be complex or theatrical. You do not need to be Lady Gaga. It needs to be consistent, differentiating, and aligned with the story you want to put forward. The fix is to choose one element to own, a specific silhouette, a colour, or a recurring piece of jewelry, and repeat it until it becomes recognisably yours.

So ask yourself: what is the one signature element I could bring to my look, and does it match the story I want to tell?

How important is the fit of your clothes?

Fit matters more than the price or the fabric of what you wear. In the first 100 milliseconds, the person across from you detects when something is off about the fit, usually without being able to name it, which is worse, because the vague wrong feeling has no obvious cause. A polyester blazer cut to fit you like a glove will read as more expensive than a beautiful wool-and-cashmere one that hangs badly (though you should still avoid polyester). Most people wrongly treat tailoring as a luxury reserved for the already wealthy. It is the best investment you can make. Save on the clothes and spend on the tailor, and it pays you back tenfold.

The landmarks are precise, and once you know them you cannot unsee a bad fit. The shoulder seam should sit on the acromion, the bone that sticks out at the top of your shoulder. The sleeve should end at your wrist bone. The blazer should end at your hip. Trousers should fall at mid-ankle.

The four tailoring checkpoints

Should you dress the same for a meeting, Zoom, and camera?

No. Your outfit and your makeup should change with the medium, because each one shows a different amount of you under different light. In person, everything speaks more loudly: people see you in real 3D under natural daylight and read every piece at once, so poor fit, too much jewelry, and cakey makeup all show, and the homogeneity of the outfit matters. On Zoom, only your upper body shows, so there are far fewer story-telling elements. You can wear a little more makeup, which will not show and actually makes you look healthier, and you want a minimal top with few accessories so attention stays on your face, plus colour contrast to make your face pop. On camera under strong lights you can wear more makeup still, because the lights erase its imperfections, whereas the same makeup in real life would look like you do not know how to apply it.

If you are being interviewed on TV or for a podcast, you are on screen but in full body, read all together yet flat. Aim for contrast, but keep it minimal, so you tell one cohesive story rather than several competing ones.

Can you overdo the power suit?

Yes, and it is the mistake I see most in the US and in Dubai. Overdoing the power armour, straight lines everywhere, pointy shoes, a snatched waist, reads as dominant and cold: competent, but not likable. Women have only a narrow sweet spot where they read as competent and warm at the same time, and too much armour overshoots it. The formula I teach every client is 70% strict, 30% soft. Structured, darker, richer elements carry the authority. Flow carries the warmth. Crucially, the ratio includes what you cannot change. Long, curly, flowy hair and a curvy body count toward the 30% soft. Short, straight, more masculine hair and an angular body count toward the 70% strict. So you dress to balance what you already bring to the room.

Most women I see sit too far on the soft side, so the usual correction is to add straighter lines, darker colours, and richer materials. When you get dressed tomorrow, check whether you are hitting that 70/30 ratio.