Wherever you’re (not really) going, here are five tips for Zoom dressing, all the tools for which you should already have in your wardrobe.
1. Dress from the waist up
This one’s obvious – no one can see what you’re wearing below the waist, so direct all of your effort towards a polished top half and wear slippers if you fancy, though party shoes always cheer me up (apologies to them downstairs).
2. Go bright
Take a (green) leaf out of the Queen’s book, and dial up the colour a few notches. Not only do bright colours read brilliantly on screen, they can also positively impact our moods – red is energising, green, blue, and purple calming. Avoid black or grey, which are draining next to the face, and use print with caution, as there’s a reason TV presenters avoid the stuff in favour of block brights – it can go a bit trippy on screen.
3. Raid the jewellery box
Now is not the time to be sparing with your sparkle. We might not all have HM’s brooch-drobe, but big earrings, necklaces, hair clips and bands will all work in your favour.
4. Work your angles
Lighting and camera height and tilt can make for a flattering, or less so, version of yourself. Tom Ford offered this advice to The New York Times journalist Maureen Dowd: ‘Put the computer up on a stack of books so the camera is slightly higher than your head. Say, about the top of your head. And then point it down into your eyes. Then take a tall lamp and set it next to the computer on the side of your face you feel is best. The lamp should be in line with and slightly behind the computer so the light falls nicely on your face.’
5. Remember the backdrop
No one need know that you haven’t done last night’s washing-up yet: find a tidy corner, take five minutes to arrange a vase and a few objects in shot behind you, and the job’s a good’un.