I have some morbid fascination with wanting to know how a professional casting agent/modeling agency/etc. would critique physical aspects of my personage.
Like, when you go on those “make me a supermodel” TV shows, how they have a panel of 3 people sitting there and ripping on you.
How can I get the same kind of objective-ish treatment? I mean I’m not model caliber, so if I tried to just get a modeling agency to rep me, they’d throw my portfolio back at me and laugh, without any analysis…
I’m sure you could achieve that by posting a picture here and asking.
Clothing: personal shopper at a good department or clothing store. Hair: hair salon. Make-up (assuming that you’re female): some sort of salon or beauty shop.
And there are such things as personal stylists who are capable of all of this, for the sort of person recently thrown into the limelight who wants to look their best.
you’ll pardon me if I doubt your bona fides to comment on physical appearance. I’d want an established professional.
personal stylist is a possibly good source, but the others won’t really go into my physical features so much as mutable characteristics. the problem with all of these is they have every reason to “work with what they’ve got” - it does their bottom line no good if they just dismiss you and say “bah, you don’t have good eyebrows, too curvy”
Remember also that a “good” look depends on the target audience. To choose two extremes, you’d select very different clothing and grooming styles if you wanted to get ahead in the fashion world vs in a very conservative Fortune 500 corporation.
I know there are now websites that critique people’s outfits, but I don’t know how personal they get. NYTimes did a story on them but I can’t find it now. Basically you take a pic of yourself wearing the outfit, upload it to the site, and then people will rate if they think the outfit works or not. Again, not super specialized as you indicate you want in your OP, but maybe there are others that exist that would do what you want.
Google “Professional Image Consultant” in your area. Tell them what you want, and interview a couple. The one who smiles, leans forward, and breathes a little faster when he says “Seriously, you want total honesty??” is the one who can help you.
Not really looking for image though - seriously, just physical characteristics. You know, like jawline, shoulders, height, build, cheekbones, eye shape, etc. etc.
I really don’t think image consultants focus on this stuff - they focus on what they can work with.
You could go to a modeling agent and just ask their opinion. Though you will probably get stuck with some junior who really doesn’t know what you’re talking about. I’d suggest going to say a plastic surgeon who does cosmetic work. Probably best in someplace like NY or LA.
I’d guess this board has a number of people who are workers or managers in professional environments where a professional appearance is expected, so you could probably do worse than dopers as a critical audience. If you want to blur your face you could remain anonymous unless you want hairstyle/grooming critiques as well.
Assuming you are a man the main issues are to have a suit that works with your body not against it. If you are portly/fat this becomes more difficult to find without going to a custom tailor.
With respect to shirts and ties there are a world of choices, and here is where you can express some creativity in defining a sharp look with some sophisticated choices.
Don’t over wear stuff. If it’s fraying or piling you need to not wear it to the office. Rotate your shoes. Let them rest 2 days before wearing again. Keep them shined.
Shoes, belts, watches need to be good quality and not noticeably beat up. People, especially women, notice these things.
The real bottom line if you want to look “professional” is to try and be in reasonable shape. You can be obese and well dressed, but being fat and trying to look sharp is a struggle, and fairly frustrating and expensive as choices are more limited. I speak from personal experience on this as I have fought many a weight battle in my life.
omg. is it so hard to figure out that I don’t want critique on clothing, style, or anything of that sort. Physical body characteristics and features, that’s it.
lulz. :smack:
In re-reading your OP I see you may be asking for something different from the advice I offered. Assuming you are not a physical troll facially or have an odd body shape, a lot of this is going to rotate around the kind of physical shape you are in. Successful male models spend hours a day, every day, in the gym. Professionals dealing with models are used to dealing with people who are close to physical perfection. The aesthetic insight they can offer an average person might be somewhat limited. I think you might be better off simply asking a personal trainer for their opinion re what areas you need to work on .
NYT story mentioned above
Thanks, Hedda, I was having trouble finding it myself, but that’s the one.
It was a joke. Sorry. chill out, dude.
gay bar?
Well, but what they do is assess your positives and negatives and then tell you how to work around the bad, and enhance the good. This has to start with an objective and detailed assessment of the characteristics, doesn’t it? Only then can they start in on what clothes, make-up, hair, etc. would be best for you.
http://www.elanimagemanagement.com/html/our-services.html
See here: everything starts with the “Image needs assessment.” I think that’s the part you want. Just let them know that’s all your looking for, and you’d like a “panel” for an hour rather than a consultant for five hours.
How about make a consultation with a plastic surgeon? He/she can tell you all the ways in which your features deviate from some golden ratio or something. Cosmetic surgeons can also take your picture, put it into this software, and adjust various features for you in real time to illustrate how they can be “improved”.
Befriend a complete and utter bitch. Then get a friendly spy to report back on all the bitchy cutting remarks she makes about you behind your back.