7 Wardrobe Tips for Personal Brand Photography

If choosing your wardrobe for your personal brand photoshoot is more nerve wracking than picking out an outfit for a first date with Ryan Reynolds, then this post is for you!

(P.S. if audio visual learning is more your jam, check out this post in IGTV form here)

 

So many of my personal brand clients and LMP Creators struggle with what to wear for wardrobe on the day of their shoot. It’s usually the most exciting part of a photoshoot, but also the most stressful. Because not only do we convey who we are through our wardrobe, we also convey who our brand is through the clothes we wear when showing up online. While I could talk for hours about clothes, accessories and what to wear on the day of your shoot, I’ve condensed everything I’ve learned into 7 tips to build off of. Let’s go!

1. Your wardrobe reinforces your brand.

If there’s only one thing you take away from this article, let it be this! The clothes you choose to wear in your personal brand/content photos are such a powerful tool for creating consistency. Maybe you’re super bubbly and girly in your personal style, but your brand is more minimal and gender nonspecific. If that’s the case, then it’s important to dress for your brand and not your personal style on your shoot.

As a personal example: I love to wear bold colors, sneakers, and graphic tees. However, my brand at Liv in the Moment Photography is sophisticated, neutral, and down to earth. Which is why for my own personal branding photos, I specifically choose a wardrobe that correlates with my brand color scheme.

 

 

Now, I’m not saying you have to wear clothes that don’t feel like “you” to your shoot! You should still feel comfortable, confident and gorgeous in what you choose to wear. However, it is so important to look at the wardrobe for your personal brand shoot objectively. In other words, truly analyze whether or not it reinforces your brand and attracts your ideal client.

2. Color & Pattern

The trick to getting the most life out of your personal branding content photos is all about wardrobe! I suggest that clients generally stay away from anything to seasonal or too memorable. This way, you can extend your content over time without it seeming like you’re recycling old photos.

That’s not to say everything has to be bland and boring! Say you want to have a spring vibe on your feed from March-May. Rather than going for a super bold, large print, and colorful floral blouse, try going with something a bit more subtle. Neutral color tones and smaller prints tend to be less memorable and multi-seasonal. Content with blouses like 1-3 (pictured below) would look a bit out of place as your content transitions into late summer and fall. However, with blouses like 4-6, you could easily repurpose your photos in September with no one being the wiser!

{ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. }

However, keep in mind that these are guidelines not rules. So, if you really want to wear a statement piece go for it! A leather or denim jacket work wonders to tone done a piece and give added shelf life to your photos. The most important brand is knowing what will communicate your brand to your ideal client.

3. Accessorize, baby!

Maybe your brand is super minimalist, but you still want your wardrobe to have a little pizazz. You could just wear a plain white top and still get a super wide variety of shots just through accessories! Accessories can be anything from hats, to headbands, to lipstick, to earring, to coats, to bags…. the opportunities are endless!! Swapping out accessories is also a much faster process than a full outfit change. So, if you’re planning on going the plain white tee route, bringing a wide array of accessories that you can easily swap out will give you a ton of variety in your content photos.

{ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. }

4. Photoshop is to enhance not to fix

“You can just fix that in photoshop, right?!” – every photographer’s nightmare. Yes, photoshop is a super powerful tool that is capable of truly phenomenal things. However, photoshop is for enhancing colors, lighting, mood, removing blemishes, etc. It is not for fixing clothing wrinkles, erasing a bra strap, or repairing a run in a pair of nylons. When considering your wardrobe, please plan for proper undergarments as well as hair and makeup. Something that will take only a moment to fix beforehand will take your photographer several hours to change when editing.

5. Bring extras

We all know that feeling. When we’re running 5 minutes late because the line at the coffee shop took forever. We pull up to the shooting location and spill coffee all over ourselves. Or we forget we’re wearing a bold red lip and accidentally get it on the cuff of our shirt when fixing a stray hair. Whatever the horror story, we all know the feeling of totally ruining our outfit right before something important.

To prepare for any of those awful scenarios, I recommend to bring extras. Even better: make sure all of your extras coordinate! That way it’s easy to swap out a stained shirt or a mud splattered shoe without it negatively affecting your overall look or the cohesiveness of your brand.

{ image source: Emily Lightly }

6. Keep location in mind

Nothing is worse than wearing a terracotta color blouse and showing up to realize all of your photos will be in front of a red brick wall. When considering your wardrobe for a personal brand shoot it’s so important to keep the location in mind to avoid color or mood clashes! A statement blouse might look so good in front of a plain white wall, but not so good in front of a vibrant mural alley. If you’re not sure what exactly the shoot location will entail, ask your photographer!

7. You do you!

Ultimately, only you know what your personal brand style is! The most important thing is to show up as your most authentic self so you can attract the right clients for you and your business. So, even if you think your style isn’t “trendy enough” or IG worthy, represent you and your brand wholeheartedly! The followers and clients who stick with you will like you and your brand for how you truly are and not just for how you appear on social media.

 

At the end of the day…

 

Don’t freak out about your personal brand shoot wardrobe! It’s okay to play around a little bit and figure out how your personal style and your brand style can work together to make your online presence genuine and powerful!

 

Liv

 

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