Not so extreme makeovers

Fred Connors at FRED Beauty Food Art. (Nick Pearce Photo)

In the TV show What Not to Wear, fashion experts Stacy London and Clinton Kelly ambush their participants with the aim of taking them from dowdy to dashing.

Inevitably though, the made-over women end up looking like a Stacy-Clinton mash-up, with all traces of their personality and individual style lost in the process.

That won’t be Dal’s approach, promises the style guru of Dalhousie Career Services’ What Not to Wear event.

“It’s not just about shopping for new clothes and giving them a new hairdo,” says Fred Connors, who has been working with four students—Caitlyn Reid, Peter Rogers, Shiva Nourpanah and Sean Gallagher—to get ready for the popular makeover session, first held on campus last year. “It’s about preserving the uniqueness they have. They may be more polished and sophisticated, but you’ll still be able to see their individuality.”

The “self-esteem expert” on TV’s X-Weighted, Mr. Connors says students have different issues compared to the participants of the reality-TV show, who are struggling their weight and confidence.

“Students have been insulated in this microcosm for the past four-plus years,” says Mr. Connors over coffee at his chic Halifax salon, café and art gallery on Agricola Street. He is immaculately dressed entirely in black, with F R E D spelled out in glittery letters across his chest. “I mean, you just don’t roll out of bed and look like a successful lawyer or doctor or planner or whatever you aspire to be.”

A Dalhousie student once himself, Mr. Connors reminds the students of the importance of a good first impression. Looking polished and professional is the first step to getting noticed by a potential employer. “You may very well be confident and loyal and intelligent, but that’s going to be lost on an employer if you’re coming in looking like you just don’t care.”

Besides, he adds, the days of dressing casually in the corporate workplace are for the most part over. “It’s very important for organizations to project a positive brand image. For employees, that means putting on the ‘uniform,’ whatever that may be.”

So how did he get to be an expert at making people look and feel beautiful? Growing up “as a diminutive gay person” in a military family in Dartmouth in the 1970s, Mr. Connors says he developed a thick skin and a strong sense of self awareness early on. “When you’re constantly strategizing how to get to school without getting beat up, you realize you’re unique.”

This year’s What Not to Wear “reveal” takes place on Tuesday, March 9 starting at 11:30 a.m. in the atrium of the Rowe Management Building. Sponsors for the event are Royal & SunAlliance Canada, FRED, Park Lane and The Bay. Admission is free and all are welcome.

LINK: Career Services Centre