Smile – You’re on camera!

With many now working from home due to the lockdown, Skype and facetime video calling is becoming the norm.

This is also true for everyone else and the only visual means of communication with friends and family. With a phone call you don’t have to worry about what you are wearing – pyjamas are fine or where you are calling from. But this video calling is a whole new concept and there are rules to follow.

How many times have you taken hundreds of selfies, discarded 99 per cent and spent forever enhancing before you deem it good enough to publish? Remember how you always seem to hate your passport of driving licence photo?

It is now all about the lighting – turn off those overhead kitchen spotlights blasting out a disco strobe like effect and instead switch on low level flattering lamps. You have to remember to hold your head up, in what would usually be a totally abnormal position to stop it looking like you have a double or triple chin, shiny forehead etc.

The next biggy is what to wear – from the waist up at least...we are now in a period that can be referred to as ‘Table Top Dressing’. If sitting behind a desk, PJ bottoms and unicorn slippers are fine, but it is the top half that needs some serious consideration.

For the ladies, you don’t want to look as if you’ve just come back from a disco so no cleavage, strappy tops etc exposing mountains of flesh.

Gents you’re not exonerated either, so don’t go all Bruce Willis and get your white vests out aka Die Hard.

Simplicity is the name of the game but remember, anything not ironed will look like you’ve slept in it! Don’t wear something with vivid dizzy migraine inducing prints – a bad video connection will start strobing but likewise, with a magnolia background you don’t want to be blending into the background in a white shirt or blouse.

Clean, shiny hair, a smile and appropriate background are just fine… no one wants to see a kitchen sink overfilled with dirty plates from last night’s dinner, empty wine glasses on the coffee table or piles or ironing stacked up.

Context is king during Corona.