Women often feel that they are disadvantaged in the workplace: if they dress dowdily they are overlooked for promotion or interesting tasks, but if they dress attractively they earn envy and resentment and may be taken less seriously!

If it seems that you can’t win, there is a simple solution that helps you stand out, without putting you at risk of being considered either frivolous or tarty.  The answer is to combine your wardrobe to hit two different targets in each outfit.

This means everything you wear should be meet one of these three aims.

•    Combine bright colours and neutral ones
•    Mix floral prints with geometric ones
•    Always balance any feminine touches (such as frills) with and masculine details such as tailoring and fitted clothing.

How do you do it? Well if you wear a white or blue plain work shirt, for example, you can team it with a flounce-hemmed skirt as that’s a nice mixture of feminine and masculine.

Chosen a pair of formal black trousers? Why not match them with a red or yellow jacket that has a contrast trim or a bright detail to meet the bright/neutral colour target?

If your bag is ‘girly’ or pretty, carry a formal black leather wallet to balance it out.

And if you’ve got a striped or contrast trim polo shirt, why not pair it with a floral patterned skirt to achieve the floral/geometric balance?

While this way of dressing takes a little bit of getting used to, it produces the right effect by allowing you to dress so that you stand out from the crowd, without being pigeonholed in a way that doesn’t further your career.