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"Create Boundaries Of Space And Time": John Cleese On Creativity

The Real Secret Of Well Dressed Women

Every week I watch Mad Men on AMC and marvel at office manager Joan Holloway's wardrobe. 


Not because a size 12 woman can look fabulously chic while the audience is obsessed with being a size 2 (although, admittedly, that is part of it), but because she's always, hands-down, the best dressed female at the agency.


Joan, you see, is smart in picking colours.


And that's probably the best kept secret of well dressed women. They own fewer clothes but each garment suits them perfectly, from cut to colour.


What colours suit you? You'd be surprised that not everyone can carry off head-to-toe black, the go-to uniform of most women. Below are some basics, courtesy of a really useful Colour Me Beautiful course I took two years ago. And since we're talking Mad Men, let's use their characters to illustrate the six colour types.

If you're a Light like Betty Draper (left), you've got blonde or very light hair, pale coloured eyes, pale lashes and brows, porcelain skin. You're made for dusty rose, sky blue, apple green and pastels. Investment buys for you are taupe, cocoa and pewter which can take the place of black. Avoid wearing two dark colours together; wear a light-coloured scarf over a black coat in winter.

Joan is a Warm. You too are a Warm if you've got red-toned hair from strawberry blonde to auburn, reddish or blonde lashes, red to brown brows and green, brown or blue eyes. You'd look great in teal, chocolate, tangerine and lime. Your dominant undertone is yellow, so steer clear of icy pastels. Investment buys for you are moss, bronze and grey green.

Remember Sally Draper's teacher, Suzanne Farrell (left)? She's a Deep. Deeps are brunettes with dark eyes, dark brows and lashes and skin that ranges from porcelain to black. Strong, vibrant colours like turquoise and emerald green were made for you; avoid pastels which can wash you out. Investment buys for you include dark navy, black-brown and charcoal.

Jennifer Crane (right), Harry's wife, is a Soft. You share the same qualities if you've got dark blonde or light brown hair, eyes that are soft and muted like hazel and little contrast between your hair, eyes and skin. Look for light periwinkles, taupe, mint and blush pink. You're made for monochromatic looks -- tone on tone -- with little contrast. Investment buys for you would be rose brown, stone and pewter.

Jane Sterling (right), Don Draper's former secretary and Roger Sterling's young wife, is a Clear. Clears are characterised by high contrast: Dark hair, bright eyes which are the most striking feature, dark brows and lashes. A true red would look good on you, mint and black. A contrast of light and dark colours is always your safest bet. Investment buys would be black, purple and royal blue.

It was a challenge finding a photo of her, but Dorothy Campbell (right), Pete Campbell's mother, is a Cool. Cools have ash tones to their hair, whether it's dark brown, blonde, white or grey. They also have grey, blue or clear brown eyes and blondish to dark brown brows and eyes. If you're a Cool, your undertones are pink and you'd look best in colours such as icy green, blue-red and light aqua. Investment buys include spruce, teal and grey.


The above are master palettes. Each type has secondary colours based on skin tone to further whittle down the choices and ensure a perfect match. 


Knowing your colours will help you make the right choices, whether it's picking an interview outfit, purging your closet or deciding between t-shirt hues at a shop. And with the economy the way it is, who needs to waste money on clothes that don't look good? 


So take a page out of Joan's book. Take the guesswork out of your colours; look like a million bucks always. Getting to the well dressed list can be that dead simple.

Be A Happier Road Warrior

Traveling for work is fabulous -- at the start. Then delays, jet lag and always being a stranger in a strange city burns out even the most enthusiastic globetrotter. I asked several frequent business travelers what advice they could give the budding road warrior, and they swore the following will save your sanity:


Pack efficiently


Never, ever check in anything. For reasons why and tips on how to make everything fit into a cabin-sized wheelie, read this.


Have a permanent toiletry/wash bag stocked and ready to go. Make it a habit to buy two of your essential toiletries, one regular-sized for your bathroom and the other a travel-sized version for your wash bag. The latter always stays in the suitcase. That way you don't have last minute seizures figuring out what to bring, what to transfer and what to decant. 


Switch to solids. @dupreeblue suggests LUSH products to sidestep the 3 oz/100 ml liquid/gel restriction -- and leave more space in the quart-size plastic bag for liquids. You can get soap, shampoo, conditioner and lotion in solids (and your bag will smell like a LUSH store too, not a bad side benefit). More perfumers are also making solid versions of their fragrances.


Bring several Ziplock bags. The seal does break when overstuffed. Be like a girl scout and have some to hand.


Survive security


Be smart in choosing security lines. @BCVBenji makes it a point to avoid tour groups and diaper bags. He does gravitate towards people in suits -- they're usually more seasoned travelers and whip through lines in minutes. My own instinct is to follow anyone who's shedding jackets, removing laptops and taking out their plastic toiletry bags while in the queue. 


Wear slip-on shoes, not lace-ups. They're easier to remove. And bring an old pair of socks which you can bin afterwards. Some airports offer plastic baggies for your feet, but unless you like the shuffling-in-a-scene-from-Outbreak look, I'd suggest socks.


Eliminate all metal. Remove all jewelry, belts, coins; take sunglasses off your head. Even hair clips can set off the machines.


Do security like the pros. While still in the queue, take off your jacket or coat and your laptop. Your plastic bag with liquids/gels should be in an outside pocket of your suitcase for easy removal. 


Once you get within range of the bins, grab two: One for your shoes, coat and the plastic bag with liquids/gels; the other for your laptop and mobile phone. Pull on your old socks. Put both filled bins on the conveyor in a line along with your laptop case; put your suitcase last and use it to shove everything into the x-ray machine.  Walk through. 


Grab everything once they come out; dump socks once your shoes are on. Done.


Fly coach without a frayed temper


Always linger near the boarding gate so you're one of the first to get on. Overhead cabin space is precious. The last one on gets his bag tagged and checked in.


Book an aisle seat. It's easier to get to the bathroom. You also get off the plane quicker.


Err on the side of paranoia. Especially in the US, where flying domestic should require combat pay, it always helps to expect the worst. Bring a light blanket, buy a bottle of water after you go through security and a pack of dried fruit or nuts. Earplugs and an eye mask are also a godsend.

Fill out landing forms before you nap. Avoid the last-minute panic when you wake up and realise you don't have all your papers.

Set your watch to the time at your destination. Psychologically it gets you ready for arrival.


Make the trip rewarding for you


Stick to a routine. Whether it's eating breakfast at the same hour, running on a treadmill or reading before bedtime, make sure a routine you do at home is incorporated into your day. It breaks up the unfamiliar.


Carve out an hour for yourself to indulge in the city. No matter how busy your schedule is, treat yourself. It can be as simple as dining at a restaurant you've read about to organising a bespoke tour with a knowledgeable guide. Tour companies will gladly listen to suggestions, e.g. "I'd like a one-hour tour of all the famous Art Deco buildings in the area." 


Collect memories. Take photos, blog about your trip or even just show friends your itinerary on sites like Jauntlet. (You can see some pictures of my own travels here.)


Benjamin Disraeli once said, "Like all great travelers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen." Hopefully with the above your memories will be less about insufferable security lines, cramped plane seats and the other indignities of modern business travel, and more of the excitement, discovery and adventures that exploring a new city brings.

How To Deliver A Sobering Message

An ad for POWA (People Opposing Woman Abuse) created by Ogilvy in South Africa shows that communicating a tough message is sometimes best done through action, not preaching.

Fancy Going To SXSW Interactive 2011 For Free?

In honour of our favourite show coming back for its fourth season on Sunday, we're holding a quick and cheerful contest that can get you to Austin's SXSW Interactive 2011 for free*.

Just visit Six For Gold's Facebook page and post a haiku about your favourite Mad Men character. Deadline for submissions is Saturday, July 24th.

*Registration only. Airfare and accommodation not included.

Change The Way Your Brand Is Perceived: Lessons From eBay On Location

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to attend eBay On Location, a road show the online auction and shopping website organises in key cities. 

It's been fashionable to be cynical about eBay, about how it morphed from an entrepreneurial marketplace to a profit-driven, faceless conglomerate that favours hard-nosed volume sellers. 

The event overturned these perceptions. It was big enough so that every detail was seen to, but the way sessions were designed and delivered, and the way delegates were encouraged to network, was very community-orientated. Following are the actions that made this contradiction possible:

Start the networking before the welcome reception. Days before the conference, I was invited to two coffee chats with eBay managers who wanted to find out how I felt about the company's services and offerings. These were done in groups, so I was able to meet fellow sellers in addition to eBay staff. 

Most conferences kick off networking with a welcome reception. Not a bad idea but for big events it can still feel like a cattle call. The group coffee chats were intimate and made delegates feel they knew the staff even before the conference began. 

The result? Friendly hellos in the hallways of the hotel that were genuine, not forced, and better perceptions of a company often seen as controlling and evil. Props to eBay for taking the time and trouble to start relationship-building before they were engulfed by running the event itself.

Empower delegates to stand out. Hands up if you hate the company t-shirt and the license-plate sized badge you are doomed to wear over three days. eBay had a really neat solution: It offered delegates an assortment of adhesive-backed ribbons that they could use to customise their badges and encourage networking. My own badge is below. 

All I had to do was look for similar ribbons and strike up a conversation. And for the first time, I wasn't looking for any excuse to bin the badge.

Knock their socks off by making one ordinary detail extraordinary. This was a boxed lunch, no frills, one-day only conference. Yet eBay kitted out the ballroom with tiered U-shaped seating so everyone got a talk-show feel and view of the stage; white Barcelona chairs in strategically placed conversation lounge areas; branded accents in the most unexpected areas, the most talked-about being the white carpet that lined one of the seating tiers. 

White carpets? Who does white carpets apart from Elton John? Well eBay does, and it was an unexpectedly luxe detail that was burnt forever in the delegates' memories. 

Understand that the people make or break the event. Every staffer I encountered was polished, stylish and articulate. eBay's bearded and baseball-capped Griff whom I met at my coffee chat not only welcomed the delegates in the morning, he also starred in a video about easy shipping online. A technical glitch during one session had the IT guy talking about his progress fixing it, on mic, to the speaker in a spontaneous conversation reminiscent of office banter. One eBay employee live-tweeting the conference proudly said that they were all wearing organic cotton company t-shirts. 

eBay online is a huge, noisy, anonymous marketplace. These glimpses hinted at a workplace that, contrary to what we'd been moaning about, seemed to be populated by real, likable people. Who -- shock, horror -- were proud of their own company swag.

Was the camaraderie real or staged? Are the staff really like this back in San Jose? Who knows? All I knew was that despite my jadedness, my impressions of eBay changed. So did the other delegates who, armed with complaints about the unfairness of detailed seller ratings, inaccurate shipping calculators and other injustices to sellers, were won over by the end of the conference. 

Walter Landor once said that "products are made in the factory, but brands are created in the mind." Whoever helmed eBay On Location knowingly or unknowingly altered a city's mental picture of a brand for the better -- and it took a conference, not a multi-million dollar campaign, to make it happen.