I recently worked with a woman who was launching her own business.

Like many new founders, she was thinking about the sort of business she wanted to create, the clients she wanted to attract and the impression she wanted to make.

Our conversation headed to clothing - obviously because of my particular profession - but also fascinatingly important for the decision she had to make about her new business.

She wanted to be able to wear her favourite outfit.

And frankly, I thought that was a brilliant place to start.

I religiously watched the programme and remember feeling equally awed and horrified at Trinny Woodall and Susannah poking at bits of women's bodies, then giving us the set of rules we should follow for our body shapes. Then the TRANSFORMATION at the end! Classic 'wow moment' programming and it totally captured me.

But 24 years on... how much has it dated?

Well.. not that much really. Obviously the pictures are hilariously noughties (the chokers oh yes 😂) and style has moved on, but we appear to be in a world where fashion rules - whether enforced by the workplace or from personal enforcement - are still firmly holding.

The idea is that clothes don't just change how other people see us. They can change how we experience ourselves. Researchers believe this happens for two reasons. Firstly, because we attach meaning to clothes. Secondly, because wearing them creates a physical experience that reinforces those meanings.

Clothing is one of the ways we communicate who we are, often before we've even spoken. I felt like I was communicating something entirely different about the woman I was, wearing a navy suit, or navy court shoes, a navy shift dress or shirt and trousers.

I began to struggle with making confident and creative decisions at work. I felt so ‘out of whack’ with myself, less powerful and more anxious.