Your Speech Dress Sense Matters. To You and Your Audience.

You don't want to be in the shade when you next give a speech, so your attire and dress sense do matter. And so, we've talked in the past about what to wear when you give a speech. In the main, most of the speech dress sense tips that we give are sane and acceptable to most potential speakers and, of course, their audiences. However, we saw a speech this week involving the President of France, Emmanuel Macron. And what caught our eye was his use of sunglasses on the speaker's podium. Sunglasses! Indoors!

Yes, there was President Macron, behind the lectern and the microphone, speaking to his World Economic Forum audience, wearing sunglasses, aviator sunglasses, no less. We've come across a sun hat before in a President Museveni speech in Uganda. Of course, that speech was under the blistering East Africa sun. But this is the first time we've encountered sunglasses as an item of sartorial elegance on the podium, indoors.

Does Your Dress Sense Matter on the Conference Podium?

Now, is there anything necessarily wrong with this? Well, maybe, maybe not. Of course, as a speaker you want to be seen by your audience. And President Macron is well-used to standing up straight at the lectern. And you also want to see your own audience in turn. So, would sunglasses prevent that? Perhaps.

We are told by the President's aides that the President has something wrong with his eye or eyes. Has Mrs. Macron given him another punch in the eye? We'd best not suggest that. It's unfair.

So we'll suggest that perhaps an eye infection or a red eye has caused the issue. Whatever the cause, unfortunately the €659 sunglasses created a lot of attention. And most of it wasn't very kind!

When you next give a speech, your speech dress sense is all-important. So these top tips should help you.

When you need help, advice, and assistance with your next speech, you will find plenty of tips for speakers and presentation tips on the site. And when you need to really push your own public speaking skills, why not consider an online public speaking course to hone your own skills in this area.