No Smize

03 Dec No Smize

This year’s Paris Fashion Week featured gaggles of grumpy models strutting down runways in ungapatchka) wardrobes. All looked as if they had just lost their favorite pet, smiling only with their eyes. The smize facial gesture began years ago, when Tyra Banks taught contestants this technique on America’s Next Top Model. (Note. Designer Giorgio Armani was the exception who prompted his models to strike a genuine smile.)

Unfortunately, the smize is read by humans as insincere. And while many business professionals are told to smile when presenting, if a smile doesn’t match your content, you will be perceived as odd. Or, if the eyes and mouth don’t turn up together, it’s phony.

In animals, note the Feral smile, a warning of attack, the Fear grin, translated as “I’m harmless,” or in humans the Botox smile, which is the absence of any expression. As in all things when presenting, follow Shakespeare’s advice and suit the action to the word and the word to the action. Neither hold back nor manufacture a smile. Let your true self shine through.