I started my professional career at Duty Free Shops. After becoming one of the first employees at eLuxury.com, I moved on to the Paris headquarters to work at Christian Dior Couture.
My life had its glamorous moments: the private sales, the training tours to Louis Vuitton’s boutique on Rodeo Drive, running into Galliano at his atelier in Paris, visiting Harrods in London for the very first time, and receiving enough makeup for the rest of my life. But it has also involved a lot of pressure: making sure you always dressed in the current collection, on a very modest salary.
After about five years, I had a chat with my immediate supervisor, and asked her advice about growing my role. She looked at me and laughed, “Your name is Layla, you speak French with a foreign accent, and you are still carrying a handbag from two seasons ago – what do you think your chances are?”
Instead of buying a new designer bag, taking accent reduction courses, or changing my name, three months later, I moved to the U.S. to produce a book about the empowerment of women. While getting ready to present the project at the United Nations, my immediate manager came to my hotel room and saw me in a fabulous Fendi navy wool suit (that I had purchased at a private employee sale) and in a very upset tone said: “Layla, I AM the Director and you are only the Production Manager, why is it that all of your suits look nicer than mine?”
After that experience (which made me feel anything but empowered), I settled in Silicon Valley, gained a few (Ok a lot of) extra pounds, and embraced motherhood. I began to care less and less about my appearance and personal brand. Working for tech companies such as Yahoo! where HR sends out an email to candidates encouraging them to dress casual for the interview, I figured it was best to lay low-key. My designer handbags were sold on eBay and replaced with the free bags I received in trade shows, and I basically gave up on hills after my daughter’s birth.
And then I started noticing the promotions passing me by. Although people praised me for work and often used me as an example to motivate others, they did not consider me for some of the promotions that were an obvious fit. Before leaving my last position, I finally built my courage up to ask for feedback from my manager, and she was kind enough to give me a candid answer:
“Show your confidence and remember to dress for the role you want – the one I know you are capable of! Perception is reality”.
That conversation, inspired me to organize this upcoming panel:
“How does Fashion & Design matter for company, product, career and your personal brand?”
SAP Business Women Network and My Runway team (the new social shopping app from SAP) 
will be welcoming a very distinguished and fashionable panel, and we would love to include any questions you might have from Tory Burch, eBay, Google, and Glam Media.
We hope you will attend, but if you are not able to, feel free to post your questions in the comments, and we’ll be sure to include them.
To add to the fun, we will have an interactive fashion show to which you can participate by downloading My Runway application, and you can view remotely.
Lastly, you have a chance to win a beautiful Tory Burch bag this week. To enter you must post a tweet regarding the topic "How fashion and design effects your career, or post any questions you want asked for the upcoming panel. The contestant whose tweet receives the highest number of retweets will win this gorgeous bag!
For complete list of rules, please review our guidelines.
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