Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

When you are speaking, standing on stage, in a group photo, or sitting down, it is good to have a distinctive colour costume. Ideally it should co-ordinate with your complexion and hair or eye colour, or lipstick, or hat, matching belt, jewellery and accessories. Many big organizations have a uniform. This enables customers to identify staff. Think of airlines. And Supermarkets. Toastmasters has three colours which you can find on the Toastmasters International website. They sell tee-shirts with their logo. I have a red one. This goes with red lipstick. I should wear a red hair band. A scarf interferes with the logo or text by falling across it. ) I have noticed President and Toastmaster Shan Shan, who I see at many meetings wearing a blue Toastmasters tee-shirt with a button neck. 

I am not a fan of the open button neck. To me this is too casual. fine for the outdoors. I think Toastmasters International should present a more formal and official look. The motto is Where leaders are made. I think a leader should look like a leader.

At a big meeting, when you are lost and need help, directions to a room, or empty seat, it helps to identify the ushers who usher you in quickly.

Yes, you can see spare seats conveniently alongside or left empty in the front row. But the seat occupant might have slipped out to the toilet or to collect a prop or answer a phone call.  

That empty seat in the front row might have a paper on it saying, Reserved for President, Reserved for Speaker. So it helps to find an usher who knows which apparent empty seats won't cause you to play musical chairs throughout the meeting.

A plain colour outfit is a good background for a badge of the organisation, or a card with your name. A lanyard is also neat against a plain background, rather than obscuring a pattern on a dress.

Vietnamese Traditional Dressw

The Vietnamese traditional dress for ladies (and gentlemen - especially on formal occasions such as national days and weddings) is a long split sided tunic, in white, with matching white trousers, and a co-ordinating, and a conical (pointed centre) flattened (low and wide) coolie hat.

But why white! Yes, it looks clean, like a white shirt, like a white apron. 

But what happens when we are eating standing up at a cocktail reception? Or drinking coffee at a club meeting or conference at break time. You have to be careful not to spill or splash food and drink. Maybe you are careful. Then somebody backs into you! 

Even if you rush to wash off the stain, you may be left with a patch of darker colour from the liquid. Later you may see a faint stain has been left.

So, how about a Vietnamese outfit in a colour? 

Many clothes are imported from China, by enterprising entrepreneurs. I have nothing against that. It is all promoting the Vietnamese style, advertising trips to Vietnam.

Nowadays, similar outfits in various colours and fabrics are sold small shops along the shopping streets in the main cities of Vietnam. (I visited the second city, a base for visiting beautiful HaLong Bay.)

I was quite a large lady at that time, so a black outfit was more slimming. The colour looked better on me. Showed creases less.

Hid the fact that my top half is slightly lopsided. Looking in the mirror, some patterns drew attention to this. (Everybody is slightly different, left to right. With me this is accentuated by the fact that I was indina a car accident damaging my ribs and collar bone. Later another accident damaged my right arm).

Now that I have visited Vietnam, I can recognize the Vietnamese style. If I see one, reasonably priced, I try it, and maybe buy it. I add it to my stock of co-ordinated outfits for special speaking occasions.

Wikipedia gives you the spelling and pronunciation: