Dress to Impress

People say, "dress to impress" especially in business scenes.
It means "if you want to look as a professional, wear a professional clothes."
But in American culture ( from my impression,) it also means "dress to impress yourself."
For example, in hospitals, nursing staffs wear white robes(professional,) but inside the professional robes, they wear vibrant-colored or full-printed clothes just to cheer themselves up and to show their personalities.
Or, even when business women wear (professional) power suits, they might have cute stationery to show their characters.

In my case, we have a dress code at our English school.
I keep that, but I try to show (not try, I just can't stop) my personality and preference through my appearance.
For instance, I got my favorite glitters, blings, spangles, crystals...on my shoes, belts, my pen case, automatic pencils, purses, or my memo-pads...
They just lighten me up while working, and also, they become kind of " leads of small talks."
When my students saw my blinging stuff, they say, "Look at that! It seems you!! Where did you get it?!
Even kids say, "it seems very Keiko!" when they see glitter things, their mothers said...
My boss, co-workers and students have known me for two years and a half, and my office is kind of westernized, so it's OK to have & wear "my favorite ones."

However, in a very Japanese business scenes, I might be better not to do that.
Unlike my English school, I started to work at conservative hotels when I do wedding emcee job.
To me, "wedding" is a bright occasion, so I thought a wedding emcee should wear a bright-colored ( I mean, not dark-colored) suit.
In some wedding venues, my idea is right, but in other venues...
"Wedding is a very formal occasion, so a wedding emcee should wear a black formal suit."

When I worked in a big hotel in Shinjuku as a wedding interpreter, a Japanese wedding emcee wore a black plain suit. To everybody, she looked like a wedding planner. To me, she looked like a guest in a funeral. (sorry!)

Fortunately or unfortunately, the hotel crews got to like me through the job, so they offered me to join their DVD as one of their wedding emcees.
The shooting is coming soon... I asked them what to wear, then they said, "Any suit with a DARK-COLORED is fine. Black, navy, or dark-gray."
Oh, those are very depressing colors to me...

I remember, when I went to the meeting of international wedding with the newlyweds, a Japanese emcee, and an event planner, I was advised not to be outstanding from the president of my emcee office because hotel staffers were very conservative.
I wore a navy suit and had a black binder (if I were at my school, I would have a pink one!)
I tried not to bring something "seems like me," but I brought up my pen case, which is a shoe-shaped with a lot of spangles.
The bride saw it and said, "look at that! So cute!" to the groom, like my students always say.
I knew it became a lead of conversation, but also I was embarrassed to bring up my "personal side" in a professional occasion.
If it had been after I get to used to a wedding venue, maybe it would have been fine...
But as long as I'm a "new emcee" to the venue, I should try "to impress as a team player" first, here in Japan.

...When can I finally "dress to impress MYSELF" instead of "dress NOT to impress myself" at my emcee working places??
I don't know...