Teenage girls make up for image tips at style course

IN an image-obsessed society, teenage girls who want to get ahead can now spend a week learning about make-up, hairstyles and skin care.

Former model and agency owner Geraldine Brand is providing workshops this summer to build up the confidence of 14 to 18-year-old girls.

"If we look good, we feel good. There's more pressure on people to look the part when they go for interviews nowadays. I think we owe it to ourselves to make the most of ourselves," Ms Brand said.

The summer workshops, which will take place in Capel Street in Dublin during June and July, cost €220. Ms Brand said students can easily recoup this outlay when they learn to dress stylishly and inexpensively.

"It teaches you how to build a wardrobe and you don't have to spend as much. If you know what's going on, you can buy something fairly cheap that will make you look as if you're in fashion."

Ms Brand has been running the courses since 1998. The mother of four has also worked as an image consultant for RTÉ's Off The Rails programme, where she has advised viewers on how to apply lipstick to keep it off your teeth and how to remove hair from your legs with an epilator.

Despite her modelling background, she said the workshop was not a fast route to the top. "People sometimes think it's to do with modelling, but it's not. But if I see someone who has potential, I'll obviously speak to them as honestly as I can about it," she said.

As well as trying on different outfits and hairstyles, her workshops also emphasise the value of deportment, or carrying yourself properly. "It's not what you wear but how you wear it standing straight, holding your head up, walking with your shoulders back," Ms Brand said.

One of the teenagers who has already signed up for the course said she wanted to learn about choosing the best clothes. "I knew someone who did it last year, and she just said it was great for getting clothes that suit up, make-up, how to present yourself and stuff like that," said Laura Weldon, a 17-year-old from Portmarnock in Dublin.

She acknowledged the pressures on young women to look their best.

"It is a kind of pressure but you need to know what suits you before you go out and spend loads of money. I do need some help with those areas so I think the course is worth it."