Most advice on this question is written for an office in London or Chicago. It assumes a climate you do not have, a dress code you may not share, and a walk from the car that does not undo everything you planned. Here is the Dubai version.
The short answer
Wear what you would wear to a meeting that matters, in the industry you actually work in. Solid colors. Nothing brand new. Bring two or three options on hangers rather than deciding at home.
That is genuinely most of it. If you stop reading here you will be fine.
The rest of this is for the parts that trip people up in Dubai specifically: dressing for a building that is nineteen degrees inside and forty outside, and working out what business dress even means when the firm next door has a completely different idea of it.
The rule that settles most questions
A headshot is a photograph of your face. Everything below the chin is background.
That sounds obvious and it decides nearly every clothing question people ask me. Anything that pulls the eye downwards is working against the photograph: a bright color, a busy pattern, a large logo, a collar sitting at an odd angle. Anything quiet lets the eye settle where it should.
So the question to ask of each shirt or jacket is not does this look good on me. It is will anyone notice this instead of my face. A jacket you like very much can still be the wrong jacket for this one photograph.
The second thing, less obvious: the frame is tight. Often it ends just below the shoulders. A beautiful outfit may contribute nothing but a collar and two inches of shoulder. Choose for what will actually be in the picture.
Color, pattern and fit
Color. Mid-tones do the most work: navy, charcoal, slate, deep green, burgundy, warm neutrals. They sit a comfortable distance from most skin tones without competing. Pure white can glare under studio light and tends to pull brightness away from the face. Solid black swallows detail and can flatten shoulders into a dark shape, though it works well on some people, so it is a preference rather than a rule. If you are unsure, navy is the safest thing you own.
One worth knowing: a color close to your own skin tone will read oddly, because the eye loses the line between face and clothing. Beige and camel are lovely and difficult for this reason.
Pattern. Fine stripes and small checks can shimmer on camera, an effect called moire. It is not always fixable afterwards. Larger, softer patterns are usually safe; anything tight and regular is a risk. If you love a particular patterned shirt, bring it as a second option rather than your only one.
Fit. This matters more than the garment. A well-fitted jacket in an ordinary fabric beats an expensive one that pulls across the shoulders. Watch three things: the shoulder seam sitting where your shoulder actually ends, the collar lying flat against your neck, and sleeves that do not bunch when you bring your arms slightly forward, which you will.
Fabric. Matte over shiny. Satin, high-sheen silk and some technical fabrics catch light in ways that draw attention. Wool, cotton, linen blends and crepe photograph calmly.
Texture earns its place. A knit, a subtle weave, a fabric with some depth gives the photograph something to hold without becoming a pattern. Flat, thin fabric can look cheap on camera even when it is not.
The Dubai part
This is where imported advice stops being useful.
Do not wear it there. Bring it. Two minutes between a car park and a lobby in August will undo a shirt, and a collar that has been through that will not come back. Change when you arrive, or let me photograph you after you have had ten minutes in the air conditioning. Nobody has ever regretted bringing the shirt on a hanger.
Fabrics behave differently in humidity. Linen creases the moment you sit down, which is part of its charm and none of its usefulness here. Pure silk marks. Light greys and pale blues show perspiration first and most visibly. Mid-tone, matte, slightly heavier fabric is far more forgiving, and remember you will be under lights, which add their own warmth.
Offices are cold, outdoors is not. If part of the session is outside, dress for the room and bring the jacket separately. A linen jacket worn through a cold morning meeting arrives creased in exactly the places the camera sees.
Give yourself a margin. Arriving flustered shows in a photograph more reliably than any clothing choice. The difference between someone who arrived ten minutes early and someone who ran in is visible around the eyes and the shoulders, and no amount of good tailoring hides it.
Dress codes vary enormously here, and that is the real question. A partner at a DIFC law firm, a fund manager, a founder in Dubai Internet City and a consultant who meets clients across all three are not dressing for the same room. The useful test is not what a general guide says business dress means. It is what the most senior person you want to be taken seriously by would wear to meet you. Dress one small step towards that, not three.
National dress, abayas and headscarves
Sometimes my work in Dubai involves photographing people in kandura, abaya or hijab, and almost nothing written about headshots accounts for it. The principles do not change. The practicalities do.
Kandura. The crisp white photographs beautifully, but it is bright enough that I will light you differently so the fabric keeps its detail. Bring a fresh one if you can, since creases across the chest and shoulders show clearly. Worth a moment at the mirror with the ghutra and agal before we start.
Abaya. Matte fabrics photograph more calmly than high-sheen ones, and embellishment around the neckline competes directly with your face, since that is where the frame is tightest. Detail lower down is usually out of shot anyway.
Hijab and headscarves. Fabric with some structure holds its shape through a session; very soft fabrics shift as you move, so bring a pin or two. Color sits right next to your face and does more work than anything else in the frame, and mid-tones are kinder than very bright or very pale.
And tell me before we start how you would like to be framed. It takes thirty seconds and saves you reviewing photographs you cannot use.
A short list of what not to do
Anything bought for the occasion. New clothes sit stiffly and you wear them self-consciously. Both show.
Large logos and visible branding. They date the photograph and can make it awkward if you change firms.
Heavy jewellery near the face. Earrings and necklaces that catch light pull the eye straight off your eyes.
Glasses you do not normally wear, and equally, leaving at home the glasses you do. If you wear them daily, wear them. Anti-reflective lenses help, and I can work around the rest.
A fresh haircut the same morning. Two or three days of settling looks far more like you. The same goes for any beard trim.
Clothes that need holding in place. If you are adjusting it, you are thinking about it, and that reads in your face.
The morning of
Two or three tops, on hangers, in the car
One jacket or outer layer, even if you are not sure about it
Everything pressed the night before, not that morning
A lint roller, and a comb or brush
Clear lip balm, and blotting papers if you tend to shine under lights
Glasses cleaned
Arrive ten minutes early and sit down for five of them
And if you are coming straight from a meeting having planned none of this, come anyway. We will work with what you are wearing, and it will be fine. Most of what makes a headshot work is not the shirt.
If you would like to talk it through beforehand, that is how every session starts here anyway: a conversation first. You can see what each session includes on the packages page, or start with Presence Starter.
