Q: I publish a racing newspaper and I'm buffaloed by what to wear when I make sales calls on advertising prospects. Most of my ad clients are men, so I don't want to look too fluffy and feminine. I need to look like the owner of a successful business -- which I am. I weigh around 135, I'm only 5'2" and I'm a pear -- small on top, bigger on the bottom.

A: You may have noticed that, according to the fashion magazines, working women are empowered now, so we can toss our dumb blue suits and express our femininity and sexuality by wearing whatever we want to work. So why shouldn't you go out on those sales calls dressed -- or half-dressed -- in slinky, sexy Versace like Jennifer Lopez at the Oscars? You know perfectly well why.

Consider wearing a suit. Not the dress-up kind that looks like you're going to a wedding. The kind that looks like you're going to work. Too corporate? Try a tailored jacket and an unmatched knee-length skirt or tailored trousers. What's horsier than a tweed or cavalry-twill hacking jacket? Make the jacket light and the skirt dark to un-pear your silhouette. Find something that feels totally comfortable -- consider a tightly woven lightweight wool with 2 or 3% Lycra. Have it altered so it fits perfectly. (Good tailoring subtracts pounds.)

Spend some money: You can't afford to look as if your newspaper's hanging on by its fingernails. Wear your suit with a silk shirt, good shoes, decent briefcase. Places to look: Banana Republic, Lands' End, Eddie Bauer, J. Jill.

Patricia McLaughlin is a nationally syndicated fashion columnist.
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