May 15, 2020
Our heroine from a couple of days ago now has a good work wardrobe for her needs – not terribly dressy, but still serious enough that she will stand out from her former co-workers. If you’re in an environment where people wear jeans and very casual clothes for work, it doesn’t take a lot to stand out!
navy cardigan – Lands’ End; Lavender cloud cardigan – Lands’ End; Plum cardigan – Lands’ End; Teal cashmere cardigan – Lands’ End; navy tank top – Lands’ End; lavender top – Lands’ End; Plum top – Lands’ End; Teal cashmere top – Lands’ End; striped tee shirt – Amazon Essentials; floral top – Banana Republic; Navy blouse – Marks & Spencer; Teal sweater – J.Crew; navy capris – Lands’ End; Navy washable wool skirt – Lands’ End; Sweater – Lands’ End; Navy sweater-blazer – J.Crew; navy pants – Lands’ End; Jeans – Lands’ End; Navy pleated skirt – Marks & Spencer; Tee shirt dress – Gap
My system, such as it is, for most wardrobes, is to assemble a half-dozen outfits, trying to include all of the “bottoms” and as many of the tops as possible. I of course try to include all of the colors, and as broad a range of dressiness as makes sense for the heroine in question.
I’m sure I miss something this way, but I’m still looking for a better approach! Any suggestions?
First, let’s start with a serious look “above the waist” but comfortable cropped pants and flat shoes “under the desk.” Teleconferencing has changing our lives, eh?
Earrings – Nyoman Rena; cardigan – Lands’ End; floral top – Banana Republic; cropped pants – Lands’ End; tote bag – Hedgren; ballet flats – Sam Edelman
Our heroine will almost certainly have to show up at something relatively serious; she doesn’t work in a deeply conservative industry, so wearing a skirt and shoes with a heel will go a long way toward looking like one of the bosses:
Butterfly earrings – Wadarat Supasirisuk; cardigan – Lands’ End; blouse – Lands’ End; skirt – Lands’ End; small scarf – Emily Carter; sling back pumps – Nanette Lepore
What were the chances that we would find a necklace that includes teal AND navy? Sometimes that’s all you need to look like you’ve had it all planned out…
Cardigan – Lands’ End; sweater – Lands’ End; skirt – Marks & Spencer; blue and teal necklace – J.Jill; cross body bag – Aurora London; pumps – Calvin Klein
To me, if you’ve got a lapel, you can wear a brooch! The brooch and scarf really dress up jeans and driving loafers…
Brooch – Wayan Asmana; cardigan – J.Crew; striped tee – Amazon Essentials; jeans – Lands’ End; scarf – J.Jill; loafers – Driver Club USA
Nail polish isn’t strictly an accessory, but if your nails coordinate with your outfit, you are going to feel polished! And another perfect necklace…
Cardigan – Lands’ End; blouse – Marks & Spencer; skirt – Lands’ End; nail polish – YSL; necklace – Callura; sling back pumps – Nanette Lepore
Another outfit for teleconferences, or for in-person meetings in a casual environment. You don’t always have to whack your staff in the head with the fact that you’re the boss!
But a gorgeous scarf elevates a simple sweater beautifully:
Glass stud earrings – Global Crafts; sweater – J.Crew; navy pants – Lands’ End; scarf – Arlette Ess; loafers – Driver Club USA
So 20 pieces of clothing, and in this wardrobe 16 accessories; I could travel for a long time with all of this! And in our current circumstances, it would be realistic to work with this wardrobe well into the warmer weather…
What accessory is your biggest weakness? Bags? Shoes? For me, of course, it’s probably scarves…
It could be worse – I might be collecting diamond tiaras! Very practical for the stay-at-home blogger, eh?
love,
Janice
p.s. Six years ago, I reviewed what I consider to be the six essential styles of shoes to own, and showed these in a few colors… I would still buy and wear all of the black ones – they’re timeless!
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I live with these colours all year round, so I feel very lucky. I would love the floral scarf except the price. The green and blue scarf is intriguing and could double up as a shawl if our heroine was chilly. The peacock brooch is exquisite. Black pearls are much more iridescent.
You have now reminded me of a necklace I have with teal, plum and dark blue drops. I used to wear it a lot. I shall go and find it.
I’ve begun to wear brooches more on blouses and jumpers. I even put one on a cardigan this morning because it went with my pyjamas. Is wearing jewellery with pyjamas a silly idea or should I just be more disciplined about getting dressed?
Lockdown is making me lazy. The UK government have said we can go outside as much as we like, so why do I now feel reluctant to do so?
Maybe because you”re still in your pajamas? ;)
I love the idea of dressing them up with jewelry!
I admit that I was at the time of writing ? but I then got dressed in teal and plum to go to the post office. Social distancing in the queue was excellent. I then decided to go to the big supermarket opposite to get a couple of things I can’t get in the smaller shops near me. Forget social distancing. No counting them in or counting them out. Some pretty pointless arrows on the floor which people ignored. I spent most of the time trying to avoid people.
Janice,
Great job on the accessories !
Just curious — why is 20 items the magic number here for this collection as opposed to say two 4×4’s for a total of 32 items with perhaps four accent colors ? For travel I remember you once saying that you never take more than 16 items , so a change of heart ?
Change of heart because I’m suspecting that my trips in the future will be quite a bit longer; if we get to go to Ireland in November, I want to be prepared to stay through the entire winter if we have to!
And I wanted to give this heroine quite a few suggestions; since she was already starting with 8 garments, I wanted to be sure that she would be able to add things 1 or 2 or 3 at a time for a few months. Work wardrobes might need to be larger than “normal” travel life, if only to keep yourself encouraged in the face of the 200th teleconference of the week!
hugs,
Janice
This is when I wish you had a like button on your web page. Even retired people like me who are doing committee work and social online meetings, find that a great supply of tops/accessories are needed.
This is beautiful. I liked the clothes in the first post, but these accessories really make the look. It is just amazing. At first I thought the wardrobe was a bit casual, but now I see how it can be quite professional. I don’t accessorize much, myself, but I might try a few things.
Great job!
I work(ed) a couple of days a week at our church library and am “that person”. Occasionally I wear nice jeans for work, but usually I wear nicer slacks, a top and a second layer that all make a completed look and allow to adjust for the temperature changes throughout the day.
It isn’t unusual to get an “oh! You’re dressed up today!” Comment.
I need clothes that are comfortable for squatting and reaching up for books but I still don’t look Schlumpy for the staff and members who come in for help.
I’m just at that age that saw the end of having to wear business dress clothes as mandatory. Women had to wear dresses, dress suits or a pant suit. And we had to wear panty hose if our legs were seen. One office I worked at would only give us a business casual Friday once a month, not every week. And still NO jeans. Only khakis and collared tops. Their concept was that people’s mental attitude is influenced by their dress. When we start dressing more casually our behavior follows suit.
Eventually, I became a SAHM. But I still felt the pull to have some sort of structure for clothes each day. I realized it helped if I needed to do errands but also keep me mentally and emotionally engaged and intentional while spending the days with my kids.
Even while homeschooling, we generally didn’t stay in PJs all of the time. Every so often we would have a PJ day but, again, it really did affect their mental engagement.
The past two months have probably seen my family wear their PJs through the day more than over the 15 years of homeschooling! ?.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see what society’s idea of “dresses up” is when we get back to our new normal.
Very nice! The scarves (my weakness!) are lovely, and I feel that they can accommodate a lot of moods with only 3 pieces. (I can’t justify that dahlia scarf, but I do love looking at it every time it appears in a wardrobe.) And I’m a sucker for animal-themed accessories, so I’m looking hard at both the peacock brooch and butterfly earrings.
If our heroine is in a not super-conservative industry (and hey, if she is but working from home a lot), I personally would find having 4 pairs of navy (and only navy) shoes a bit overkill. I would like to see a pair of silver pointy-toed flats in place of the slingbacks (though I do think that bow detail is nice) because I don’t see a reason to have 2 pairs of navy heels (unless you really love wearing navy heels and want to be able to let your shoes rest a day between wears, I guess). And since I’m not a loafer wearer in warm weather, I would like another pair of flats that works with skirts, pants, and capris–perhaps a pair of navy polka dot flats to add a bit of pattern. (OK, yes, shoes are my other weakness, and I like having variety and making a bit of a statement with them.)
I would also be on the look-out for a statement necklace in multiple accent colors to give an alternative to the more delicate necklaces. And I hope someone celebrates her promotion with a gift of amethyst or agate earrings (or both pairs! ideally one more subtle and one a bit more statement).
I also recently saw (I don’t recall where, not in my closet!) an oblong scarf with lavender and plum flowers and teal-green leaves on a white/ivory background that would fit right in to this color scheme and lighten/brighten things up a bit for spring/summer. Some kind of white pearl necklace would also not be amiss in bringing some light to the face. Of course, it’s possible that our heroine prefers a lower value contrast so mixing in too much light with the dark would not be suitable. If this wardrobe were to magically appear in my closet, I would be looking for ombre plum and teal scarves (already have a lavender one) to lighten things up (I like how the ombre steps through the values from dark to light so it’s not as stark and makes it a no-brainer to mix lighter and darker versions of the same color, if that makes sense).
It’s always a pleasure to look at these posts and think about how I would modify it for myself. I’m learning how important it is to me to have a bit (or more than a bit) of fun/whimsy in every outfit I wear. Evaluating these wardrobes definitely reinforces the idea that a legit core wardrobe can accommodate a lot of different tastes/moods/seasons/environments/personalities with the addition of accessories.
Janice – Thanks for going into more detail about how you choose outfits from the capsule to accessorize, I find it very helpful. It also feels easier to select potential outfits using your cluster template since the items already work together nicely and are grouped by color story.
I struggle with curating my everyday wardrobe because I crave color variety and have less specific clothing needs (I work from home and can wear jeans everyday). So for me, my wardrobe is lopsided – just a few pairs of jeans and way too many tops and toppers. These types of posts are helping me figure out which items are worth keeping in my closet and which should find a new life somewhere else. I’m also beginning to see why dressing for events is a problem and how that can be easily solved with a few strategic purchases. I think I’m getting the hang of this and am going to try this on my own with items in my closet.
PS – I always use your Whatever’s Clean 13 Cooler to Warmer template paired with the Triple Top Secret for vacationing and it works perfectly every time!
Oooh, the best thing (I’ve found) to really be able to dress up without buying a lot – get a nice pair of pants in a dark neutral, and nice but not “formal” shoes. So many of the tops that you have will be excellent with your dress pants, and you will be dressed for a lot of events.
Add in a nice neutral skirt and shoes, and you’re in a great position to dress up!
hugs,
Janice
Great post and tasteful, inspiring accessories!! You asked about our weakness … bags and scarves are absolutely my passion! I’m obsessed – but I think they are so worth the money! They last for years and years and are fun to rotate. I’m a color fiend so bags and scarves are how I add interest to my wardrobe. Now that I’m semi-retired, I need to start culling my shoes, jackets, etc. Hard to let go of great things but I guess someone who needs them could give them new life.
In regard to the previous post about shoes, I think it’s interesting to see what people consider essential, especially for things like shoes, which have so many choices. I was reminded of a road trip I took last summer with my family for which I packed 4 pairs of shoes (lightweight hiking shoes, canvas sneakers, leather wedge sandals, and waterproof walking sandals). These four shoes were perfect for every single activity that I needed shoes for during the trip. It was a great exercise in determining my needed shoe styles, and now I know I can be perfectly happy with only 4 types of shoe for each season. In the winter, I switch the wedge sandals for wedge dress booties and the flat walking sandals for flat leather boots. So easy, and so easy to shop sales when I know what I’ll wear the most.
In this post I really liked the way the necklaces pulled everything together. I don’t wear scarves very often, but I like silver chain necklaces and bracelets a lot.
My accessory is definitely scarves! I have a drawer full of them: small squares, oblong, bias, large squares. They are mostly in the colors I love to wear and range from casual cowboy style bandanas to dressy large squares. My little secret I’ll share with you and the other FilesFans is that I will occasionally grab a nice cardigan and a scarf and throw on over an exercise T-shirt just minutes before a Zoom meeting.
However!!!! I have also begun to collect brooches, inspired by a Smithsonian exhibit a few years ago of Madeline Albright’s brooches. She had everything from inexpensive thrift store finds to custom brooches and each in the exhibit had a fascinating little story to go with it. I think you would all be amused that our then-Secretary of State carefully selected her brooches to send a message to heads of state she might be visiting!! Enjoy that thought the next time you reach for a brooch to wear.
I would have loved to have seen that exhibition of brooches. My jewellery ‘collecting’ was also inspired by a small collection in Bristol museum in England which is quite eclectic from cheap plastic earrings to gem-stone pieces. It made me realise that a collection is as individual as you are – my choices plus pieces I have inherited or I’ve recieved as presents. My collection is not ‘curated’, though I’ve realised from sorting out my wardrobe, that I have very little jewellery in proper pink which is a gap because I wear pink a lot. However, I doubt that anyone could analyse me by looking at my collection!
I love these colors so much and wish that they were easier to find! A beautiful wardrobe!
I love what you’ve put together here.
I’ll tell you why I have a (rhinestone) tiara. My husband owns a coffee company and was making a delivery to a law firm when he noticed the secretary was wearing a tiara. He asked about it and she said whenever she was working on something that required intense concentration, she would put it on to warn the lawyers not to bother her for a pen or some such if they see her wearing the tiara. After hearing this, I headed directly to Michael’s (craft store) to get one for myself. Now when I’m counting stitches in knitting, or anything else where it might not be obvious that I REALLY don’t want to be interrupted, I’ll put it on. If he peeks in and sees it, he knows to back away quietly.
That is genius, and a great excuse to get a tiara! I’m a translator and I get very irritable when interrupted, so I might actually copy you :D
I’m with Alice – what a great excuse to own a tiara! I could copy this…
hugs,
Janice
I have a tiara too. I not sure it will help with my concentration but I’ll look good and it will keep my hair out of my eyes! Though perhaps I wont wear it for the weekly online team meeting.
Apparently coordinated face masks are set to become this summer’s latest accessory!