June 15, 2022
Six Days a Month
They moved WAY out of the city back in early 2020; if they didn’t have to go into the office, it made sense to move someplace more remote… Much safer, back then…
But now, they’re telling her that she needs to come into the office six days each month. WHO is going to be keeping track of this, one might wonder.
She doesn’t HAVE office clothes, now. What she used to wear doesn’t fit, and the way she dresses now on a regular basis will NOT cut it; life on a farm is NOT life at a desk!
So she’s going to create the world’s smallest work wardrobe (well, close!), based on a painting of her favorite flowers.
Heather blossom cardigan – J.Crew; earrings – Yuniati; tee shirt – Lands’ End; Autumn Balance bracelets – Fierce Lynx Designs; bag – Sinbono; pants – L.L.Bean; scarf – Henelle; loafers – Tamaris
She starts with her most serious outfit – the sweater-blazer tends to make anything worn with it look more serious!
And then she’s adding just enough clothes to get her through six days each month without strictly repeating an outfit. She doesn’t know why, but that feels like something she wants to avoid.
She rummages through her closet, with some logic and a clear color palette…
cardigan – L.L.Bean; crystal earrings – Alexis Bittar; taupe bracelet – Alexis Bittar; tulip narrow scarf – Lost Pattern NYC; sunlit coral tee – L.L.Bean; cabled sweater – Orvis; clay silk shirt – Orvis; bag – Vince Camuto; pendant – Kendra Scott; owl scarf – Ilona Tambor; pants – L.L.Bean; dresses – J.Crew; sandals – Lifestride; loafers – Dr. Scholl’s
And she assembles this – hangs it in the front of her closet, and vows to not thing about work clothes any time soon!
She doesn’t know that she can make it through the entire winter with this – 2 linen dresses could be an issue! But she’s confident that she can get through the summer and early autumn.
By then, there may be new rules!
Is anybody else facing this new work situation? I’ve heard from more than a couple of you who are being “invited” back into the office on varying schedules…
I’ll stay here at the dining table to work!
love,
Janice
p.s. Three years ago, we started with a bracelet and went to our heroine’s favorite cottage for a week!
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This is beautiful Janice! Not really my colors, but I bet our heroine is beautiful in this. I am loving that owl scarf!!! What a treat this morning. Thank you! I have been teaching in person all year and am so thankful to see my students in person. My husband has been back at the office too for quite a while. Unless there is someone who gets Covid in a certain area (he works at a really big place) then that department will go remote for a while.
Beauty and comfort all rolled into a cohesive wardrobe! Perhaps those linen dresses can get her partway through the colder months by adding tights and long-sleeved tees underneath.
This is just lovely. In my real life I couldn’t wear it, but doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate it. Nicely done. Thank you.
Hi Janice and Everyone! LOVE the color combination as soon as I saw the painting. Maybe she could switch in a skirt for one of the dresses-?
I would go a shade darker on the green, but that’s just me.
This is the exact issue I am currently confronting. It is more stressful than I would have imagined.
I work in a public library, and we were called back to work in June 2020. The building wasn’t open to the public, though, until May 2021. Some city meetings are in-person, district and state-wide are either via Zoom or hybrid. My issue with my wardrobe was that I started a new routine in January 2020 and lost 60 pounds. Yay, me, lol. I had saved favorites from the last time I weighed this much, and bought (too many!) clothes to fill in the blanks in spring/summer 2021. So now I am trying to mindfully weed out the extraneous pieces that I just don’t wear. Janice’s various templates are proving to be invaluable!
I have read that in three-days-a-week offices it gets rather crowded on Wednesdays. No matter what three days people choose, Wednesday is usually one of them.
I like the wardrobe choices and would add two wool or corduroy or knit dresses for winter, maybe with boots.
These clothes are so classic. Great color palette. It all reminds me of Light Academia, as they call it. Just lovely.
I love the ethereal quality this has…so light, soft and delicate. I can’t wear the pinkish hues, but like others, can appreciate the whole wardrobe. Love these mini wardrobes…may we have more please in other colors? On the office front, I reported to duty station the entire time, so no re-entry stress…but lots of co-workers were gone which was very stressful and chaotic. My workload increased when they went out & again when they came back. Thank you TVF for keeping me sane and nicely dressed.
I *love* this palette and this approach to work wear. I think a lot of people have this situation for ‘hybrid’ or occasional office visits, and I certainly don’t want to keep my entire pre-COVID business wardrobe around when two dozen items might suffice for the whole year. I’m fine with more of a uniform as long as the colors & silhouettes vary a little.
I’m still in WFH but my husband is going into the office twice a week: one day his entire department it there for their weekly staff meeting and then one day of his choice. He chose Friday and as he’d hoped, the place is almost deserted!
Like Julie, I might lean more toward a uniform but with variety in the colors for a situation like this. But I think this capsule is really nice!
The linen dresses strike me very much as summer stand-alone pieces with those cuffed sleeves that don’t seem they would layer very well under a sweater/jacket. I have a shirt with similar sleeves that I’ve given up trying to layer, accepting it as a stand-alone. If she’s only wearing each dress once a month, I’m not sure that will be great value with a $118 dress…that very much depends on her budget. I would strongly consider switching to something that is more layerable for one of the dresses.
It’s interesting how differently we can create color palettes based on the same image! I would put together a capsule using aloe/olive as the primary neutral and a range of truer pinks (not so much peach to rust) as the primary accents…perhaps with a bit of black and white/ivory. Maybe I just see the colors I want to see! :)
I’ve been doing an experiment of green and pink in recent years. Lovely colours, though my green is teal and the pinks for me are more salmon pink, geranium pink and soft pink/,blush rather than coral pink/rust.
I not working at the moment but still like to look ‘put together’ for volunteering. I’m also doing online courses and I’m conscious of what I wear on my top half. Colours that are flattering but not bright or too dark. Patterns are subtle rather than bold. or busy.
I did a stint in the office last summer after a bad winter (mentally) at home, but generally wore the same things I had been wearing at home – I still haven’t touched the old work trouser sets, if I’ve needed formal then the cords would have to suffice.
I could see myself in something similar to today’s wardrobe as the colours are right and the basic premise is compatible with the choices of clothing I make, with exception that the button through shirt and dresses would be switched for equally tailored button less or button limited versions.
Hybrid work here – 0-5 days/week in office depending on what’s going on! But on average 2-3 days onsite, 2-3 days home. I’ve come to realize I’m perfectly happy wearing black/white/navy/grey at home; it’s going out in public that makes me want to wear color. for the most part. Also happy to repeat outfits at home, but feel like I need to “change it up” when I’m onsite. I wonder why my at-home needs are so different from onsite?
Looking for inspiration to build something like a capsule wardrobe – I have a slight penchant for minimalism and am more of a throwaway than a collector – I stumbled across your blog and, what can I say, I’m smitten. Lovely little stories, endlessly imaginative and carefully selected and put together outfits, very wearable even after the age of thirty. Every new post sweetens the day. I hardly dare to say it: I’m planning something in black and off-white or ivory for the winter, accentuated with colors ranging from cool red to hot pink to purple. Could you possible introduce something like that? (Or is this already existing?)
Warm greetings from Germany
Hmm…what an interesting question ezzy. Even though my at home days are non-work days, I follow with a similar pattern of wearing ‘weekend clothes’ at home unless there’s a reason to go somewhere that calls for something nicer. I haven’t noticed if my colors change, but am going to watch for a pattern now. Wonder if it’s related to childhood when our mothers would tell us to change out of school clothes?
What a gorgeous color palette! If I were building a new wardrobe, I’d use this as my guide. As for work, I’ve been in office for the duration (aside from a two-month furlough at the very beginning). Luckily it’s business casual (emphasis on casual) but I enjoy dressing for work so it’s just part of my routine. Even on the days when I’m at home I tend to dress it up.
Another great post Janice! From the original painting, without scrolling down to see the whole post, I would have chosen olive and coral, with blush as a light neutral. But I love your interpretation.
I love these soft colors. On another note, I love gladiolus. They remind me of my piano teacher who grew them and always had a big vase of them on the Steinway. She called them “poor man’s orchids.” Have a lovely weekend.
I would like to see this as a series. I’m back in the office 2 days a week and living in a hot climate. I’m pulling out the 2-3 year old work clothes from my closet (mainly sleeveless shirts and pants right now), but I would like more ideas. I’m afraid the long sleeves and sweaters aren’t terribly practical right now even in AC.
What a lovely palette! As a teacher I’ve been back in the classroom since August 2020. 2 pandemic years under my belt and both of them exhausting in different ways.