This is a link to a detoxifying morning yoga sequence that’s great but reading it I got distracted by her super cute cover-up, isn’t it nice?
I’ve been hating my work outfits lately, dressing like an office lady is not my style at all. I look professional but I feel awkward & stupid in those clothes. My ordinary everyday wear looks like a box of ugly crayons threw up inside my closet, ha! I think I’ll copy that cover-up & see it I can pull it off over leggings & a simple top.
What do you wear to work? Anything handmade, interesting, different, sneakily cheaty?
that’s a nifty coverup, nice for an extra layer on a cold day.
There’s no work involved, but my current look is leggings and tunic. I even found some long sweaters this winter; I never liked a regular sweater over a long top.
My issue is usually that I adore boldly patterned fabric, and I wind up with patterned tops and patterned bottoms, with no solids to pair them with. I seem to have finally gotten that in hand.
Except for socks & a couple sweaters, I have almost no patterned clothes aside from a few striped items. I love colour & patterns but I end up wearing lots of black.
YES! That looks soo comfy! Looks like she has a great figure, sad she felt the need to cover it up. Love that the stretchy yoga clothes generally fit everyone well.
Same! Do you remember Garanimals? you matched the animals to match the outfits? Yeah - that’s me. I’ve been making myself clothes with more color and actually wearing them. I was traumatized by bullies as a teen wearing a monochrome, but mixed pattern, outfit so I tend to wear ONE pattern at a time still to this day.
ETA - I also have a firm “no yoga pants, leggings, or flip flops” policy for work even though no one sees me from the shoulders down. I am definitely one of the “Look Pro, Feel Pro” people, in that the way I look and am dressed effects my attitude for the day.
Ya, I’m feeling that. What I wear effects my mood. I am happiest in my own clothes, usually a hodgepodge of natural fibers in comfy textures, practical items, layers since I get hot flashes right now, and most often there are stains, marks, holes, paint etc on whatever. I like not having to mind if I ruin something. I feel like a right doofus in office attire. I know it’s professional but it makes me feel stuffy and uptight. It’s just not me. My sister suggested I work some more of my own style into the wardrobe. I’m trying but it’s a hard thing to mesh.
My office is casual enough that I get away with wearing a nice pair of jeans. I invested in a ”proper” pair this summer and I intend to wear them to shreds (but hopefully it’ll take many years to do so). I’ve bought stretch jeans before and they’re comfy but wear out too quickly.
One favourite outfit for work lately is jeans, a flower patterned tunic/dress that’s fitted at the top and looser from under the bust and down. It’s short sleeved so I pair it with a lace shawl or other knitted shoulder covering garment.
With blue jeans and dark blue + white dress I feel comfortable going for a solid coloured knitted something.
I think trying to work some of your own style into your work wardrobe would really help. It’s taken me years but I have found a work wardrobe style now that I feel comfortable in. It’s different from my “normal” style but it feels like a business alter ego.
For me, comfort is the most important part. So I don’t wear blouses and pencil skirts, but usually a dress made from a stretchy fabric, and tights (not the super thin kind, the 60 denier kind). I do wear lots of black, because I love black, but I also try to wear colour: red, green. I love red because it’s one of my favourite colours, but it’s fierce rather than cutesy. I love pink in my private life but I wouldn’t wear it to work for that reason. I also don’t wear floral prints to work for that reason. My dresses are in this type of style: Work Dresses | Workwear & Office Dresses | ASOS Most of my workwear is not homemade, but this type of dress is very easy to make and you could easily change collars, necklines, colours so that the overall dress is a bit more “you”.
I wear lady brogues a lot, because I like the look and because they’re super comfortable, much better than heels. My favourite brand is Clarks, they’re not cheap but you can easily wear them for 3 years. I don’t mind wearing heels every now and then but they can get annoying if you walk a lot.
Do you wear jewelry? I can imagine that adding a little personal touch in the form of non-standard jewelry, made by you, a Lettuce friend or an independent artist could help you feel more yourself without breaking office dress codes.
And the last one, this may be a bit weird. Someone I know likes to dress really sexy, but in their line of work that’s absolutely out of the question. So to feel more comfortable in her very bland outfit, she wears extremely sexy lingerie underneath her office outfit. I’m not suggesting stockings and suspender belts would work for everyone, but could it help if you wear your favourite items underneath your workwear? Whether that’s sexy lingerie or hand knitted socks or a tie dye cami.
My work clothes are lame. I work in an industrial environment, and anything too nice has a good chance of getting ruined. So it’s the t-shirt the company provides me, with their logo, and jeans. On the one hand, it is nice not having to worry about what to wear in the mornings, but it is boring. Because of the pandemic, I don’t go out much on weekends, so I feel like all I wear is my work clothes and pajamas.
Before my current job, I did work in an office, and was excited to hopefully wear a bunch of cute clothes for once in my career. Unfortunately, the company I worked for was a bit conservative, so my style had to be subdued. Old Navy and Target were sort of my go-to places for work clothes. I did try to spice things up with an occasional ruffle, print, pinstripe, fun collar. It was really tough trying to find appropriate work clothes that weren’t outlandish, expensive, or too sexy. Or ones that didn’t age me by 20 years. Occasionally, I did wear a few of my knitted things - cardigans, sweaters, shawls. They were in bright colors and I’d get side eye looks from my male coworkers.
Covid has meant I am seen by hardly anybody so I haven’t felt it’s justified any items that need dry cleaning, ironing, or other special care. Plus I often handle inventory that’s been returned from a dirty environment. I also have a foot injury that means comfy shoes only, dressy shoes like that are hard to find. I do try to get away with jeans as much as possible these days & have berks for summer & specialty shoes that look like sneakers. It’s admittedly too casual but so far nobody has complained. We’re moving out of restrictions though so I feel a change in the wind…
I turned 50 this year & have zero interest in ever looking “sexy” again. Makeup is a hard no for me, until men are forced to coat their skin, mouths & eyelids in smelly, expensive, chemical concoctions for work, I am not going to either.
I just want to be comfortable & feel like myself. I wear very eclectic jewelry & scarves & have naturally curly hair, I’m a bit of a standout as is. I wonder if I could get away with more tunics over leggings. I’m going to sew some things I like & give it a try…
I used to wear a solid color long or short sleeved knit shirt and solid colored pants to work every single day, usually with a colorful sweater/ cardigan. It was easy, but so boring.
A couple years ago I started sewing again, and decided to go ALL IN on novelty prints. It amuses me and I’m old enough not to care too much what other people think of what I’m wearing. (Over 60 = invisible).
You’ve seen many of my shirts here, and I tend to post them on Instagram (eventually) @sewsewnovelty
I’m only in my 30s and I’m already starting to notice that people care less about what I wear than when I was younger! But maybe also because I’m more confident at work now. I have more than a decade in the workplace under my belt. I can fight back. I’m definitely getting so old that the creepy older men don’t notice me at all anymore.
Funny thing is, I work in a male dominated field, but in previous workplaces there were a few senior women who were very critical about my appearance (senior as in senior rank, not over a certain age). My current workplace is still male dominated, there are quite a few women junior than me and not many that are senior to me. Turns out my older male bosses care a lot less about wearing make-up and the details of my outfits. Clean and a certain level of formality are expected but I’ve not had complaints about not wearing makeup, wearing my hair in a ponytail or wearing 60 denier opaque tights instead of 20 denier see through ones.
I work in tech (software engineer) so I wear jeans and a hoodie or t-shirt every day. Since WFH I transitioned to leggings and a hoodie. I haven’t worn makeup since high school.
I’d like to wear scarfs since I have so many ideas for weaving pretty ones but my desire to be comfortable outweighs my desire to look cute.
Do you find them uncomfortable? I have a real pashmina scored at VV for $6 that I’ve been wearing for at least 10 years, I love that thing. It’s a great scarf & also a lovely soft warm shawl when I need a little extra warmth. It looks amazing but I mostly wear it for comfort.
I have the most gorgeous crochet scarf that I wear a lot at work! Made by someone from here. Our office heating / cooling system is unreliable so sometimes it’s suddenly hot or cold. I don’t like having things around my neck for no reason, so I only wear them when I feel cold.
Yeah. I think part of it is having something I feel like I’m messing with all the time or I have to be aware of (to not get it in something or caught). I also don’t wear necklaces or most jewelry.
I have often wondered just how people are wearing these beautiful shawls I see on this forum where they aren’t having to constantly adjust and mess with them. I know that it can’t be that it’s all Mrs. Claus style, but I really have no idea what those really are and have a hard time imagining having it not get in the way of my movement or get caught up in whatever I am doing. Perhaps if I was still sitting at a computer desk, but it’s been a long, long time since that was my lifestyle.
I have one rectangular shawl I wear occasionally. I tie (or rubber band) adjacent corners together, then slip my hands through the opening. It’s like a really loose coat. Works with big scarves or sarongs, too.
I’ve been thinking a lot about what people wear to work lately. I’m in tech and live in Israel, which is mostly very casual. So even before I switched to working from home (before Covid, unrelated) my wardrobe consisted of mainly jeans and t-shirts, with sneakers or boots in the winter and simple sandals in the summer. Occasionally a casual dress with leggings. That’s what I usually wear on my own time as well.
My manager in the US mentioned a while ago that they might fly me over for a visit, and I started wondering if I actually have anything proper to wear. I’m pretty sure I’ll be ok with my usual stuff, because of the general atmosphere in the company. I’ll have to check with my friend from the US office.