How to Curate Your Personal Work Style

If you are lucky enough to choose your own work attire (you don’t wear a uniform), you may sometimes start to feel like you are stuck in a style rut. Have you have been wearing the same combination of similar tops and trousers every day? Is it making you feel like you have lost your sense of unique personal style? Being creative with your wardrobe on a daily basis can be time consuming in those rushed minutes of the early morning. But there is a simple way that you can change up your daily outfits if you take a few minutes the night before to plan your outfit for the following day. Just follow these easy considerations to add a little more interest to your daily work wear.

Large Prints

Swapping out your basic solid colored wardrobe pieces for large, bold prints like leopard print or snakeskin will give you just the right amount of interest to allow your outfit to stand out from the crowd. Choosing eye-catching and vibrant patterns paired with more conservative or minimalist suiting pieces gives the impression that you have an inviting, approachable, and friendly personality but you are still very professional. Mixing different prints or combining various patterns and textures rather than wearing plain dull colors can make an outfit much more interesting to observers which absolutely impacts the way they respond to you.

Comfortability

Although looking and feeling amazing is an important way to start your work day, you do not have to feel confined and uncomfortable in your clothing all day long. In fact, it is a very unpleasant feeling and can negatively affect your day and your productivity if you are feeling restricted and uncomfortable in your clothing. If your work day includes sitting in meetings or meeting with clients or traveling around a busy city environment, opting for softer, more relaxed-fitting trousers and tops will give you the perfect balance of looking professional but feeling like you are working in your pajamas. 

Finding Inspiration 

Inspiration is all around us in magazines, on social media, the people around us, or even the animals we see in their natural habitats. If you are inspired by animal motifs, The Mountain has a large selection of tee shirts featuring animal illustrations which create a smart, casual look that will stand out from the masses. Pairing a cute graphic tee shirt with a blazer creates a relaxed yet professional look which is suitable for almost every occasion. This combination works especially well if you are looking for an outfit that will carry you from a day meeting to a social event in the evening.  

Social media 

Technology is becoming a huge part of our jobs with companies providing staff members with iPads and work issued cell phones to assist with ongoing projects outside of the office. Social media platforms like Pinterest and Instagram are great resources to discover inspiration for your personal work style. Saving images and outfits that appeal to you on Pinterest boards or in folders on your phone will help you to organize all of your style inspiration in a convenient and easy to access way. If you are an avid social media fanatic, you can even use these platforms to share your outfit inspiration with others who may be struggling to create their own personal work style. 

Appropriate Fashion 

Ensuring that your style at work is appropriate to your office environment while remaining true to your own unique sartorial tastes can be a difficult balance to strike. Tight dresses, micro-mini skirts, cropped tops, or low cut tops are often considered unprofessional in a business atmosphere. If your personal style includes more revealing choices, it may be best to save that style for the weekend or evening social events. It is perfectly acceptable to maintain a work style that is different from your recreational style.  

Hopefully, these five ideas will help you to create a new and improved personal work style that can make you feel more confident. Before you know it, you will become the inspiration for your colleagues to step outside of their own style ruts. You may start to see co-workers styling cute graphic tee shirts with other comfortable pieces as they follow your lead into the new generation of work wear.

What is your personal work style? Have you updated it over the years? What other styling tips do you have to share?

Keeping it on the edge,

Shelbee

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