Hello friends and welcome back! For all of you that have been following along, I hope you have found this series encouraging and helpful to start building a work wear capsule wardrobe that you love! Also, congrats on making it to the final part for the #acarriedaffaircapsule series! If you haven’t been following along, no worries! Part 1 is HERE and Part 2 is HERE. But if you don’t have time to catch up now, that’s ok too! For all of you that are just tuning in, I’ll do a quick recap.
First, let’s define what a capsule wardrobe is. According to dictionary.com it is, a collection of clothes and accessories that include only items considered essential.
Now here is my definition, a wardrobe of pieces you love & feel your best in.
In Part 1, I discussed minimizing your clothing inventory. I donated more than two full trash bags after going through my closet. After my friends went through all the clothes and took what they wanted, I donated the rest to dressforsuccess.org Its a non-for-profit organization that takes gently used work wear clothing and provides them to women I poverty that are trying to find their economic independence and get back in the workforce. It’s truly a wonderful organization and if you haven’t heard of them, I would recommend checking them out to see if you have one near you. It made me feel so good knowing I helped others, while creating a manageable wardrobe for myself. Win, win!
In Part 2, I provided a free downloadable capsule work wear guide that will help you create a wardrobe for work that you love. You can also download it HERE if you’re just getting started.
I created the guide based on my experience as I took the steps to create my work wear capsule. I also asked my fellow women coworkers to review the guide and provide feedback as well as found some inspiration from a couple of guides that were already in-existence. However, the guides I found online were tailored towards everyday wear, whereas mine is tailored specifically for work wear.
So let’s back track a little…I decided to do this series because my closet had become overrun with pieces I thought would look good on me because they looked good on the model in the picture as well as pieces that were way past their expiration date. I’m talking dresses two sizes two small. Basically I had a little bit of every style based on the clothing phase I was going through at that time. However, that wasn’t really me or what made me feel my best when I was wearing it. It’s a red flag when you put something on and you do the wiggle dance trying to get it on. And with that, I started my capsule journey.
With working in Corporate America, the guidelines on appropriate dress attire is pretty straight forward, but that doesn’t mean your wardrobe has to be boring. The best way I have found to make my work wear outfits pop is with accessories & shoes! So for the remainder of this post I will be talking about my favorite accessories and shoes to turn an average work wear outfit into a stylish and classic one!
First let’s talk accessories. Some of my favorite work wear accessories include:
Watch paired with chunky bracelets
My husband bought this watch for me for my 30th birthday and I still wear it EVERY DAY. I love wearing it with my favorite chunky bracelet.
Silk scarves with fun prints
There are so many possibilities to style a scarf. Use it as a belt, wrap it around your neck, use it as a hair accessory. I love to pair long scarves with jeans & flats on casual Friday’s.
Pearls & statement necklaces
Pearls just scream classic, and there are so many variations of them. I love long single strands as well as the layered look. My favorite place to shop for necklaces is J Crew. Shocker, right.
I like to pair statement necklaces with solid button down shirts. It is quick way to make your outfit pop.
Some great places to buy work wear accessories are listed below:
J. Crew
Ann Taylor
White House Black Market
The Loft
Kohl’s
H & M
Now let’s talk shoes! I will admit, I LOVE wearing heels, mainly because I am 5’3 and need that extra boost. But honestly my heart belongs to flats. I love them! Plus you can get them in fun colors and styles to make your outfit pop while not worrying about breaking your ankle. 😉 My favorite flats right now are lace-up and gold hued flats. I wear a lot of black and navy so pairing my outfit with gold hued flats gives my outfit that pop of color that looks classy and stylish. For me shoes are where it’s at. Who’s with me?!? 💃🏻 I spend a bulk of my clothing budget on shoes. My favorite place to find classic, stylish, yet comfortable flats is J Crew. Bonus, more so than not, they have sales, so it’s rare I pay the full price. 🙌🏼
For this last part I am offering some tips & tricks that I have been doing long before capsule wardrobes became a thing that make my pre-work morning routine almost effortless.
First, let me tell you a secret. It only takes me 20 minutes to get ready in the morning. The crazy part is I still look presentable. Since I work in an office, it’s kind of required.
If your mornings are hectic and stressful, then these simple tips and tricks will make your mornings SO much better. At least that’s what my family says. Also being prepared ahead of time for the next work day will allow you to take that extra time you would have been getting ready to do more important things…like sleeping in. If you know me personally, then you know I hate getting out of bed in the mornings. I am nocturnal, so sleeping every extra second in the morning counts! However, I would consider myself a morning person because once my feet hit the floor I’m ready to go. Weird right? I ask myself how is that is possible on the regular. I think my husband wonders the same thing…
Tip 1: Lay out your clothes & shoes the night before. It sounds trivial, but it truly helps make my mornings less stressful!
Doing this is more of a night before thing. Mainly because you don’t know how you’re going to feel a week from now. Maybe you’ll be bloated from eating too much Mexican food so you won’t feel like wearing your high waist work pants or maybe you didn’t take the time to shave your legs when you showered so skirts and dresses are out of the question.
Actively thinking about how I feel and what I think will look best on me for the next day is always taken into account before picking out my outfit. If I know what shirt I want to wear, but not sure on the bottoms I’ll search through Pinterest to get some ideas of how I could pair that said item with clothes I already have. Once I figure out what I am going to wear, I set the clothes out on my clothing rack or what I like to call my Inspiration rack. Done and done!
Tip 2: If you are a coffee drinker prepare the coffee the night before.
Every night when I get home from work, one of the first things I do is clean out my coffee tumbler from that day and prepare my coffee for the next morning. I even add the sugar to the mug, put the lid on, and put it next to the coffee maker so everything is ready when I get downstairs from getting dressed.
Tip 3: Set the accessories you plan to wear by your car keys.
Setting your accessories out will prevent you from forgetting them, like I use to…almost weekly. I have a briefcase for my work laptop that I take to work daily, so I set the accessories on top of it. That way I won’t forget them. Then when I go to leave I put the accessories on, grab my briefcase, car keys, work badge, & my coffee then I’m out the door!
And that concludes the #acarriedaffaircapsule series! I hope you found inspiration in this series and encourages you to start building a work wear capsule wardrobe that you love and feel your best in! If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment or message me on Instagram. My handle is @acarriedaffairdesigns
Until next time. Xoxo
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Please note, some items are not the exact same as pictured. The originals of those items are no longer available.
