Implementing your outfit formulas
To implement your outfit formulas, start by going through your closet and pick out anything that could work as an ingredient. Then, see where you stand and identify where your biggest gaps are.
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to first make sure you have at least two versions for all formula ingredients. That way you can start wearing and mixing pieces within your formulas sooner rather than later. Once you’ve curated those two first pieces per ingredient, you can gradually add more if you want to, and as your budget allows.
When it comes to choosing pieces, aim for variety! If you need five tank tops, don’t just grab a stack of basic ones in different shades of grey. One or two basics in neutral colours is fine, but make the other tank tops key or statement pieces and pick different necklines, patterns, and details. Your goal is to cover as big of a range within each little group of ingredients as possible. Using that approach will allow you to express many different facets of your personal style, even with a smaller number of pieces.
Time for another list! For each one of your chosen outfit formulas, write down a quick description of every piece you already own by ingredient. Next, think about how many pieces are still missing per ingredient and write down any first ideas about what type of pieces you may want to buy. All this information will come in handy once you are ready to overhaul your wardrobe in chapter 13 and are trying to decide what pieces to put on your shopping list.
Here are examples for a warm-weather climate.
outfit formula 1
Skinny jeans + tunic + flat sandals
outfit formula 2
Mini dress + oversize button-down (tie at waist) + trainers
Skinny jeans
Light-wash ankle-length jeans
White high-waisted jeans
Tunic
Ivory tunic with lace detailing
Amber tunic with embroidery
Darker, patterned tunic
Flat sandals
Tan suede leather sliders
Dark brown fringed sandals
Missing pieces
Mini dress
Cream dress with floral pattern
Light grey dress with skater skirt
Tan suede dress with button front
Oversize button-down
Denim shirt
White lacy blouse
Another shirt in moss green or teal
TRAINERS
White high-tops
Grey canvas low-tops
Advanced wardrobe engineering: How to prevent laundry bottlenecks
Another reason I’m such a fan of the outfit formula concept is because it gives you a chance to optimize your wardrobe by avoiding laundry bottlenecks.
Because here’s the thing: the reason we usually run out of clothes is rarely because we literally have no clean clothes left, but because we are missing one single component, usually underwear or a top, or anything that needs a wash sooner than pieces like skirts or jackets.
Outfit formulas and laundry ratios also come in handy for travelling. Simply pick one or two formulas, throw a couple of pieces for each into your suitcase, and you’re all set.
The easy solution: Make sure you have more of those pieces in your closet. And, if you want to be precise, use outfit formulas that give you all the information you need to calculate exactly how many more!
Let’s say one of your outfit formulas is jeans + T-shirt + cardigan, just to keep it really simple. For each formula ingredient, figure out how many times you can usually wear a piece before it needs to be washed.
FOR EXAMPLE:
T-shirts: Once
Jeans: 4 times
Cardigan: 4 times
This means that if you want to wear that outfit formula four times between laundry days, you could wear the same pair of jeans and the same cardigan but would need four T-shirts.
You don’t have to get super precise with this, but it’s a good idea to keep these laundry ratios in mind when it comes to stocking your wardrobe. The sooner a piece needs a wash, the more versions you need in your wardrobe, and vice versa.
Two-week sample outfit plan
To show you a concrete example of how outfit formulas can be used in action, here are two weeks’ worth of outfits, all created from only two outfit formulas, each of which contains two or three pieces.
OUTFIT FORMULA 1
Knee-length skirt + knit jumper + coat + heels
OUTFIT FORMULA 2
Straight-leg trousers + oversize shirt + jacket + flats
3 KNEE-LENGTH SKIRTS
Black leather skirt
Camel ribbed-knit pencil skirt
Navy A-line skirt with jacquard pattern
3 KNIT JUMPERS
Burgundy cable knit
Champagne sequinned
Thin black turtleneck
2 COATS
Tan trench
Navy wool
2 PAIRS OF HEELS
Ruby-red pumps
Black 4-inch ankle boots
2 PAIRS OF STRAIGHT-LEG TROUSERS
Dark-wash jeans
Black cigarette trousers
3 OVERSIZE SHIRTS
Burgundy-black check
Olive-green linen shirt
White silk shirt
2 JACKETS
Black oversize blazer
Khaki parka
2 PAIRS OF FLATS
Leopard print flats
Black lace-up flats
MONDAY
Navy A-line skirt with jacquard pattern
Thin black turtleneck
Tan trench coat
Black 4-inch ankle boots
TUESDAY
Black leather skirt
Burgundy cable knit jumper
Navy wool coat
Black 4-inch ankle boots
WEDNESDAY
Black cigarette trousers
Burgundy-black check shirt
Black oversize blazer
Black lace-up flats
THURSDAY OUTFIT FORMULA MIX!
Camel ribbed-knit pencil skirt
Olive-green linen shirt
Tan trench coat
Leopard print flats
FRIDAY OUTFIT FORMULA MIX!
Dark-wash jeans
White silk shirt
Khaki parka
Ruby-red pumps
SATURDAY
Navy A-line skirt with jacquard pattern
Burgundy cable knit jumper
Navy wool coat
Black 4-inch ankle boots
SUNDAY OUTFIT FORMULA MIX!
Black leather skirt
Champagne sequinned jumper
Navy wool coat
Black lace-up flats
MONDAY
Black cigarette trousers
Olive-green linen shirt
Khaki parka
Leopard print flats
TUESDAY OUTFIT FORMULA MIX!
Navy A-line skirt with jacquard pattern
White silk shirt
Black oversize blazer
Black lace-up flats
WEDNESDAY
Camel ribbed-knit pencil skirt
Thin black turtleneck
Tan trench coat
Black 4-inch ankle boots
THURSDAY
Dark-wash jeans
Burgundy-black check shirt
Khaki parka
Black lace-up flats
FRIDAY OUTFIT FORMULA MIX!
Black cigarette trousers
Champagne sequinned jumper
Black oversize blazer
Ruby-red pumps
SATURDAY
Black leather skirt
Thin black turtleneck
Tan trench coat
Ruby-red pumps
SUNDAY
Dark-wash jeans
Olive-green linen shirt
Khaki parka
Leopard print flats
Curate a work wardrobe that makes you look and feel professional, confide
nt and ready to tackle the day.
Whether you work at a corporate law firm, a tiny non-profit or from home, having a great set of clothes to wear for work is important, not because of how they make you look but because of how they make you feel.
If you have worked your way through the exercises in the last few chapters, you probably have a pretty good idea of what you want your overall wardrobe to look like by now. In this chapter, I’ll show you a few additional tips and techniques that you can use to optimise your closet for your work life.
Of course, your ideal business look depends in no small part on the dress code of your work environment, so I’ve separated the advice into three sections: corporate jobs, anywhere with a smart-casual dress code and working from home (as a student, freelancer or business owner).
To get started, let’s quickly go over some criteria that the ideal work wardrobe should fulfill:
• It makes you look and feel professional and gives you confidence for presentations, meetings or talks with the boss.
• It is 100 per cent comfortable and functional, so you can concentrate on your work without having to worry about straps that dig in or a skirt that rides up.
• It should respect the company’s dress code (spoken or unspoken) and culture yet still reflect your own personal style.
Corporate jobs
This includes jobs at most medium to large organisations, law firms and the financial industry. Your basic strategy will be to build a separate capsule wardrobe that you wear solely for work (read more on capsule wardrobes here).
KEEP YOUR WORK WARDROBE SEPARATE FROM YOUR REGULAR WARDROBE
Regardless of your own personal style, if you work in an environment with a very strict professional dress code, I recommend you build a completely separate work wardrobe. A ‘dual wardrobe’ model like this is not only way easier to plan but also means you can fully express your personal style in your free time and won’t end up with a whole lot of stuff that’s work-appropriate but only 50 per cent your style.
CREATE A MINI STYLE PROFILE FOR YOUR WORK LOOK
As a guideline for your work capsule wardrobe, take some time to put together a separate mini style profile for your work wardrobe that reflects both your company’s dress code and your style. If that seems like an impossible task, because to you, corporate dress code equals drab and boring, you might need to add a few new sources of inspiration to your list. As a first step, check out the other people in your office. What are they wearing, how do they interpret the dress code, and which details could you incorporate into your own look? If there aren’t any stylish people in your office, expand your net! My favourite source for office-wear style inspiration is TV, where characters in shows are usually dressed in a way that’s super chic but still realistic and therefore replicable. Once you have gathered some inspiration and decided on an overall work look, use the questions here to write your ‘business hours’ mini style profile.
BUILD A WORK-ONLY CAPSULE WARDROBE
Once you have an overall idea of the kind of look you want to be able to create using your work wardrobe, focus on finding a few versatile, high-quality key pieces that could work as the framework of your wardrobe. Think tailored trousers, skirts, a couple of blazers and a few comfortable (!) pairs of shoes. Since your options are somewhat limited here in regard to the type of pieces you can choose, make it a point to get the details – fit, material and colour – right.
Instead of any old black blazer, aim to find one that fits your silhouette perfectly, consists of a high-quality fabric, and complements your shape. Next, find a range of tops in different styles (shirts, knit jumpers, cardigans) and colours that you can mix and match with your key pieces and that align well with your style. Your key pieces and tops make up your basic work-only capsule wardrobe, which is where you’ll want to put the majority of your work-wear budget. You can then spruce up your work-only capsule wardrobe using accessories and statement pieces, some or all of which could come from your regular wardrobe. If chosen right, twenty pieces could be all you need (for example, three blazers, three pairs of trousers, three skirts, eight tops and three pairs of shoes).
PERSONALISE WITH ACCESSORIES AND DETAILS
Accessories, single items and smaller styling tweaks are the best ways to inject some personality into your office look without breaking the company’s dress code. Go through your regular closet to look for pieces that could add some colour or depth to your work outfits and tailor it a little more to your personal style with delicate jewellery, a statement necklace, a belt, glasses, a nice watch, nail polish, or a brighter top in one of your accent colours worn underneath a more neutral top. If you need more ideas, refer back to your workwear style profile and the inspiration you collected.
Smart-casual
This includes jobs at start-ups and smaller companies, and in creative industries and academia. Your basic strategy will be to curate a selection of more formal key pieces to pair with your regular clothes.
ANALYSE YOUR CO-WORKERS’ STYLES
If you work in an environment without a dress code in the traditional sense, you obviously have a lot more freedom when it comes to your work attire. On the other hand, even when there isn’t an official dress code, most companies will still have a handful of unspoken rules and guidelines that everyone follows. And these can be quite tricky to figure out if you’re a newbie. So after your interview or on your first day, take a good look around to see what other people are wearing.
Is there literally no dress code at all, and people walk around in flip-flops and band T-shirts? Or does everyone seem to stick to the typical smart-casual look? Smart-casual essentially means no suits required, but you’ll still want to look polished and avoid some basic office no-go items like strapless tops or dresses, halter tops or dresses, super low-cut tops, short shorts and flip-flops.
GO THROUGH YOUR WARDROBE
For people with full-time jobs in a smart-casual work environment, I generally recommend a three-section wardrobe structure:
• Section 1: Double-duty pieces you can wear for work and your personal life.
• Section 2: Free-time pieces that you can’t wear for work, that are only for weekends and evenings.
• Section 3: More formal ‘add-on’ pieces that you specifically buy for the job to pair with your pieces from section 1.
To set up your structure, go through your wardrobe and pick out everything that you could wear to work. This will likely include any basic tops, shirts, tailored trousers, and skirts and dresses (in appropriate lengths, colours and fabrics). Those pieces are your double-duty pieces that you can wear for evenings and weekends with the rest of your wardrobe and on their own or with more formal pieces for work.
BUY A COUPLE OF ‘ADD-ON’ PIECES FOR WORK
Once you have identified your double-duty pieces, you need to analyse that pile and figure out what you might still need to buy to (1) fill any gaps and (2) add a few smarter options to your set. Always think in terms of the bigger groups: bottoms (trousers, skirts, dresses), shoes, jackets and tops. If your personal style is already relatively similar to ‘smart-casual’, you might need nothing but perhaps another smart blazer, some oxfords and a couple more nice shirts.
Even if the dress code at your company is smart-casual, it’s a good idea to have at least one or two traditionally corporate outfits at hand for special events like a meeting with an investor or conferences. For example, you might want one blazer, a matching pair of trousers or a skirt, some nice shoes and one or two dressier shirts.
Working from home
This includes freelancers, students and business owners. If you are the type of person that doesn’t feel the need to change into something more comfortable as soon as they get home, you can skip this section, because you can just wear your regular wardrobe during the day. Everyone else: Consider adding some comfortable clothes to your wardrobe that make you feel put-together and ready for work.
ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOUR WORK WARDROBEDESERVE
S ATTENTION
Yes, you can pretty much wear whatever all day long and hold client calls in your PJs – that’s your total right as a student, freelancer or business owner. But just because no one sees you doesn’t mean your ‘work wardrobe’ isn’t important. If you go back up to the three criteria a good work wardrobe should fulfill, two of the three also apply to you: you want your clothes to make you feel confident and professional and you need them to be comfortable and functional.
On top of that, you want your clothes to put you in the right mindset for work. For me, getting to work is always a lot easier when I do what most people who have to commute to an office do: get up at a certain time, shower, get ready, get dressed and sit at a desk that I use solely for work. Rituals like that are important because over time they essentially programme your brain to go into work mode once you have done them. When you are your own boss, you need to create those rituals yourself, and your clothes can be a crucial part of that.
The Curated Closet Page 9