Tips for creating a professional office wardrobe

Dressing professionally not only presents you well to colleagues, clients and customers but it also makes you feel more confident and improves your work performance. In fact, this is proven by various studies undertaken throughout the years. 

Creating a professional wardrobe doesn’t need to cost an obscene amount of money. Curating this wardrobe successfully includes a combination of learning the styles and colours that suit you as well as ensuring you have staples that can be mixed and matched. 

Say no more to scrambling through your wardrobe to find things that you actually wear. Save time and money by enabling a more organised wardrobe filled with items you love. Here, we’ll look into the key tips that you can incorporate in order to create a professional office wardrobe. 

Ensure you have statement pieces 

With statement pieces in your wardrobe, you can have a small number of items and still create a large range of outfits, all while looking sophisticated. It is the cheapest, guaranteed manner to ensure you have various outfits readily available, avoiding wasting time trying to get items to match one another. 

On the other hand, not having the right staples may push you to keep wearing the same old outfits that you know work, leaving special pieces untouched in your wardrobe. 

Statement pieces refer to those that can essentially be matched with most items – these include items such as a black blazer, tailored pants, a white office shirt, plain coloured tops, a neutral skirt, black flat shoes, and so on. These pieces are timeless and will not go out of fashion, saving the planet and your pocket. 

Create a capsule work wardrobe

A capsule wardrobe is essentially a wardrobe filled with only 25 to 50 items, including all clothing, shoes and accessories. While we are not saying you need to donate or sell your current wardrobe, sectioning off your closet so you have this number of items in your workwear will save you the stress of never having anything to wear. Its purpose is for you to only keep and wear items that spark joy so you can free up time for more meaningful moments. 

People often have capsule wardrobes for different seasons – so when it’s summer, you only keep your cooler clothes up and store the remaining seasonal clothing away. There is no point cluttering up your closet with items you’re not going to touch for six months. 

If you can’t quite cut down your big closet packed with clothes down to a small capsule wardrobe, you can alternatively dedicate a section of your closet to only professional work wear. This way, when you wake in the morning, you’re not overloaded with decision fatigue and can go straight to where you need to be. 

Purchase higher quality items suited to your body shape and seasonal colour palette

Learning your seasonal colour palette and body shape will assist you in purchasing suitable items for the remainder of your life. This palette refers to hair colour, eye colour and skin tone. You may have noticed that some colours wash you out or simply don’t suit you, and this is due to the colour clashing with your features. There are various colour tests online which can determine whether you are summer, winter, autumn or spring. The category you fall within will reveal which tones will enhance your features and the ones to avoid. 

Likewise, online research will help you decipher your body shape and the styles of clothing that bring out your best features. 

When you are curating your professional work wardrobe, it’s highly important to purchase less but ensure the items you do purchase are quality, timeless pieces that will last a very long time. When the item no longer suits your lifestyle or preferences, it can be sold. Fast fashion items are not only bad for the planet but tend to go out of fashion or break quickly so you are actually saving money in the long run by purchasing costlier items!
Olivia is a business owner and a freelance writer who currently writes content for Franklin Engineering, diesel engine reconditioners which focuses on engine reconditioning and diesel engineering services.