What Levels Have Your Work Wardrobe Gone By means of?

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I used to be intrigued by a latest Reddit dialogue about “part 1 company clothes”* — and I assumed we must always focus on. Contemplating your work garments — are you able to parse your work wardrobe into phases (or, for the Swifties, eras) like your intern stage, your “first job” part, and past? (Pandemic stage? RTO stage?) It caught my consideration as a result of clearly there are variations between an intern’s wardrobe and a CEO’s wardrobe… however the steps in between generally is a bit complicated for some.

We have now a brilliant, tremendous primary graphic on “tips on how to put on a go well with” that I share generally — to me that is traditional “part 1 company clothes.” Black/grey/navy fits, white/blue/pink shirts, smooth black equipment.

I am not saying that there aren’t nonetheless instances when a extra senior working girl would need to put on these garments — in spite of everything, they’re clear, sharp, all enterprise. I simply assume that after a number of years you begin to understand the place you’ll be able to department out, what garments you want the most effective, the place you’ll be able to present character.

Personally, my intern period was… fairly cringeworthy, fashionwise. I did evolve inside that period — the lengthy button-front clothes with cardigan that I wore to my newspaper internship at age 18 was completely different than the black fits I wore to my summer time affiliate gig as a 2L at 25… however the entire period was very a lot outlined by a priority for propriety, assembly expectations, and basically cosplaying as an grownup.

My early years working in BigLaw have been enjoyable ones for me (I am certain you are shocked to listen to that) — however I actually loved discovering my character as a lawyer. It helped that I had quite a lot of disposable revenue.

Once I switched to nonprofit work, I knew I used to be in a brand new period, however struggled to seek out my footing, fashion-wise — on the time I used to be newly married, we have been home poor, and children have been on the horizon. Moreover, as a result of the weblog was rising I wasn’t certain how lengthy I would be conserving the nonprofit job.

These are a few of my large work wardrobe eras — over to you, readers! What phases or eras have your work wardrobes gone by way of? Do you bear in mind them fondly or do you cringe?

*The precise Redditor’s query involved the place to rehome Part 1 Company Clothes, which we have really coated earlier than on this publish on the place to recycle, promote, or donate your outdated work garments.