My favorite outfit I’ve ever worn to a job was scrubs when I worked at a surgery center. They were comfortable and took no decision making energy to get ready in the morning.
After I moved on from scrubs, dressing got stressful. Even though I work in I.T. (Information Technology) now, I often felt like I had to “dress to impress” to grow in my career.
This isn’t in reference to when I was a code monkey. Back then, I wore the same hoodie for weeks on end because I wasn’t even thinking about my outfits. I was too stressed about deadlines and worn out from working at a startup.
It wasn’t until later when I acclimated to the corporate workplace that I started to feel the need to please when it came to my appearance. Don’t get me wrong, I love shopping for clothes and shoes. I just hate deciding on a different outfit every day when getting dressed in the morning.
A few of the other women I knew at my second job out of college would always reference this saying – “Dress for the job you want, not for the job you have”. I definitely used that saying as an excuse to fuel my shopaholic behavior and buy too many clothes that I didn’t need (and some I would never wear).
What I should have seen that saying as was “Identify an outfit (or a couple of outfits) that is comfortable, durable and 100% you (including who you want to be)”. This means high-quality easy pieces of clothing – the stuff that doesn’t tear after 2 times wearing it.
You don’t need 20 work power outfits to look like the career slaying bitch that you are. You only need 1 or 2. Because no one will probably notice the rotation of the other 19.
No one cares what you wear to work. Honestly.
Do you know how I know? Because I wore the exact same thing to work every day for a week and no one noticed.
Read the full experiment with results, realizations and more here: https://iliketodabble.com/capsule-wardrobe-experiment/
