Buying A
Wardrobe For Women’s Professional Business Attire
By Johanna Magnusson
Did you get a new job? Were you just promoted? Are you moving
into a new career? If you need to put together a collection of professional work
clothes, I’ll give you some good advice that could save you time, money and
frustration.
First of all, you should start with the suits and build around them as your
basic building blocks. After that, add the blouses. Then add shoes and
accessories last. What I am laying out here, are the very basic items you need
to start your professional wardrobe. Once you have these garments you can expand
it with more extravagant things.
You save a lot of money if you, in the beginning, buy garments that all
match with each other and therefore can be interchanged to create several
outfits with fewer garments. The higher the number of different outfits you can
create with just a few garments, the more money you save. I don’t recommend
buying a blouse or a jacket that you can only wear with one thing, not in the
beginning anyway.
When shopping for women’s business suits, try your hardest to find three of
them where the material matches enough that you can interchange the jackets and
the pants/skirts to create “new suits”. If you can pull this off, your wardrobe
budget will stretch so much farther – tripled, in fact. This means that when you
have purchased your first suit, you should bring it with you into the dressing
room when you are shopping for the second one. This way you can try them on
together and make sure the jackets and pants can be interchanged before you buy
it.
You can also, after checking the store’s return policy, just
bring them all home to try them, mix and match with what you have in your
wardrobe, and then return the ones that couldn’t be re-created into other
outfits. I suggest going with two suites in basic colors, for example one black
and one gray. Then the third one could have a bright color, for example red or
burgundy. But in order for all three of them to match, the material has to be
kind of similar.
When the three suits are established, you have accomplished most of the
work. Add to that three basic white blouses. At least one of those is a must
have in every woman’s closet, but having three is better: the basic white blouse
is a classic you can wear with almost everything, and often, without looking
like you are repeating yourself.
Then scout for three additional blouses in colors that
contrast your suits, but preferably match all three of them. For example, black,
blue, green, fresh pink – whatever your style may be. This step is much, much
simpler, and less costly than if you make a mistake purchasing the wrong women’s
business suit.
Throw in a top with a fun print to have handy when the
situation requires you to look less conservative. Grab a pair of black pants
that fit you well, simply because they are good to have around on those days
when you just haven’t had time to make it to the drycleaners.
Lastly, the shoes. When starting a new professional business attire wardrobe
all you really need is at least one pair of black leather heals, and one pair of
black flats for days when you are just too uncomfortable for heals. Just make
sure that each of the pairs of shoes go with each of the three suits. Those two
pairs will get you by for starters. Later your budget will allow you to get more
creative with your shoes.
The whole idea is to have a plan in mind before you head to the mall, and to
buy garments that match each other as much as possible. Like I said, the hardest
part is matching up the suits, but it’s worth putting the time and effort into
it, because it will save you money, and also it will save you time in the long
run.
When you are rushing out of the house in the morning it will
not take a lot of thinking and looking through your closet to decide what to
wear – the outfits are already created. Everything matches. Just grab something
swiftly and feel confident knowing you are very well put together as you dash
out of the house to great the day.
My Recommended List:
3 suits (two with pants, one with skirt)
1 pair black pants
3 basic white blouses
3 basic blouses in different colors
1 print top
2 pairs of shoes (one pair of heals, one pair of flats)
About the Author: Johanna Magnusson is a seamstress. She writes for
http://www.basicblouse.com "Where you can always count on finding a good
quality basic white blouse, to go with women’s business suits, or with
casual/comfy work clothes."
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