dress more professionally

Now I didn’t go all crazy and pick up a few thousand dollars worth of suits. No I just went to Dockers.com and placed an order for their cheapest pants and picked up enough for a week and half in super dark navy blue and tan.

Then I picked up some simple Polo shirts.

all of my clothes now fit properly, are fairly new, and make me feel like I fit in.

I’m less self concous and don’t even think about it anymore.

spent $250 at ann taylor loft yesterday to further this goal. feeling pretty damn good about where I am!

i bought myself a very nice winter coat to wear over my work clothes…so that’s a start, right?

of how much easier it is to accomplish a goal when you WRITE IT DOWN. It’s not that this was anything that was very hard, but until I wrote it down that I wanted to do it, I didn’t care to change. As for whether it was worth it, I think so. I haven’t noticed any direct effects, but I’m a firm believer in dressing for the job you want to have, rather than for the job you currently have.

I have no direct supervision in the office I’m in, which makes it very tempting to come into work in jeans every day. But sometimes I feel bad or embarassed because most everyone else is in business casual. So no more jeans for me except on Friday.

Yesterday, I bought two suits and two pairs of high heels. At this point, I wear pantyhose voluntarily most days and look more professional than most of my clients. I’m calling this one done.

I bought two dresses yesterday. They are so easy and work appropriate. I can’t believe that I am wearing adult clothes. It feels weird. The 10-year-old version of me is mortified that I have grown up to be the kind of woman who voluntarily wears pantyhose.

I just realized that my previous entry related to saving money. Yet dressing more professionally costs money. What to do?

This area is getting better. Since the last post, I have dropped more weight. I am hovering between a size 4 and a size 2. I fluctuate a bit between them so I am spending money on dresses and shoes. Dresses are rather forgiving about weight changes, especially wrap styles. Today, I have on a great jersey dress from Anthropologie with knee-high boots from Spegiel. It looks great. The best part is that the dress was almost $200 but I found it at a thrift store with the tags still on. The boots were a hand-me-down from a friend who can’t fit into them. So I look like professional superwoman and I spent about $40. I scored three winter coats from the thrift store for about $40 for all three. I have also been adding some small inexpensive things to the wardrobe like cool patterned hose and tights and and such. I’m getting close to this goal. In a few months I will be able to mark this one off the list!

Instead of going nuts and blowing my whole budget on a new wardrobe of professional clothes right away, I’m just going to do this gradually as I settle in to my new job.

Right now I feel like dressing more professionally, but it feels almost like a costume. I am still on my best behavior here and I want to assert with my wardrobe that I am very professional and I deserve to be well paid. But I have a feeling that very soon I will feel more at home and want to assert my personality and individuality with something more fun and funky. And when that happens I don’t want to have a bunch of boring expensive professional clothes in my closet that I don’t wear! So I’m taking it easy on shopping for a corporate uniform.