Tag Archives: dressing for work

5 Ways To Make Casual Friday A Slam Dunk

Posted in dressing for work and dressing for an interview, dressing your best, fall fashion trends, fashion trends, handbags, how to, personal style, tips and tricks, travel clothing, women's clothing tips by

Casual Friday means employees get a green light to wear jeans at work, but most employers want a dressed up casual style that still feels professional but is less dressy than the normal Monday through Thursday dress code requires. As a society, we are becoming more and more casual, and sometimes we forget how to do a casual style that is more than yoga pants and a sweatshirt. This blog post will give you 5 tips for making your Casual Friday wardrobe a slam dunk that still makes you feel great in your clothes and offers elevated style that is appropriate for work.

Tip #1: “Joggers” or pants that are banded at the bottom but slimmer in fit than a typical sweat pant are a trendy style right now. Most of us wouldn’t even consider wearing a jogging pant or sweat pant to work, but when you put this style in the right fabric, it can totally work. Take this olive green jogger set that is in the first picture as an example. Because this look is using a heavy weight travel knit that is a dressy and luxurious fabric, suddenly this style is taken up to a level worthy of the office.

Tip #2: Layer, layer, layer. You can easily dress up a simple sweater and jeans with a vest and boot and make the whole look not only trendy but dressy enough for the office on a Friday. Feminine details like the puffed sleeve on this sweater also add an element of dressiness. Clean jeans that don’t have any distressing can still be trendy when you have a bitty bootcut, like this style in picture number 2.

Tip #3: Printed denim is so in, and you can easily dress it up with the right top. I love how this waffle knit in olive green in picture number 3 is elevated by the banded bottom and the feminine button detailing on the sleeve. Look for added details like these to really help you do dressed up casual. The other tip that makes this look work is the dressy shoe boot and matching handbag. Keep in mind, your accessories really matter. This look, for example, would take on a whole different feeling with loafers, as an example.

Tip #4: Wear a blouse as a “shacket.” Stylish women have been using this trick for ions. Something magical happens when you take a simple blouse and layer it over a tank. It dresses the whole look up and adds dimension. This is another example of how layering can be used to give your look more dimension and style. The dark denim, skinny jeans and high wedges also help this look to be dressier, as do the accessories and handbag.

Tip #5: Take a work blouse, like the look in picture number 5, and make it more casual by pairing it with colored denim, which is dressier than regular denim. Oftentimes, it is difficult to tell if a colored bottom is actually a jean, so many women can get away with wearing colored denim for their Monday through Thursday office looks. Complete the look with some dressy shoe boots and a fun handbag, and you have a dressed up casual style that will have you feeling comfy and classy.

These tips can also work for dressing for work related travel when you need to be comfortable but still look nice when you arrive. If you want to see some more ideas, watch my live video tonight at 6 p.m. MST. In the mean time…thank goodness it is almost Friday! I hope you will try out some of these tips!

What is Wardrobing?

Posted in clothing, dressing for work and dressing for an interview, how to, tips and tricks, travel, travel clothing, value by

For those of you who might not be familiar with the term, wardrobing is a method of mixing and matching your clothing to maximize the number of unique outfits you can create with the smallest number of pieces possible.  It is how you shop, travel and dress like a boss!  The concept is simple really, but perhaps no one has ever taught you how to do it.  That is the purpose of this blog post, and my live video coming up on Saturday, February 24th at 10:15 mountain.  You can listen in on the video by joining our Fashion Crossroads Fashionistas Group Page.  I’ll be giving away a Treska necklace at the end of the video.  To get entered to win, just comment on the video while it is live by telling me something you like or even asking a question.

Wardrobing is the art of combining bottoms, tops and cover-ups in multiple ways by layering the pieces and adding accessories to change the look.  I’ll be using Sympli to demonstrate this tomorrow, so let me use some of their pieces to show you how it is done.  Take a look at the pictures above: Let’s call the leggings on the left picture 1 and the cropped top on the right is picture 4.  Assuming the model is wearing pants (and not leggings) in picture 3 and 4 and the white top in pictures 3 and 4 is the same top, how many outfits can you create with these 6 pieces?

Playing Jeapordy music now…..

How many outfits did you come up with?  Let’s see if we found the same number…

  1.  4 outfits as pictured
  2. Dress over leggings
  3. Dress over leggings with crop top
  4. White top under dress without leggings
  5. White top under dress with leggings
  6. White top under dress with smock over top without leggings
  7. White top under dress with smock over top with leggings
  8. Black crop top under dress without leggings
  9. Black crop top under dress with leggings
  10. Smock over dress with leggings
  11. Smock over dress without leggings.

That’s 14 outfits with 6 pieces.  Now, imagine we added into the mix a tunic and a jacket, like the ones pictured below.  I’ve demonstrated the concept, let’s see how many more outfits you can come up with?

Honestly, just adding the jacket over the outfits creates another 5 possibilities.  If you put the tunic over the dress and leggings, you get another 2 possibilities.  The tunic with the leggings and the pants, another 2 possibilities.  Now, with only 8 pieces, you have a possible 21 options.  And we haven’t even discussed adding a few accessories like a kimono, a couple of scarfs and a few necklaces, and a belt.  This adds an at least 15 more outfits.  It’s like a puzzle, and it is a heck of a lot of fun to see how many combinations you can create.  This is wardrobing, and it is a handy little tool when you need to stretch a work budget, pack for a two week trip with a carry on, or just simplify your closet.

Want to see it in action?  Join me tomorrow, and I’ll show you how it’s done.  Be sure to join the group prior to the start of the video so you can watch.

Sympli