My Work Wardrobe by snarkypants
My work is technical (read: messy), which means that my clothes have to be tough, easily laundered, with little ornamentation. Most of my (male) coworkers wear khakis/jeans and polo shirts. I'm also a plus-sized girl who wants to look feminine. I'm on my feet for 8+ hours a day, on concrete floors, hence the Dansko clogs (which are OMFG fabulous). If I'm in the lab (say 1/3 of my time) I have to wear steel-toes (Florsheim loafer-style) and remove all jewellery and/or scarves.
I never know from day to day whether I may be called in to the lab, regardless of the schedule, so skirts are kind of out of the picture; they look ridiculous with steel-toed loafers, if nothing else.
I've found that v-neck tops and 3/4 sleeves are most flattering to me; I've collected L.L. Bean v-neck 3/4 t-shirts (lovely heavy stuff) in a variety of neutral and pastel shades for work. I avoid front-pleat trousers like the plague. I don't wear black or navy trousers because of the practical issues with having a black & white dog and a black & white cat (there's no way to completely obliterate the hair; I've tried for years). Khaki and grey and tweeds work just fine.
In short, I think I'm making every choice I can think of to suit the exigencies of my lifestyle, my job, femininity and being plus-sized, but I'd welcome advice from others!
Nice tip about the Dansko clogs. I also appreciate the tip about LL Bean 3/4 sleeve shirts being a thicker material -- that's important to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm short and a size 14/16, so more or less plus-size, and find v-neck tops and 3/4 sleeves are most flattering for my figure. I don't usually opt for button-up shirts, but that white tailored button-up shirt you have up there is gorgeous -- it appears to be nice and fitted at the waist.
It sounds like you have a good handle on which clothes work best for your job and your figure. That said, I've gotten helpful info from the What Not To Wear book (by the hosts of the BBC series, not the American series) and also from Tim Gunn's book. I just took what I found helpful and ignored the rest =)