Work wardrobe from scratch!

[MTBMummy]

Really need some help! I'm about to accept a job in a very formal corporate company, I've been a stay at home mum for the last 18 months, and prior to that I worked in a young and trendy fashion company for 5 years. So aside from some just might do dresses (2 of them) I really need to put together a decent working wardrobe for a fairly senior role.

Where's the best place to look, what sort of thing do I need, what is a capsule wardrobe? I need to keep to a relatively tight budget and can expand later once I actually start earning again.

Any help gratefully appreciated

The key thing is to get as good a jacket as you can, and if you are on limited budget I would recommend navy (works with just about everything) in a classic blazer sort of shape.

Black and grey are the other colours you can have in and out of your wardrobe like a yo-yo.

Is there anything here that might fit in with your new workplace?

www.uniqlo.com/uk/en/women/outerwear/jackets

M&S have some gorgeous formal work dresses at the moment (I bought 4 the other week) in black and navy. They're all under £40 each too.

M&S also do really comfy, medium height heels for £20 too. Get some of those and a pair of pointed flats from somewhere like new look to keep it cheap.

Then I'd head to H&M for some pencil skirts and light blouses and a blazer or 2.

Then you're done!

I second trying Uniqlo. I wear a lot of their blouses / shirts.
For smart trousers Next is pretty reliable.
If you stick neutral colours then you can mix and match quite easily

Congratulations on your new job!

Thank you for the advice, hadn't considered uniqlo - but some of their smarter jackets should work.

I must admit I walked into Next yesterday and promptly walked back out, it all felt a bit overwhelming.

So navy, grey and black are good staples, what about a bit of colour for blouses?

Also with regards to work shirts, would you go sleeveless to wear under the jacket at all times (would never bare my arms - flabby blotchy things) or long sleeve and take your jacket off?

Thank you for the shoe advice, I realised fairly quickly the one pair of appropriate shoes I have are hideously uncomfortable and just walking across the car park was a nightmare (cobble stone - who does that???)

Queen that's about perfect budget wise, thank you will have to go visit them once the kids are both back in school next week.

MTB - I have been in this situation. Your absolute best bet is to find a big department store (a good John Lewis will do) and book yourself a session with a personal shopper. They will put together a proper wardrobe for you, working to your budget and thinking about how the clothes work together to give you the maximum range of options with the clothes that you buy. I can't recommend it enough.

Have a look on the 50% off and over section on Debenhams, I get all of my work dresses from there.

A fitted dress with 3/4 sleeve and some court shoes from Clarks is my every day work wear

My work wardrobe is a selection of well fitted smart dresses from Boden (20% off for your first order) and Whistles, with a fitted blazer when I need to look even more businessy. I get complimented a lot on my dresses, but they save so much faff because you only need to worry about one thing in the morning not two like you do with shirts and skirts. Most of the women in my company have a similar look, we're client facing professional services but not uber corporate. Really only lawyers wear suits now.

I think increasingly you don't need to wear shirts at all. An attractive silky top or blouse works well and can suit under or over a jacket. I find Wallis usually has a couple that I can pick up for okay (not cheap, not expensive) prices and they work well with basic trousers/ skirts and under a jacket as necessary.

My sense is that even in very formal corporate environments, women wearing proper suits is less normal now. Which can be challenging, but certainly gives you a lot more options. Working in a very formal corporate environment when pregnant my "capsule" wardrobe consisted of extremely well cut and flattering black trousers, a black pencil skirt, a black jacket and a navy long cardigan (very smart - wore it in place of the jacket around office, saved jacket for big meetings) and two smart dresses, both of which looked good with the jacket too. If I ever went back to a corporate environment, I'd go with a similar theme i.e. one or two smart pairs of trousers, one or two smart skirts, two jackets that can be mixed with the trousers/ skirts, one or two dresses and a selection of tops that go with everything.

it's also worth taking a look at TK Maxx for tops/ blouses - a good trawl through their rails will often net a couple of good options in neutral colours like white, grey, cream, navy or black.

Sorry, one last comment - good tailoring, whether it's a jacket, trousers, skirt or dress is, I think, the single thing that makes you look more "corporate". I have one client where I have never seen the women wear anything blatantly "smart" but they seem to have an unofficial dress code of very tailored, and it works. Many of them wear, for example, three quarter trousers, well tailored, with well fitting blouses and mid heels and that's for very formal meetings. It works.

If you have time I would definitely do the John Lewis free stylist appointment. I did it I before starting a new job and it was useful to get me out of a work wear rut.

I generally live in ankle length trousers and blouses with jackets of varying structure and formality in spring/summer. I wear more dresses/skirts and boots in winter to avoid chilly feet. Having a lovely smart leather handbag and a good coat or two is essential - arriving and leaving looking smart really helps give a general impression of being well dressed I think!

I'm in a very senior global corporate, but not client facing, role.

Get good basics even if you wear same thing often and stick to a couple of colours. I stick to grey, black and navy with the odd coral or cream top.

I don't dress for "fashion" but am told I'm. "Stylish". I am a bit more adventurous with my shoes. This is always commented on.

Good tailoring is your base.

Virtually my entire work wardrobe is Ted Baker (trousers, jackets, cardigans, dresses) whistles & Reiss (dresses) jigsaw (silky tops) and banana republic (trousers)

I find the tailoring at TB excellent and wears really well. I've dispensed with jigsaw after two seasons of tops that fall apart and recently bought loads from Primark. If they last me a year I'm fine with that.

On Fridays I wear black stretch skinnies (always next 360 - cheap enough to bin if they fade at all) and a tuxedo blazer with a silk top/shirt underneath. It's practically a uniform but it works.

I stick to black, white/ivory, and occasionally grey, which allows me to mix and match most of my pieces. I wear blouses rather than formal shirts. Some are plain black or ivory, some have a small pattern on them, which I wear with black cigarette or tapered trousers. If I wear a plain blouse, I usually wear trousers with a pattern to break it up and add a bit of interest to my outfit. Or if I'm wearing all black, I'll wear more interesting shoes. I have a capsule of wardrobe of about 20 pieces which mix and match together and I don't have to look through tons of clothes deciding what to wear.

I find M&S and Dorothy Perkins really good for work wear. DP often have sales on.

I agree with workingbling, good tailoring is the key to corporate dressing now, there's a move away from women wearing suits all the time.

I'm currently on mat leave but tend to wear dresses and a jacket rather than suits - much easier than putting together 3 pieces. Boden is good for plain tailoring and they do great jackets. M&S tends to be all or nothing but they often have seasons where the work dresses and jackets are great. Machine washable too!

Re sleeve length, I would avoid sleeveless all the time as it'll mean you'll need to clean your jackets a lot more often. I'm sat at my desk all day and can't bear having my jacket on when I'm working, I just put it on for meetings.

For shirts I really recommend Other Stories - amazing silk shirts, plain or patterned, at a great price.

If you really want to go down the suit route, Jigsaw is great as they do mix and match pieces in the same material so you could buy a few skirts, trousers and jackets and mix them around.

Regarding the cobbled car park, it reminds me of a story about my office. I work in an 80% male environment in a building set in some landscaped gardens. Originally there was a cobbled path all the way around the building which you had to use to get in. Until the first female Vice President was appointed, a very glamorous lady who loved her heels. Her first step was to insist they replace the cobbles with a paved path!

Congrats on your new job too!

"An attractive silky top or blouse works well and can suit under or over a jacket."

What? How do you wear a blouse over a jacket?

I don't work in a smart place but I often have to meet with smart people, I just wear dresses now, I don't even bother with a jacket. And I wear M&S patent loafers, black. As do 99% of the women I see marching up and down the Tube steps in rush hour. I am thinking of breaking ranks and getting the brown ones!

On these types of threads people always rave about dresses but they only work if your top half is in proportion to your bottom half. Without that you will need to get virtually every dress altered to make it fit properly and get the tailored look right.
Personally I don't see how having three tops that you wear with three skirts (for example) is more difficult to deal with than a dress.

Thanks for the advice, have booked myself into John Leiw for a personal shopper thing next week, I'm excited, but slightly terrified at the prospect.

I'm afraid I'm with ZxyZoey on the dress thing, I have a very long back so waists on dresses tend to sit just below my rib cage, and even midi dresses come up too short for an office environment.

So good tailoring, base colours, a pair of good flats and a pair of good courts (thankfully already have awesome comfortable black and brown boots)

Thank you Chloechloe for the comments on sleeveless, hadn't thought about having to wash jackets more frequently and the recommendation for Other Stories, I'd never heard of them before.

And thank you all for taking the time to comment, and share advice and tips I really appreciate it, please keep them coming if you can think of anything else :)

I have a very long back so waists on dresses tend to sit just below my rib cage, and even midi dresses come up too short for an office environment.

I do have this problem actually, also with things like raincoats - the tie waists tie round my bottom rib, but I assumed that was being short in the body, not long. Not that it matters which it is.

I buy [what are now called] midi dresses just to wear as [what I used to call] normal knee length dresses.

I'm a dress plus jacket person too. Client facing in City financial role.

Massimo Dutti does good blazers. Lots of my dresses come from Hobbs.

I have to get skirts and trousers altered in the waist and hem as I'm an hourglass and tall, so no different to getting dressed altered.

I find I sometimes buy loads one year or season and nothing the next based on what colours work for me and what's in. Buy as classic as you can and it will really last.

I ended up in a bit of a uniform of black trousers coloured top but at least it worked (and I am working my way out of it again now!).

Just wanted to update all you lovely ladies on how my John Lewis session went... In short not well

I went in and explained what I wanted smart, corporate, but with brightly coloured blouses/shirts, preferably trousers but would look at a dress if it was part of a suit set, and some decent shoes, and what my budget was.

Well, almost every item she selected was a dress, and my goodness they were drab, I think the most colourful shirt was a very pale peach, the trousers were far too long (getting from the tall rack) and telling me to pay to have them altered. And despite stressing several times that I was on a tight budget the total for what she suggested was 3 times what I'd told her was my max for the entire wardrobe (and that was after the sale discount.)

I left completely deflated.

On the plus side, I wandered into M&S, and actually they have a great selection if you look for it, and have managed to put together a really nice wardrobe for under my budget so have splurged on a lovely pair of Dune ankle boots as well.

Glad you've managed to get sorted. Pity about JL though. Good luck in the new job :-)

Hi OP and many congratulations on the job. It sounds as if you're sorted for the first few weeks at least, despite the disappointing John Lewis experience (I had one of those with my DM once - it felt as if she hadn't listened to anything we said - yet others have had great success so probably depends on the person you get). Just to agree with a PP who mentioned Hobbs - I do still have to wear suits and tend to go for the dress plus jacket - the massive advantage with those that I have from Hobbs is that they can be machine washed at 30 degrees and they come out really well. Also agree that M&S have some very reasonable dresses - in my view Next have gone downhill in recent years but for tops to go under jackets, they are still pretty good. Top Shop sales can be good for tops too. I've even picked up the odd shift dress from ASOS in the past - easy to return if it's not right - which can be made more formal with jacket and heels.