How often do you repeat outfits at work

[MusicMum80s]

I'm sprucing up my work wardrobe after securing a new more senior executive position at a new firm. Its more formal than my current office - think City Corporate wear.

I'm wondering how large most women's work wardrobes are who have to dress smarter for work than out of work (i.e. no doubling up of items) and how often you repeat outfits.

I wear dresses to work, and am in the office three days a week. I have six dresses, and one skirt/blouse combo. That's enough for me!

I probably own about 15 work dresses but if I'm honest I wear about 6-8 on rotation. It partly depends on the season - I have a lovely comfy knitted dress I wore every week throughout the winter because it was all I wanted to put on! I don't have the energy or creativity to put together a new outfit each morning so I prefer to have a few favourites that I know look good.

I work in City law and I see all my colleagues wearing the same outfits too.

I'm also a City lawyer and repeat outfits all the time. I have 3 smart pairs of trousers, a few jackets, a few smart tops for each season and 3/4 smart dresses for each season. It's a uniform, so easier to treat it as such. Jewellery, handbags, hair up vs down etc are how I vary it.

Good quality workwear is expensive. I rotate about 5 full outfits.

I love clothes and I have a pretty large wardrobe. With wfh 50% of the time, I could probably go an entire season without repeating an outfit. I also have an app on my phone called Smart Closet which helps me put together my looks. I can add them to a calendar so I know when I’ve worn what outfit.

Where do you buy your dresses from?

when I worked full time I had 7 or 8 outfits on rotation but I felt bored and self conscious of repeating. They also seem to wear out sooner. With school run then commute it adds up to 10 to 12 hours a day in an outfit.

There are also monthly fluctuations and odd days every season when the weather plays up. I'm so glad I don't have to wear work clothes anymore. Uniforms are great if you are an easy body type that fits a universal size but if you have exceptionally large boobs or short or too big for the biggest at work it's very hard.

Okay, that's great. I have 10 full outfits including a few tops, dresses, trousers and skirts with two very smart blazers. I reckon I'll be in corporate office clothes 3 days a week repeating every 3 weeks or so which seems about right! I might get one or two more dresses for variety if I see something I love but it seems like a good capsule.

@OneRingToRuleThemAll it is so expensive!

@Vexxa @Chasetherainblownfearsaway have you seen people dial down the formality post-covid? I don't think women wear suits much anymore.

I'm a city lawyer and repeat outfits all the time. Particularly as I work from home a few days a week so need fewer work outfits in any given week than I used to. I have loads of combos but the reality is that at any given period I'm probably repeating a relatively small range, e.g in the current heat I have far fewer weather appropriate smart work outfits than I do for the temperatures we get for most of the year! (Also I'm just less comfortable in summer clothes so pretty much every summer I find myself asking myself what on EARTH do I wear to the office?!).

I would only wear a full suit for court hearings, pitches, mediations etc, otherwise separates are fine and standard at my firm.

@ArcticBells As I don't like florals or many prints, don't like flounces and can't wear some fabrics because they irritate my skin, I buy them wherever I can find ones that meet the brief! I have a plain knitted dress from Phase Eight, plain linen one also from there, have found a couple in charity shops. Not helpful, I know!

I rotate the same 4-5 outfits. I have more lightweight summer outfits and winter outfits.

So at the moment I am wearing

Black trousers (they last 2 days) with one of 3 different tops/blouses
Wide leg black trousers (2 days) with one of 2 different tops
Navy dress & jacket
Long skirt with top and same jacket
Black dress with small print and jacket (same as above)

Read a great article several years ago about a woman who worked in lower level office role in the city and decided to follow Steve Jobs approach to a work uniform. She bought three identical skirts and shirts she felt comfortable in and looked good in, two matching jackets and two pairs of shoes. She wondered how long it would take for anyone to notice she was wearing the same thing every day - answer was 8 months!

I'm in the office 3 days a week and rotate 6 dresses.

I am currently wearing the same work outfit for the third day in a row.

I feel I get away with this because I work in different offices, although same site, but in reality my meetings are Teams, so perhaps people have noticed, but no one is rude enough to say anything!

I don't like waste or washing when clothes don't need it, and I'm a fairly clean/un-sweaty person. I do a sniff test every morning 😂
I also don't have very many clothes that fit me anymore 😕

Definitely. No one wears matching suit dress/skirt and jacket anymore. I still like to wear mismatched blazers but that's personal choice; a cardigan or jumper would be absolutely fine, including for client meetings. A couple of my colleagues wear stilettos but mostly we wear flats, including ankle boots during the winter which I love!

I have several dresses worn vaguely in rotation though a couple are definite winter/summer dresses. In the winter I wear a jacket or cashmere cardigan.

My main requirements are no iron, and machine washable. I used to love Hobbs but they don’t seem to do many machine washable dresses and my salary isn’t quite high enough to justify fortnightly trips to the dry cleaner.

I did this, had several black skirt suits (2 identical) and wore them every day with a smart black t shirt (had a lot of these nearly identical) , occasionally a white t shirt. Very relaxing having very little thought about what to wear each day. Now after Covid am in the office about 3 days a week, have 3 pairs of black trousers which I cycle through and a couple of jackets.

For summer I have 5 dresses. I'm usually in the office 2 days a week. But some weeks can be in every day.

Winter I have less options at the moment as we always seem to go in less.

Loads but I love clothes and keep my things a long time. About 15-20 dresses, lots of navy and black trousers and about 20 tops, plus knitwear

Senior medical manager, I wear Jersey or cord dresses with flat shoes (Boden sale, white stuff, fat face and Hobbs). A have a "court suit" and will sling a blazer on if talking to commisioners. I think I have about 10 work dresses.

I’m a lecturer but in a creative subject so not very corporate. I’m on campus three days, WFH one (only do four days). I tend to wear black jeans often with a nice knit in winter, just now with something like a Breton tee, various dresses, occasionally a jumpsuit.

The last few weeks has been midi dresses with trainers mainly - I tend to keep work/not work clothes totally separate when I am actually teaching but at the end of term am more relaxed about them mingling.

I'm a primary school teacher. If it's clean and appropriate (as in I can sit on the floor or stand on a chair in it) it's a go from me. Hair not done? Tough. It's washed. Pay me more, I'll spend more on my stuff, or maybe not because it always gets covered in PVA and goo. For now, clean and functional cuts it.

More women need to do this type of thing.

Most men probably stick to one or two suits, 5 identical shirts and, if they're really pushing the boat out, a few different ties and no-one ever notices or cares.

But women seem to think they need endless different outfits that are carefully rotated so no-one ever notices if they wear something they've worn before.

I'm currently experimenting with the Angela Merkel approach to my 'smart' workwear with plain black trousers and smarter black t shirt type tops, worn with coloured blazers, I currently have 3 and think it's plenty - I could have a week where I'm presenting to a group every day so don't want people to think I've not washed my clothes all week if anything.

I get machine washable stuff from M&S so not particularly expensive, trousers are around £20, jackets £50-100 depending on the range. I will also wear the trousers with tops/jumpers/cardigans and have a couple of dresses I can wear with or without the jackets or cardigans and I think that is plenty. If the trousers wear out or get stained/damaged (as well as being smart I do site visits) I can easily replace them without needing a matching jacket.

Not having to think about clothes too much is very freeing if choosing and putting outfits together is not something you enjoy.