What's the most you'd spend on work wardrobe items?

[Ancientdecs]

Like for example blazer, trousers, shoes, bag individually. Hearing people's dress code too would be interesting.

NO judgment btw, whether it's very little or a whole ton. I'm looking at having to RTO after a long time so am curious. I don't really have the spare money to get anything but am also telling self I have years' worth of money saved on not needing work clothes (this isn't true).

In an entirely different century, when I was following a fancy profession and had a lot more money (and to be fair to myself, rather needed the confidence boost of an excellent wardrobe) my favourite ‘work dress’ cost £500 and my suits twice that.

I don’t regret buying them at all, but in those days I was much too busy and preoccupied to ever wait for the sales, so I was buying everything full price. These days my tastes haven’t changed much but my working environment has - and of course the nature of ‘going shopping’ is immeasurably different. I buy pretty much everything online and rarely pay full price except in Zara.

One thing - it’s highly likely that your office dress code will be unrecognisable from the last time you were there - so definitely don’t buy anything until you’ve been on a scouting expedition to observe your current colleagues’ working wardrobes.

"the confidence boost of an excellent wardrobe"

Ah! I love how you put it. This is indeed what I need as a woman of a certain age needing to get used to IRL meetings again and feeling on display somehow (yes no one cares really).

On past scouting events people have been crazy casual, it was ever thus really but i know I want a kind of low key sharp look, otherwise I'll feel shit.
Thank you so much for sharing BTW. I bet those suits were something.

Salary (and therefore spending power) and dress code is going to vary significantly if you're a senior manger in corporate law versus a project officer in the NHS. So my context may be wildly different from yours.

They were!

OK - don’t know your budget but, if I were in your position and wanted to look both casual and like a proper grown up, these are the sort of things (these brands or cheaper versions) I’d be looking at:

Studio Nicholson
Rohe
Toteme
Lemaire
Margaret Howell

Plus:

Community Clothing
Cos
Massimo Dutti

(I find Arket too dull these days, and Uniqlo’s fabrics too disappointing, but 🤷‍♀️. I love the best bits of Zara - special editions and collabs - but if you’re in the UK rather than proper Europe there won’t be enough to build a working wardrobe on.)

I have had some excellent work pieces from places like Sainsbury's so not all of my work wardrobe is expensive. I would say my limit is about £100 for tops (more for cashmere jumpers), £200 for trousers/dresses and a bit more for jackets and coats.

This is great thank you all. Interested in people's approach independent of budget tbh.

Agree Cos is so good right now, also Massimo Dutti! Have been let down by Zara. Will look up Rohe and Studio Nicholson as less familiar to me and I'm always interested in adding new names to my second hand online search.

That's sort of where I am, love the idea of high end but can't afford it new, could possibly stretch to it second hand. Currently stalking a Khaite piece on vinted.

For work shoes (like classy loafers or moccasin type things - not ballet flats I refuse) - are any brands more comfortable / well made than others?

Excellent Sainsburys tip thank you.

I used to spend hundreds on beautifully tailored and somewhat eccentric jackets and complicated skirts (I had a couple which came with instructions) from Pauw in Amsterdam. Between 1998 to about 2016/2017 I used to go to Amsterdam every 18/24 months to stock up. Latterly jackets were around €600 to €800 and skirts between €300 to €500.

I still have most of them but most don't fit any more.

Nowadays I don't wear anything resembling the Fold or Hobbs notions of workwear. Covid banished formal workwear but if my colleagues can turn up in jeans, chinos and trainers, then I can turn up in dresses from the likes of Eponine, Cabbages and Roses, Klements, Oska and Palava.

The most expensive " workwear" things I've bought recently were this jacket and skirt from Casey Casey, bought full price in an actual shop. The jacket is incredibly useful- it goes with everything.

Casey Casey

Beautiful stuff. I just googled Pauw, this must be an incredible place to shop! Wow.

No, the Fold /Hobbs wouldn't be my work style either, on the other hand what IS my work style needs a little development.

I know nothing about fashion but I am fully in the office and always have been. I bought these shoes a couple of years ago and love them. They are not too everyone's taste but I have had lots of compliments. I walk two miles a day in them and they are so comfy.

I am not sure that I have much to add to help you, as The Fold is exactly my idea of a perfect work wardrobe. Plus a bit of Hobbs, some old Boden tweed and cashmere, and some bits from random shops (I found amazing wide legged dark red linen trousers in Next earlier this year.)

The nature of my work means that I need clothes that are comfortable (I am often at my desk, but also often on the floor with a small child), reasonably serious looking and able to withstand the rigours of a nursery observation or crossing a school field, but also meetings in which I'm in a position of authority. Often in the same day. I have a couple of Marks and Spencer stalwarts for high risk situations (i.e. reception classrooms.) Anyone wearing anything nicer in a reception classroom is sartorially kamikaze.

I do have one Palava dress, but I wear it mostly for the benefit of my younger clients, who appreciate the ginger cat creeping his way around the hem. It doesn't feel quite 'me' if I'm honest.

That doesn't answer your question, does it?! I have a Radley work bag which was about £300 (someone vomited on the last one), my Fold dresses are about £400 and sometimes I wear The Good Coat, which I think was about £900 (Max Mara) but not if there's a vomit/ poster paint risk.

I just bought this in the summer sales. I'd like to say I dress it up with interesting accessories, but sometimes I can't even be arsed to do that. I should probably try harder: Camelot Dress Navy Crepe - Welcome to the Fold LTD (thefoldlondon.com)

This is so industry-specific that it's hard to say - having started as a corporate lawyer with the full power suit look, I'm now in finance in a very casual end of the spectrum (most people look like they could go hiking at the drop of a hat). Like you I like to look a little bit more put together in the office than I do on the weekends. Scoping out others is key I think.

Looking at what I mostly wear, it's been heavy on the Uniqlo collabs eg. the JW Anderson collab, Comptoir des Cottoniers and Ines de la Fressange. My general "uniform" is jeans or trousers, and a jumper or button down shirt (usually linen or silk). I was at a conference today and am wearing this Uniqlo x JW Anderson black crew-neck, grey Uniqlo ankle-length trousers, and Puma Future Rider trainers in orange and green.

I don't really buy clothes that are specifically for work. However I usually only go into the office about once a week.

I guess it depends on where you work, but I didn't think that women had worn tailored suits to the office the 90s. I'm not in London though, so maybe that makes a difference.

My office is smart casual - most things are fine as long as they aren't revealing/denim/joggers etc. Men tend to wear trousers and shirts, but I don't see many people in blazers these days. I'd feel out of place if turned up in a tailored outfit and blazer.

I spend a lot on handbags (1- 3k) and shoes (5-900) for work but tend to spend significantly less on clothes, in terns of individual items, although overall I’m a big spender.

i favour a uniform of wide leg / 7/8 trousers; silk blouse and a jacket and I have items from Zara and Gucci and everywhere else in between. I wouldn’t spend much more than £400 on separates, maybe a bit more on a blazer. Like a PP I rarely pay full price for anything I’m always on Lyst!

I’m senior in corporate law and dress code is smart.

I didn't think that women had worn tailored suits to the office [in] the 90s

Barristers did. In fact everyone did - from Chancery Lane all the way to Canary Wharf. A sea of black and grey suits. (That was also the case outside London in every city where legal or financial work was being done.) And anyone who presented or aspired to present serious news on TV also wore suits, though theirs were candy coloured.

I wore tailored suits in the 1990s until around 1998. I had a very brief maternity leave in 1990 and bought a grey flannel Paddy Campbell suit with a large black velvet collar to go back to work.

Alexon, Liz Claiborne, Windsmoor, Planet Jaeger (in its former version, not its M and Ess reincarnation) Austin Reed and their like still existed then- all doing tailored suits or tailored dresses and jackets. Even Laura Ashley did tailored suits / tailored dresses. I had loads, although from all of these brands but it included navy and maroon and in the case of a Liz Claiborne suit, a pale yellow. All of them were such lovely material too- wool crepe or fine wool.

Jenners in Edinburgh and House of Fraser had tonnes of tailored suits.

£100 on tops, £200 on knitwear, £150ish on trousers and £100-£300 on dresses.
From places like Sezane, Wyse, the Fold on sale and Jigsaw

This is very similar to my working wardrobe (also law) though I also wear dresses - I have quite a few from Me + Em and my most conservative ones, for the very conservative places I have to go, are from Jane Atelier.

Trousers I buy and re-buy from Piazza Sempione - they are so hard-wearing and well made.

Yes, back in the day I had tailored pure wool suits (worn with ironed shirts) from M&S, Laura Ashley, Jigsaw and Hobbs, House of Fraser and a couple made to measure from a tiny little firm in the East End. I didn't wear them every day, but most days.

The most expensive were the two made to measure suits, at 300 quid each, which was a bit of a bargain. I've still got them but only wear the jackets.

The most expensive thing I wear for work is probably my shoes.
I wear the same pair every day until they wear out. Around £60 in Clark's to replace.
I wouldn't spend that much on a top or trousers to wear to work.

Banana Republic has a similar vibe to The Fold - while it's a little less expensive it's US-based (though presumably they'll ship.)

Also law and my work wear is my armour and, I feel, lends me an element of gravitas. I've always spent much more on work wear than on casual but my favourite black work jacket is at least a decade old and been worn at least once a week other than during lockdowns.
That said, I mix it up with bits from Sainsburys, Next & Mango and my favourite dress to wear with the aforementioned jacket is from M&Co.

I’m always amazed at how much people spend on here. I’m a poor teacher and resent spending more than 50 quid on any item. In fact, I tend to buy clothes from Vinted these days and maybe the odd thing from M&S, Next or Sainsbury’s.

I’m a previous role I worked in a building that required several different door codes to navigate around so we would memorise them with rhymes, factoids etc. One door was 4995 which we remembered as ‘about as much as you’d want to pay for a nice pair of trousers for work’