Four Ways to Start Building Your Professional Wardrobe
Posted on Thursday, May 25th, 2017
When you first land a job out of college, you may be faced with a brand-new dilemma. What are you going to wear? No matter who you are or what industry you’re, there will be workplace expectations on your wardrobe. Whether it’s steel toe boots for construction or formal blazers for those in business, you will likely need to go pick up a few pieces before day one.
Clothes may seem inconsequential, but they’re not. In fact, employers will get an impression of you immediately based on what you’re wearing. How you present yourself will become a part of your reputation whether you like it or not. So, you want to present yourself well, but what’s the best way of doing it?
Below, we look at 4 key ways to start building your professional wardrobe in time for your first day at your new job.
Step 1: Create a Budget
Like all things finance-related, you need to start out with a budget. Take a look at how much money you have coming in and how much you can reallocate to your wardrobe. If there’s room to cut down on some spending, do so for a few months so you build up a little reservoir for clothes.
Keep in mind that you don’t need to build your whole wardrobe in one single shopping trip. You can slowly stock up on pieces as your budget allows.
Step 2: Know Your Workplace Culture
Once you get on the job, you’ll start to get a feel of what the expectations are for the office you work in. Are jeans and t-shirts okay? Is it a traditionally corporate office? Do people dress colourfully, are they super fashionable, or is it pretty relaxed?
You should strive to have your wardrobe match the culture of the office. But don’t be afraid to throw a little personality in there—ties, jewellery, and trendy accent pieces all go a long way to building your own personal style and looking totally professional at your workplace.
Step 3: Stay Neutral
It can be tempting to rush into a store and buy the trendiest pieces that you can—after all, you’re building a brand-new wardrobe! Isn’t this the perfect time to get trendy?
No, it’s not. Please don’t do that.
When you’re just starting to build your professional wardrobe, you want to stick to the neutrals. Trendy pieces can come later, but you should focus now on creating the foundation for your look.
Stick to the basic colours: black, white, blue, and brown.
For men, find a couple jackets, a few pairs of pants, a few dress shirts, a few ties, and two pairs of shoes (one black, one brown). This is a perfect start to a professional wardrobe that you can spice up later with more ties, pocket squares, or whatever you’d like.
For women, it can be more complicated. There are so many styles to choose from, so it’s important to remember to stick to the basics in the start. Blouses, fitting jackets, pants, dresses or skirts, and shoes should be your first areas of focus. As with the men, you can change up your outfits as time goes on with fun accessories and trendy pieces.
You can combine the pieces for a whole series of different outfits day-to-day. This will serve as your basic wardrobe moving forward.
Step 4: Invest in Quality
There are certain pieces where, once you can afford it, you should invest in quality. These include shoes, bags, and blazers. The quality of these items can show, so spending a little more money on these items is always a good idea.
But there are ways of finding quality without breaking the bank.
One good way of telling if a garment is of quality is to subject it to the “scrunch test”. Basically, grab a handful of fabric and squeeze it into a little ball. Hold for a few seconds and then release. If the fabric retains wrinkles from that, put it back on the rack, because it’s low quality. Another foolproof way is to hold it up the light. If you can see the light through it, don’t buy. Look for things like loose threads and messy seams, too. All these things will indicate if your new piece of clothing will fall apart after a couple washings.
As time goes on, you’ll be able to afford more pieces to grow your professional wardrobe. But when you’re just starting out, follow these steps to get a base wardrobe that’s perfect no matter what industry you’re in.
Are you interested in taking a co-op program at Algonquin College? Are you an employer looking to hire an Algonquin co-op student? Get in touch with us! Visit our website at https://www.algonquincollege.com/coop/, connect with us at coop@algonquincollege.com or call us at 613-727-4723 Ext.7623.