Happy Friday everyone! I love when my friends/readers reach out to me and ask for outfit advice! My friend Claire made my day yesterday when she texted me asking if I had a blog post on work appropriate attire…while I do have a few of those posts here and here, I wanted to make a more comprehensive guide! It’s been a few months now since I stopped working in the finance industry in NYC. My current job is much more casual. Yay! But with that being said, these months away from the corporate world have allowed me to reflect on what worked in my work attire wardrobe, what didn’t, and most importantly, what advice I want to share with you all! Scroll to the bottom for outfit inspo!

Let’s start with my number one piece of advice: buy a navy blazer. Ha, yes, seriously. I’m not against black blazers, or black work attire in general (I mean, black clothing has a cult following in NYC and you can’t really say anything bad about black…or can you?). Here are my thoughts broken down:

• Sure black works year around, but navy does it better. There’s nothing more quintessentially summer than navy and white, but that same navy blazer is going to be able to get you all through the fall and winter seasons as well. Black can basically go with everything, but it’s much harsher than navy. Navy is everyone’s friend, it doesn’t play favorites, while black definitely does. Black and grey, black and camel, black and white, those are classics. Black and pink? I don’t love that combo, and black and yellow or black and orange? Now you’re looking like a honey bee or Halloween.
• If you can- buy a navy blazer in tweed or another material that won’t wrinkle and won’t show stains if you by accident spill a little something on you. My navy blazer was my best friend when I was interviewing in the city, literally running sometimes from the subway to make it to an interview on time. I was interviewing for jobs in the middle of the summer and one day it was SO hot and I was sweating SO much that I ripped off my blazer and crumpled it up and threw it in my bag. By the time I arrived at my interview I threw it back on and voila! You couldn’t tell at all that it was balled up in my tote two minutes ago.
• Think about your skin tone, if you’re fair skinned like me, or my friend Claire (hi Claire!) then navy is definitely a no-brainer. Black is doing our complexion no favors. Fact. Even if you have a darker skin tone, navy is still a great option. As I said before, navy is EVERYONE’S friend.

Don’t go all out on your wardrobe first, start with a skirt and a pair of pants before investing in a ton of skirts or a ton of pants. Here’s why:

• Unless you know for a fact that you’re a skirts or bust kind of girl, then why set yourself up for potential regret? If you buy one skirt and one pair of pants and test them both out in a variety of ways, maybe try the skirt really dressed up, then dress it down for a casual Friday, and do the same thing for your pants. Figure out what you like. Maybe you like an assortment of both, or maybe you just really love pants and hate having to deal with skirts. That’s fine! Just figure it out before you invest in all of one or the other.
• Don’t guess. Maybe you love jeans more than anything. That’s cool! But that doesn’t mean you’re going to love work appropriate pants the same way. Depending on how dressy you have to be, there is a huge difference between jeans and dress pants. HUGE! The same goes for skirts obviously.

On the flip side- when you find something you love, something that makes you feel great and look great, stock up.

• I found these amazing Club Monaco work pants that I LOVED. I didn’t want something super tight around my legs since I was going to be sitting down the whole day. I wanted my legs to be able to get proper circulation and these slightly cropped pants were the perfect fabric and fit combo for me. I bought the navy initially and when I saw the ivory color go on sale I didn’t even take a second to think before I bought them. Know what you love and embrace that.
• The other moral of the story here is find where you like to shop for work attire and then subscribe to their email list so you know when all the sales are! I found out about that Club Monaco sale because, well, I was going into the store every weekend getting outfit inspiration and maybe buying a thing or two for my work wardrobe. Because I was there so often I knew when a sale was good and then I sprung on items I knew were a great price. (Hint hint, Club Monaco does at least one 30% off sale in the summer so if you see 20% off try to wait if you can! And while we’re on the subject, never buy from JCrew unless they’re having 30% off. They do 30-40% off pretty often, but don’t settle for anything less than 30% off!)

Splurge on a dress. Trust me.

My Ted Baker dress I love so much!

• The word “splurge” is unique to each person. Personally, splurging on a dress for me is probably in the $200-$350 range. But for a lot of people splurging on a dress might be spending $80-$100 and that’s okay! Let me explain further…
• Find a dress that you can’t stop thinking about. A dress that is just a little bit out of your price range, but not unrealistic. Try it on, make sure it’s perfect, but don’t buy it yet. Think about it for a week or so. Make sure you reallyyyy want this dress and then get it! Yep! Whatever your typical price range, find a dress that screams effortless style, one that you can just throw on and go and feel like the best version of yourself. Buy it and don’t regret spending a little extra money on it. It’s. So. Worth. It.
• Fairly soon after starting to work in the city I knew I needed something to help pick me up and dust me off on days when I didn’t feel like putting anything business casual on. I think everyone can relate to this? Right? I knew I wanted it to be a Ted Baker dress, there is just something about their dresses, they have such a classic, proper, feminine vibe! And sure, they’re a lot more expensive than the dresses I was buying at Loft or from the Banana Republic sale racks, but putting on a dress that makes you feel like you’re gushing success is priceless.

Ugh shoes…don’t get me wrong, I LOVE shoes, but finding a pair of shoes that are comfortable to walk around in and corporate appropriate isn’t the easiest task. (Corporate appropriate meant NO opened toed shoes, which was a bummer since a huge part of my dress shoes are sandals. Sigh. So I had to start from scratch).

• Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure no one really likes ballet flats. I mean, they’re cute and all, but there’s just something about them that never made me feel good about my outfits, especially when everyone else in the office is walking around in 3-4 inch heels!! To be blunt, ballet flats make me feel frumpy. With that being said, I lived in ballet flats when I worked in the city. Franco Sarto, Karl Lagerfeld, and Nine West were my most comfy pairs.
• Believe it or not, the two most common shoe options I saw in office environments in NYC were heels or sneakers. Yes really! If you like a heel, then go for it! But don’t be too surprised if you walk into an interview and your boss is wearing a pair of Stan Smith’s.
• Some other options…mules are very trendy right now and very comfy! I kind of like them more than ballet flats, but mules won’t pair with all your outfits the way ballet flats will. Sigh again. Of course there are the trusty loafers. I love a good loafer, but not when I’m wearing a dress.

 My biggest tips for interviewing in person or via skype:

• Be comfortable and be prepared! Maybe everyone gives these same pieces of advice…but here are just a few thoughts from yours truly!
• Comfort is key: Whatever you’re going to wear to your interview, make sure you give it a test run. Wear it the day before or a week before or whenever, just make sure you’ve worn it before and are comfortable in it. You might find that the shoes you thought were super comfy, aren’t actually. You might realize that your bra straps show or your blazer has a stain on it. So many possibilities and you can avoid all of it by trying it all on before hand. That means your tote bag too! And yes you need a tote bag, here’s why:
• Be more prepared than a girl scout. Here is my list of trusted products to have with you when you’re interviewing. This list might be a bit more extensive than you need, but when I was interviewing in NYC I was taking the train in, walking around/taking the subway from one interview to the next, and not getting home until the end of the day. So I was super prepared!
  • Résumés galore! Here’s my rule of thumb, if you have 1 interview, pack at least 3 résumés. If the interview goes well they might have you meet with more people and that means you need more papers to show them you’re prepared! You don’t want to be fumbling and you don’t want to look like you weren’t expecting them to like you so much! (So if you have 2 interviews in 1 day you better bring at least 6 résumés and reference lists).
  • Pen and small note pad
  • Granola bar x 2 (I love Rx Bars)
  • Mints (NOT Gum!) Mints dissolve in your mouth so you don’t have to worry about throwing it out or forgetting to toss it and then chewing your way through your interview. Yikes!
  • Tampons (Just. In. Case.)!!
  • Water bottle (if you don’t want your bag to be too heavy go with a super small plastic one, or if you don’t care then stick with your trusted reusable bottle).
  • Small pack of tissues
  • Mini deodorant (this is mine from Sephora)
  • Essential makeup in case you need to reapply
  • Portable phone charger
  • Watch (I love my Apple Watch, which I can put on silent mode when I’m in the interview so alerts don’t disrupt me)

Okay, I hope this helps! Here is some outfit inspiration below, click through some of my top picks from some of my favorite places to shop for work clothes! (at all price points)