If You Only Do One Thing This Week … Organise Your Work Wardrobe

PRLog (Press Release) - Mar 23, 2010 -
Admit it: since you started your working life there have been occasions when you've started the day behind schedule because of some kind of wardrobe crisis. Unless you are slipping into a uniform, dressing for work can be tricky and needlessly time-consuming.
Deciding what to wear only when you get out of bed can cause all kinds of problems – you may find your shirt needs ironing, the skirt you wanted to wear has lost a button, or the jumper that would really finish off your outfit turns out to be at the bottom of the laundry pile.   The answer to all this early-morning chaos isn't exactly rocket science – either get up earlier, and give yourself time to choose or find whatever you want to wear, or just be organised and plan (and iron) what you're going to wear the night before. Simple, yes, but how many of us get around to it?  Camelia Frederick, a London-based image consultant, says she has "a number of clients who are time pressed and always in a rush to get their outfits right before they head out to work".  "It would be great to plan one's outfits a week in advance," she says. And if you were ultra-organised you would set aside some time on a Sunday to check your diary and decide what would be appropriate work wear for each of the next five days. You could then check what needed washing or ironing, and get those jobs done in time to have the right items ready on the right day. Great in theory, but it could be a problem if the weather changes half-way through the week, or you suddenly find you have an important meeting on a day when you'd planned to be scruffy.  You might think life's too short for all this. Remember the episode of Come Dine With Me where a host had his wardrobe organised with outfits labelled for every day? It is unlikely that many people aspired to doing the same.  Fortunately, there are ways to be better organised that still allow for some spontaneity each morning. Frederick says: "We advise clients to organise their wardrobe according to colours or occasions, and to hang the entire outfit on a hanger together with the matching shoes and accessories."  Spring-cleaning, particularly apt at this time of year, is the perfect opportunity to clear out your wardrobe and rearrange it by colour or by style. For her clients, Frederick takes a polaroid snap of an entire outfit so that when they are in a hurry they know exactly what to wear with what, like a personal lookbook. "It saves a lot of time and stress," she says.  An alternative is to make sure you are not spoilt for choice as to what to wear each morning. Former New Star boss John Duffield is reputed to have owned a wardrobe of duplicate clothes from M&S, allowing him to rotate the same shirts and V-neck jumpers (search for him in Google Images and you'll see the same blue shirt popping up). But for those more into fashion, planning what to wear for work doesn't necessarily have to be limiting.  New Yorker Sheena Matheiken has been wearing the same staple black dress (she has duplicate versions) to work every day, but dresses it up with various accessories to make it look different each day. She claims it only takes her 30 minutes every morning to get ready.  Meanwhile, marketing consultant Ben Wills has a deliberately scaled back wardrobe consisting of seven pairs of jeans, nine basic white T-shirts, three long sleeve shirts and four polo shirts – all purchased from the same store.  He writes on his blog: "Wearing clothes with this kind of strategy is incredibly efficient. I've been doing this, strictly, for over six months. It may not seem like it would free up your mind much, but it does … it's certainly a few less things to worry about. I never wake up in the morning, wondering what I'm going to wear. I put on my clothes, I'm done, and I immediately get to work without going through the psychological waffling that comes with being image conscious."  

http://www.corporate-connection.co.uk



Wills's wardrobe may be limited, but at least he has time for breakfast before shooting out the door.