4 Tips for Dressing Professionally in Your Workplace

Dress code varies from company to company and before you go shopping for your work clothing, you should get informed about the preferred dress code in your particular workplace. Some companies insist on the traditional professional look while others are more relaxed about it. In any case, the amount of room you have for expressing your individuality and personal style will depend on this.

Whether the dress code is strictly business professional or not, you still have many options to express yourself in the corporate chic way. The key to your style is various combinations of work clothes, accessories and jewelry. If you get good at matching pieces in a way that is not traditional and ordinary yet stylish and elegant, you are on a right track. A good rule of thumb is to keep the business appearance more dominant than the outfit.

1. Blouses and tops                                                           

It is great to start building your wardrobe around your basic solid blouses in light colors like white, pink and blue. In addition, you can have some patterned blouses or darker colored ones. Designed tops are a fabulous way to add a fashion statement to your look, as long as they do not scream for attention and are not revealing.

Your work tops can be sleeveless, short-sleeved, long-sleeved and turtlenecks, but no tank tops. Experiment with flowing materials like silk and satin, they are naturally elegant. Avoid logos, embellishments and prints.

2. Pants and skirts

Pants make or break the business look so you have to get this one right. Stick with solid black or dark color bootcut or trouser silhouettes, avoid soft pants and looser fitting pants. If business casual is allowed, you can even go for jeans, but choose dark wash and black jeans rather than lighter colors.

No bleached or ripped jeans are allowed. Your pants should be sharp and keep the whole outfit balanced. The perfect work skirt is the pencil skirt in classic colors like black, grey and dark blue. It should always be knee length or just above the knees.

3. Suits, blazers and jackets

Suits are the staple of any work wardrobe, both pants suits and dress suits. You can wear them matched or separate them and wear skirts in combinations with different color blouses and jackets for a more creative look. You can wear suit jackets with any pants and still get a business look.

Blazers and jackets can be traditional one-button and two-button structured jackets, or looser fitting in more casual cases. Cropped blazers can be worn over work dresses that exude elegance and power.

4. Accessories

Sometimes accessories and jewelry are our only way to express our taste, but even so, we should not go overboard. Generally, you cannot go wrong with silver and gold, or any metal, as long as it is not too bulky.

Avoid plastic, glitter, bright and fluorescent colors. You can express your style with noticeable but discrete details like hanging earrings, a designer eyeglasses frame, a nice ring and a matching bracelet, a wristwatch, and hair clips and pins.

It all comes down to planning, making beautiful combinations and keeping your business appearance more important than your personal style. Experiment, practice and you will find the right balance.