Hi friends! I’m sure everyone knows by now that my full time career is in marketing, working in downtown Houston, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm. So my fun “blogging” clothes don’t always line up with my business-casual work dress code. So I actually have a lot of clothes in my office that you don’t get to see, just because they’re my “work clothes” and I hate wearing work clothes outside of work! But I wanted to share today my necessary fashion staples for work and for the office environment!
Sure, you’ll see a lot of other fashion blogs posting about Spring staples or Summer staples, but most of us here have an office job five days a week and can’t prance around in an off-the-shoulder dress and a sun hat in the office with executives and angry baby-boomers! So I wanted to focus in on my 9 to 5ers and my office babes out there who are probably reading this while at work right now. Lmao!! Get it gurl!
Some background: my office is more “laid back” where we can wear jeans (without holes) and open toed shoes. We’ve never officially been given an office dress code, because there are only four women that work in my office… But it’s just common courtesy to not wear tops that show your shoulders or any low cut tops that show your cleavage! We don’t want to distract the oh-so-easily-distracted male presence here… *rolls eyes*. And of course, no shorts or sweatpants, or workout clothes.
Fashion Staples for Work:
1. Every working girl needs some good pairs of pants for the office. You won’t be washing these every day because, let’s face it, only crazy people wash their jeans or pants every day unless they’re really messy! So having three or more pairs of pants to alternate between during the week is a must. Since my company lets us wear jeans to work, that’s really all I wear as far as pants go. I have a pair of black jeans, a light pair of denim jeans, a dark pair of denim jeans, and a pair of white jeans. These are my pants staples because pretty much everything goes with these colors. If your company doesn’t allow jeans, then follow that same staple pattern, but with black pants, white pants, blue pants, etc.
2. You’ll also need classic, solid colored t-shirts for work because they can me worn by themselves, or layered under jackets, sweaters, blazers, kimonos, cardigans, scarves, etc. I have solid colored t-shirts in black, white, green, gray, and dark red. With one t-shirt, I can make about two weeks worth of outfits just switching out the pants and the layers over the t-shirt!
3. Along with the solid-colored t-shirts, solid colored camis or tank tops are another one of my favorite work staples because they’re also so versatile. I can wear a cami with different pants and different cardigans, kimonos, jackets, blazers, etc. for weeks on end and make completely different outfits each time! Just make sure they aren’t too low-cut!
4. Another staple that everyone should have for work (in my opinion) are blouses with fun sleeves! I know bell sleeves aren’t really a basic but they just add so much fun and flare to an otherwise ordinary top. I have a few different bell-sleeved tops; green, burnt orange, black, beige, and a red one. Sometimes I’ll even wear them with a vest to mix it up a lil’ bit!
5. To continue along with the tops, no fashion staples for work collection is complete without some staple sweaters. Staple sweaters are perfect for layering in the winter, rolling up the sleeves in the spring, or laying a button down underneath! I have so many different staple sweaters but these (pictured) are my favorite: leopard, black, grey, and green.
6. Now to start layering. Your work staple collection will need some cardigan sweaters to layer because, let’s face it, every office is freezing!! My favorites are these off-white and grey ones because they are neutral and they go with just about anything! I love layering t-shirts or camis under the sweaters. As you can tell, I wear this look A LOT to work! Haha
7. Also to layer, you will need to add some jackets and blazers to your work work staples collection. These are also perfect for layering over camis and t-shirts. I swear with camis, t-shirts, different colored pants, cardigans, and jackets, you can make about 100 different outfits without going broke! I have this green army jacket, a rose gold sequins blazer, a chambray button up that I wear as a top layer, or buttoned up underneath a sweater, or just buttoned up as its own top, and I have this green blazer.
8. Belts! You’ll definitely need some belts to style your layered outfits. I love tucking in my t-shirts, camis, and sweaters to show off a cute statement belt like my leopard one or the Gucci dupe belt (under $40 FYI!!).
9. And finally, work fashion staple shoes! Shoes are a great way to express your style and personality at the workplace. I have these Valentino dupes from Amazon that I love wearing to work because I always get so many compliments and they look like the real deal! Be sure to stock your closet with the essential, neutral-colored heels because you can only wear the bright, statement heels so often! The ones picture above are: Valentino dupes, black pointy-toe pumps, beige suede pumps, brown booties for fall/winter, and black suede booties for fall/winter.
So if you’re starting a new office job or if you’re just looking to cover all of your bases at your current office job, I hope this list of fashion staples for work will help you out! These staples are designed to create multiple, almost endless, outfit possibilities because you go to the office with the same people five days a week so if you outfit-repeat every week, people will notice! So hopefully these staples can give you some insight into how to create different outfits with the same pieces of clothing and not go bankrupt over boring office clothes!!
Details: Black Jeans | Light Denim Jeans | Dark Denim Jeans | White Jeans | Leopard Flats | White Long Sleeve T-Shirt | Green Vest | White V-Neck | Gucci Belt DUPE | Valentino Dupes | Camisoles | Brown Booties | Green Ruffle Top | Orange Ruffle Sleeve Top | Black Bell Sleeve Top | Black Booties | Leopard Sweater | Black Sweater | Gray Sweater | Gray Cardigan Sweater | White Lace Camisole | Green Army Jacket, Similar | Chambray Button Down | Green Blazer | Leopard Espadrilles | Beige Suede Pumps | Black Pumps |
