Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with clothing and work

How fancy can a cardigan get?

Juliet Banana — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:32:39 -0800

I am looking for formal, professional-looking cardigans for work. I'm a petite female who is basically trying to avoid wearing a blazer. I'm a bank teller, and suit jackets seem to be a bit more common on females than at my previous job. I do not want to wear a jacket for many reasons, though if you can magically find a blazer that will actually fit and flatter a girl my size I'll be amazed and corrected.

I know a cardigan is never going to be as formal as a jacket. However, they work a lot better with my wardrobe, I can roll up the sleeves if needed so they're not dragging through stacks of cash, and I just like them a lot better. I'm trying to find cardigans, or maybe pullovers, that are quite formal and workplace appropriate. People do wear sweaters where I work, so this isn't some crazy harebrained scheme that's going to get me fired.

Complications: I'm an XS or petite small in US sizes. I'm about five feet tall and a hundred pounds. I easily fit into children's and junior sizes, and clothing lines for full-grown normal-sized ladies sometimes won't fit right unless I can find an extra-small. There are certain stores where the sizes run small (ex: Anthropologie, Bebe) and I don't have problems, and there are certain stores where the sizes run large (ex: Wal-Mart) and I can't fit into anything.

My work wardrobe style is generally something like this; a tailored dress that hits on the waist, opaque tights, ballet flats, and a cardigan. I need help with the last component. Online options, suggestions for brands that carry work wear in smaller sizes, and store recommendations in Chicago proper are all welcomed.

Help me decide what's appropriate for this job interview (clothing-wise)..

brynna — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 21:39:39 -0800

What should a California girl wear to a job interview in Boston in few (cold) weeks? I'm born and raised in California and thus, have never experienced weather below a chilly 50 degrees or so. I'm flying out to Boston for a job interview on November 12, and I have no idea what's appropriate to wear. Usually I go with slacks, heels, and a crisp button-down and tasteful earrings. But this is COLD weather!

Are boots acceptable? What about sweaters? Do people wear boots into the building and then change? What about pants-wise? What happens!??!

Where Have All The Palazzo Pants Gone?

rhiannon — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 18:34:23 -0800

I am looking for work pants that are not too casual, not too formal, and fit over my butt without suffocating me. I'm looking for pants that I can wear to work and I have some fairly particular constraints. I am a late-20's woman and I work at a Seattle-area tech company. In order to be taken seriously I have to dress up a bit more than the jeans-and-t-shirt uniform that my peers wear. Wearing a suit is the kiss of death with my software engineer coworkers, though. My wardrobe walks a fine line between not-too-casual and not-too-formal.

Also, I've got enough butt to outfit two skinny girls. I'm around a size 8/10 but a lot of current fashions draw too much attention to assets which don't need to take center stage at work. Sausage-fit tapered leg hipster pants, I'm glaring at you.

I've found a few formulas that work well, such as loose, flowing palazzo pants and slacks with interesting patterns or stripes. However it's been very hard to find these things for the past couple of seasons and all of my good work pants are in tatters now. Express and Urban Outfitters have been the source of occasional finds but these days everything they sell is too short, too tight, or too high-school looking for me to wear it to work. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Ann Taylor and J. Crew slacks are generally too conservative and suit-like.

Where should I be looking? Recommendations for brands, stores or specific items are welcome. Huge karma bonus points if you know of a good source for palazzo pants, which have been hunted nearly to extinction in Seattle.

What (not) to wear

IZ — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 01:49:20 -0800

What should I wear to meetings with telco companies like T-Mobile and Cingular in the US? Consider that I'm a Dutch business development executive / deal maker from a hip, young, rapidly growing and very down to earth Dutch IT company, which doesn't allow its employees to travel business class (not even when traveling trans Atlantic). I would prefer wearing something comfortable, meaning no suit and tie. But is this in any way acceptable?

How to tell a new employee her clothes are too sloppy?

mygothlaundry — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 11:36:30 -0800

How do I gently inform a new employee that she needs to dress better? We recently hired a new part time person for our (very) small staff. She's wonderful; we love her; she's already great - work-wise. Appearance-wise, however, she leaves something to be desired. She's sloppy; her clothes don't fit well or match and they're just inappropriate for her position, which is very much in the public eye. She's also in her mid thirties, so you would think that she would know dressing like a college student is no longer appropriate. Her clothing style is what we here in Asheville call "crunchy" btw: messed up old Ugg boots, corduroy jeans that don't fit, a not quite clean shirt that clashes horribly with the much too small cardigan over it, striped kneesocks with a plaid skirt and so on. We do have a dress code but it doesn't cover this kind of thing: it just says no jeans & no logo T-shirts & please be neat.

She doesn't have to get all corporated out - noone expects her to wear a suit every day or anything - but she should look like an adult, have clothes that are basically business to business casual and are clean, match and fit. This whole thing is hard for me because I certainly don't dress like a corporate clone: I mostly just wear black and try to make sure that everything looks at least kind of "officey." So I have no idea how to approach this entire conversation and, as I hate confronting people for anything at all, much less something personal like this, I am turning to the hive mind.

Shopping the sales -- how does it work, when does it happen, where do I go??

croutonsupafreak — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 07:06:18 -0800

Over the next few months, I need to buy a lot of new clothes to bulk up my professional (woman's) wardrobe. I want everything I buy to fit well. Slacks, skirts, blazers need to be lined. I will not buy anything without trying it on first, so web and catalog shopping is out. I don't have the budget to buy this all at full price. What kinds of strategies can I employ to get the best deals possible? Are there specific stores I should be shopping in? Are there sales I should watch for? Are there specific dates, weekends or times of year when I can get the best deals? How can I find out about and obtain about great coupons and upcoming sales? Those are the questions, here's a little background.

I am normally a cheapo shopper, and I'm pretty clueless about nice business wear.

My boss and the most respected senior women in my work place tend to wear suits about half the time, and nice skirts or slacks with sweaters or blazers the rest of the time. I've also become that my boss notices what people where when -- "Didn't she wear that earlier this week?" etc.

So I want a classy and robust wardrobe.

I hope to gradually acquire:
* 2 summer work skirts
* 2 summer work dresses
* 2 winter work dresses
* 2 fitted pullovers (1 v-neck, one crew neck)
* 2 cardigans
* 1 black turtleneck (fitted, black, thin)
* 2 pairs winter work pants (tropical wool, lined, not black)
* 1 classic pant suit in a light color
* 3 wool blazers (varied neutral colors)
* 1 light summer blazer
* nude stretchy camisole
* 2 belts -- dark brown and a lighter color
* more socks and pantyhose
* Light colored summer office shoes (pumps)
* 1 pair of knee boots
* 1 pair of ankle boots.

I can't afford it all at once, and I want to get the most bang for my buck while still going after high quality stuff. Hence my obsession with sales and deals.

How should I approach this?

Dressing past the interview...

srah — Fri, 23 Sep 2005 10:41:17 -0800

What should I wear to work in a higher education student services setting? Interview attire is one thing - I'm all set with that. But once I get the job, what should I wear to work? I want to build up my professional wardrobe and I want to do it right. There's plenty of information on the web about what's appropriate or inappropriate to wear to a job interview, but much less about what's appropriate to wear once you get the job. What information there is (I've read JT Molloy's New Women's Dress for Success) seems to be angled towards the corporate world, rather than higher education, and I feel like the rules are probably slightly different.

Background: It's my first professional job after back-to-back college and graduate school. I want to look professional to my co-workers/supervisor, but I thought that wearing a suit every day might be overkill in this setting. I want to be approachable by students but not look like one of them (I'm a petite and young-looking female, so this is a concern).

Please let me know what works/doesn't work for you!

Up on the roof in a thong, giving new meaning to butt shingles.

stefnet — Thu, 09 Jun 2005 20:30:53 -0800

I have been having a heck of a time trying to find work clothes suited for women. I finally found a pair of work gloves that aren't way too big, but I would really like a pair of Carhartt-type bib overalls. I tried some on earlier this evening and although they had sizes that corresponded to the size of men's jeans that I wear, the legs of the pants were voluminous, clown-like, and just uncomfortably large. It seems as though they are cut with a larger/different body type in mind than a 5'3" female. Are there any comparable work clothes out there that, without being pink or other such nonsense, are more suited to a woman's frame?