An office look for a spring typology? Depending on your career path, you may at one point in your life accept a position in a company where a dress code is mandatory. So the questions TO BLEND OR NOT TO BLEND IN in this case is a rhetoric one.
But if you do not have a dress code, blending in, especially if you like colors and a typology that allows you to play with colors, it is going to be a struggle.
My impression is that we all have beliefs about how one should dress if one has a certain profession, like lawyers, finance and tax advisors, accountants, banking professionals. They (or us) should not only have the skills needed to do their (our) job well, but they (we) should also show that by wearing clothes to testify those skills.
Now the theory of enclothed cognition illustrates how clothing impacts human cognition based on the co-occurrence of its symbolic meaning and the physical wearing of the attire. Wait, what? Let me explain: through a survey, it was proven that people associate attributes of attentiveness with white lab coats. And testing some individuals, it resulted that indeed people wearing a white lab coat performed better than those who did not wear it.
Whether we can then use this experiment and conclude that wearing shorts and t-shirt while working from home on some complex finance excel project would influence our performance negatively and our attentiveness, that would be too far-fetched.
And my questions continue: would an individual work harder when wearing a grey suit than when wearing a peach suit? Is the grey suit the embodiment of an analytical, highly performing individual? Certainly NOT, though some people still unconsciously believe that! This has been seen recently, when critics have been raised about a law firm lead by a woman. The critics revolved around the colors she used for her brand: the colors within the office and also her clothes, too feminine and girly. And it stroke a chore, to be honest! It reminded me of that one time when my jeans pencil knee-high skirt (even though paired with a white shirt and high heels grey shoes) was highly criticised by the office manager. How could I, as a corporate lawyer, meet a customer in a jeans skirt?
Well, I still stick to my point: wearing colors to suit your typology and artsy designs instead of grey suits can change your mood and spur your creativity. You may ask: should lawyers even be creative?! Damn well they should, how else would they help their customes interpret that boring piece of legislation in their favour?
Too girly, too mature, too much judgement. I say let’s revolutionise our office look, especially in a time when work has anyhow been revolutionised by the pandemics. So below is the wardrobe capsule I prepared for my client with a spring typology, lawyer profession and an appetite for risk taking (wardrobe wise not legal wise).
Office Wardrobe Capsule for a Spring Typology
I played with feminine designs:
a) bows and pussy bows tops and dresses
b) pleated skirt
In both bright colors (spring typology look at their best in bright saturated colors) and neutrals.
Office Wardrobe Capsule Spring Typology
But also added that edge silhouette by adding a tailored jacket, straight-cut green moss pants and button-up shirts. But I tried to avoid the usual white shirt and went for a more bold choice (aqua blue and light orange stripes shirt). Which I know for some of you may be too daring!
Office Wardrobe Capsule for a Spring Typology
In terms of colors, I played with pastels from the color palette of the spring typology (apricot, peach, light warm pink). I think pastel in the summer is a great choice to match the sunshine outside and to give that feeling of holiday even when going to work. The sun is shining, your apricot pleated skirt is playful enough to give you that vibe. In addition the saturated aqua and salmon pink brought more flavour to the capsule and especially the aqua shirt, which is the unexpected element I wanted to add.
Office Wardrobe Capsule Spring Typology
But I also wanted to include a pair of moss green pants, a nuance of green that I usually add when I create wardrobe capsules for autumn typology. Because you you can slowly transition to you dream wardrobe capsule without discarding your current wardrobe entirely. The color of the pants will not influence the light reflected on my client’s face so it did not make a difference. What was important is to find colors to match the moss green pair of straight cut pants.
Office Wardrobe Capsule Spring Typology
For the shoes and bags, neutral colors seamed like the harmonious choice for such a colourful wardrobe: darker beige almost camel bag, medium warm brown shoes, an ivory bag and small heel sandals. And in the end, my lawyer client will have 24 outfits to choose from in the mornings when she will go to the office. Because she will work half of the week from home and for that we are currently putting together another working from home capsule.
