Yesterday was gorgeous. It was the kind of early summer day that Toronto gives you to make up for the crap-tacular winter that we are subjected to. I wore this dress to work. And I felt out of place all day.
On the face of it, this dress doesn't violate any corporate dressing rules. (The rules that HR carefully reminds us of at the start of every summer, for fear that we might transform into an army of tank-top wearing drones, I suspect.) It has sleeves. It is of the right length. It does not have any corporate logos on it.
However... As I've become increasingly self-stitched in the last couple of years, my wardrobe has diverged more and more from my colleagues. They wear black pants, I wear skirts. They wear separates, I wear dresses. They wear jackets, I wear cardigans.
The thing is, I don't like to stand out. I like the idea of being stylish, not fashionable. I want my clothes to have an understated chic-ness. I want to be well-dressed, but not out-there.
In many settings, my dress works perfectly. Summer BBQ? Perfect dress. Beer with friends? The dress didn't attract a single comment. But, this is not the right dress for work.
Though I try to avoid the tough projects (pants, jackets, anything with button-holes), I think it is time I started exploring the idea of a work-appropriate summer wardrobe.
Sigh. This is a bit of a pity, I love my summer dresses.
3 comments:
They're just jealous and have been left speechless!
Oh I know that feeing of feeling out of place - and it's not fun ! Your dresses are all so cute, it's a shame to feel like you have to change what you love in order to 'fit in'
Keep wearing them! One by one we will change them all.
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