Family circumstances derailed the June Challenge, but following is a recap of my Challenge and how I might improve next time.

June Challenge

My personal challenge for June is to define 10 outfits for work using clothing I currently own. I will define an additional 4 outfits for casual wear. All of the outfits must make me feel absolutely fabulous.

Work Outfits

My work wardrobe is in really good shape. I easily defined 10 outfits that make me feel fabulous. This is not surprising since most of my time and money goes toward clothing that I can wear in a professional setting.

I started developing work ensembles as soon as I left school and found my first professional job. It was painfully obvious at that time that I did not know how to transition from a school to a work environment. I made oh so many mistakes trying to buy what was deemed "work appropriate attire," but that failed to speak to me. I wore those outfits in the beginning and painfully evolved my own professional style. It took time, but I am really satisfied today. My wardrobe is professional, meets all my needs, and is authentic to me. More often than not, I do feel fabulous. So June was no real challenge in this respect. It was merely an exercise in cataloging.

Casual Outfits

I did not start out the June Challenge with high hopes for defining 4 casual outfits that made me feel fabulous. It is not that I have not tried to develop casual capsules in the past. I just have never really been happy with them. I think I am still evolving and defining my casual style and the fact that it is summer has not helped at all.

I am pleased to say that I did define 4 casual outfits that made me feel great. They were ALL based on white jeans. White jeans with a tee shirt or sleeveless button down just spoke to me. I even bought a new sleeveless top that worked beautifully with the jeans.

I realize 4 casual outfits might not seem like a lot to other people, but for me it was quite challenging. It was the start of trying to understand what I will wear and what I won't wear.

Here is what I learned and what I need to learn going forward

My stumbling block is not my wardrobe. It is me having permission to wear my good clothes casually. Wearing the white jeans casually was pretty huge for me. I wore them quite often and in time I felt comfortable and stopped worrying about spilling coffee down my leg (which I did).

Going forward I am going to try to transition some of my work clothes to be worn casually. The clothes will transition well. The stumbling block will be my own brain.

So for July

I am going to practice. I am going practice wearing a subset of work clothes in casual settings. I will pay attention to whether the experiment was a success or not. If not, my goal will be to define why it was a failure.

Some advice from other Fabbers'

(1) Invest in an apron. Great advice. I'll be buying one this weekend.

(2) Start small. Start with the white jeans. Add in other pieces slowly and get used to the idea. Let the brain absorb the change.