Funny how our minds work. I've always thought of myself as an eminently practical person and for years basically ignored fashion as a frivolous pursuit while I got on with my 'important' practical engineering type stuff. I expect it was part of growing up as tomboy with my very practically oriented parents. I spent my time mostly the company of boys and then later was competing with them at university in engineering where girls were in the minority and to be respected I always felt you had to meet the guys on their own ground.
That carried over into my career where again I was mostly working with men and felt I needed to meet them where they were, merge into the scene as one of them, and dazzle them with my work not my outfits. Plus initially I was crawling around on the floor a lot fixing cables and doing the dirty work. Pants were more practical. My work uniform was black pants, solid colour top and loafers with the odd black blazer or cardi. When I found pants I liked I would buy 3 or 4 pairs. When I found a top I liked I would buy every colour that wasn't hideous on me. I usually only had one pair of work shoes.
Somewhere in my late 20's / early 30's I discovered an unexpected love for statement necklaces and this became part of my look. My roles were more senior and a couple of plain black suits and low heeled black pumps became part of the mix. Sometimes I wore pants that, 'gasp', weren't black (I think they were chocolate brown with a slight pinstripe) and felt remarkably adventurous.
Then I had my DS at the age of 37 just as the company I was working for was in the process of being bought out and found my career stalling. Partly because they weren't geared up for managing their larger distributed organisation. Partly because I was less visible (out of sight out of mind). Partly because I was out on Maternity leave for a year when they were getting to know the local people's work and then came back initially part time, which wasn't the embodiment of the consultant maxing out all available billable hours they held as their vision of the 'perfect' employee.
I was also profoundly uncomfortable with this new motherhood role because it didn't fit with my career-focused vision of myself. I found myself, for the first time, feeling constricted by my chosen uniform of pants and tops and chunky shoes. I found myself wanting to express my femininity. My professional reputation was established and a damn good one. I'd had a baby. I'd been on maternity leave. Clearly I was not a man and no-one was going to overlook that from here.
I can see an evolution. My initial work capsules had a mix of suits, pants, skirts and blouses and a couple of cardis that could be mixed and matched. Somewhere along the line in the last 2 years I found a dress that worked with one of the jackets and that was key moment for me. Dresses, particularly fitted dresses just felt so 'easy' for me. Dress, statement necklace, shoes, and cardi or jacket. A new work uniform was born. Several YLFers have noted that it is quite a dressy look. Which interestingly I hadn't really stood back to register.
But for some reason I have still been carrying this vision of myself as the 'world's most practical' MOTG in my head. And this is at odds with the outfits I feel inclined to wear. I feel 'undressed' if I go out shopping for groceries without a necklace on... So weird as it sounds I have just had an epiphany that I am NOT the world's most practical person when it comes to clothes. In fact I bat firmly for Team Dressy and Team Structured/FItted and also lean to the feminine side of that. I like the idea of Oxfords but despite everyone's input as to how to wear them. I can't wrap my head around them as part of my look.
LOL! Just looked up at the whole post and I wrote a novel. If any of you stayed with me through all of that then you definitely deserve some kind of award... xx
