Here are my work outfits from yesterday and today, both in various shades of blue. It was pretty cold yesterday so I wore another new clearance Old Navy sweater over light denim shirt and dark jeans. It is much warmer today and I went for another “tonal” outfit, this time blue after green and purple ones from last week.

I was *very* happy and confident about the second outfit all day long at work and spent some time analyzing why that was. My conclusions were:

1. It is quite on trend (colored skinnies, tonal outfit, color-blocking), but not over the top. I guess I could say it is trendy without people who are not following fashion trends realizing it if that makes sense.
2. It has the right mixture of casual and dressy for me – the top is woven, the blazer gives some polish but it is a thin jersey knit so it is not too dressy and very breathable.
3. As a consequence of #1 and #2, I feel that it challenges my environmental dressing norm (uber casual lab) somewhat, but not too much. I guess just the right amount for me to be confident about.
4. It fulfilled all the lab dressing restrictions while still being quite comfortable for the hot temperatures. While outside ( I walk to work, half an hour each way) I removed the blazer and was quite comfortable due to loose sleeveless woven top. The blazer provided coverage inside and protection from the AC.

So I think that I have finally found my go-to formula for hot weather work dressing:

Jeans + sleeveless woven top + thin jersey blazer,

and the whole outfit needs to incorporate one or two trendy elements of the season. The variations would be non-denim pants (when it gets super hot) or switching the fabrications of the tops around and going for sleeveless knit top and casual woven blazer. I guess in the end it is just a version of Angie’s smart casual adapted to my specific situation.

This should help me focus my SYB shopping strategy for the rest of the warm season. I plan to focus on the lightweight blazers as that is the element I lack to implement this formula in many variations. I will probably duplicate this H&M blazer in one or more colors, and look for some affordable woven ones as well.

#1: Striped sweater – Old Navy, denim shirt – Gap, dark bootcut jeans – Joe’s Muse, black wedges –Kenneth Cole reaction

#2/3: navy jersey blazer – H&M, color-block blue top – Club Monaco, light blue skinnies – Express, pewter wedges – Me Too.