Working From Home Without Feeling Like a Slob

As someone who works from home, I know that it’s very tempting to secretly wear pajama pants with your nice top while you’re on a virtual call with a client. Or to roll out of bed and head directly for your inbox, only to look up and realize that it’s noon and you still haven’t showered. While doing those things once in a while can feel luxurious, doing them regularly can make you feel like your work life is one big sick day.

How we dress affects how we feel, and how we feel affects our productivity and our happiness. Here are some tips that have helped my clients and myself become better versions of our work-at-home* selves:

• Get what I like to call “grocery store presentable.” Even if you probably won’t be interacting with another human being, take 20-30 minutes to get dressed, wash your face, and fix your hair. Don’t make getting ready its own project, but do something to help yourself feel ready for the day. And then if you do have to run to the post office or the grocery store later, getting dressed isn’t a hurdle to leaving the house.

• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Trying to come up with a new and exciting outfit every morning is a recipe for disaster no matter where you work. This is where utilizing outfit templates (sign up for my email list if you haven’t already gotten your copy of my Easy Outfit Templates!) or even a daily uniform can come in handy.

• Dress for comfort. I believe in dressing for comfort no matter what, but I think it’s especially important when you work from home and the siren song of pajama pants is always calling. Make sure your clothing fits well and doesn’t distract you with uncomfortable fabrics. Stretch denim, ponte knit, and whatever fabrics you enjoy most are your friends.

• Accessories are essential. A lot of my work-at-home clients cite their outfits feeling “unfinished” as a major source of wardrobe dissatisfaction, and there’s no easier way to fix that problem than with accessories. Even if you wear the same pair of silver filigree hoop earrings every single day, they’ll still dress up your look. Lipstick counts too!

• Be intentional with your layers. Try not to throw on your ratty old robe when you’re working, even if it is the warmest and coziest thing you own. Better to spend a little time finding a great cardigan, a lightweight knit poncho, or a chic pullover that will keep you feeling in work mode. When you find it, buy it in two colors.

• Make your workspace comfortable. This isn’t strictly wardrobe-related, but when I upgraded my home office - investing in a laptop stand, an ergonomic keyboard, and a comfier office chair - I felt much less of a desire to wear house clothes when working, because I wasn’t trying to compensate for an uncomfortable workspace.

What are your favorite ways to dress up your work-at-home wardrobe? I’d love to hear some fresh tips!

*This post is geared toward people who work from home in any capacity, including stay at home/homeschooling parents, people who are retired, people who work from home on video calls, and people who work from home while never seeing another soul.

Don't Wait Until You've Lost the Weight

One of the best things you can do for yourself is to honor your body as it is right now.

That means giving up on the fantasy that your 30s body, your pre-baby body, or the body you think you should have had is your “real” body, waiting to whisk you away into a life of always feeling beautiful and pulled together.

Why are we so willing to look for awesome new clothes when we’ve gotten a new job or lost weight or our tastes have simply changed…but we drag our heels when we need new clothes because of weight gain?

Sometimes we just don’t know what we should be looking for. The styles we used to love no longer work (or we’re worried they don’t) and we don’t know where to start. Sometimes we don’t want to accept that our bodies have changed, possibly forever.

We all deserve to feel good in our clothes, moving through our days without body hatred or discomfort. If you’re suffering through too-tight jeans or bras that pinch, how is that going to help you love your body? How are you going to feel good in your style if its only real focus is distracting people from the perceived flaws of your body?

I should have bumper stickers made: “Your clothes are the problem, not your body.” I can feel like Aphrodite herself in one outfit, and a troll who lives under the bridge in another - all within five minutes. The danger of clothing that fits poorly or betrays your style is that it’s all too easy to believe you are the problem, and I can promise you - you never are.

Elevating Jeans and a Tee

Pretty boring, right?

I love a pencil skirt as much as the next personal stylist, but I’ll be honest: I field so many more questions about how to wear t-shirts and jeans. They’re casual, comfy, and with a little bit of tweaking, they can look every bit as stylish as that pencil skirt.

Your perfect jeans, perfect tee, and perfect accessories will all be informed by your personal image archetype, so there’s no one-size-fits-all, but I do have some tips for you:

As far as I’m concerned, any relatively basic top can qualify as the “tee” in this equation. For one woman this might be a solid-colored silk tank. For another it might be a graphic tee with the neckline cut out. It might be a striped knit boatneck with 3/4-length sleeves.

If you want to wear a t-shirt specifically, ask yourself if the basic boxy cotton version is your best. If not, how can it be improved for your body shape? Do you need more curve to the waist? More flow? Should the hemline be curved, straight, or asymmetrical? How long should your t-shirt be?

Your neckline can easily turn a forgettable top into a statement piece. Is a closed-in neckline best for you, or an open one? A rounded neckline, or an angular one? Are there any eye-catching design details along the neckline such as lace, mesh, crochet, cutouts, embroidery, or grommets? I’m a big fan of neckline detailing, because it frames the face and provides an opportunity for pleasing harmony with your facial features.

Do you know if skinny jeans are the best choice for you? What about flared, cropped, or trouser styles?

Jewelry and accessories are paramount for adding visual interest. A pair of earrings the color of your eyes, a funky purse, a sparkly statement necklace, a scarf in your hair, or a unique pair of shoes take two seconds to put on, and the impact lasts all day.

If you want to add an additional layer, a colorful jacket, cardigan, or scarf on top of a more basic tee can add dimension.

This outfit has the same base formula, but jazzing up the colors and accessories quickly takes it from boring to eye-catching

You don’t need to wear a full face of makeup everyday (no matter what you’re wearing), but taking five minutes to do your brows, swipe on some mascara, and put on a great lipstick makes a big difference. This is where knowing your season really comes in handy, because the right lipstick will light up your whole face, even if it’s a My Lips But Better. Your skin will look better in the right colors, too!

Spend some time perfecting simple hairstyles beyond the ponytail, and work with your natural hair texture, not against it. If your hair is straight, let it be straight! If your hair is curly, let it be curly! Get a cut that suits your hair’s behavior and your face shape, and your morning routine will be so much easier.

Lastly, learning to coordinate - rather than match - the different colors, textures, and shapes of your outfit will go a long way, keeping your look safely removed from “it’s laundry day” territory.

If you don’t know where to start, I want to help you! Click here for more information about a personal color analysis, personal image analysis, or coaching packages.

The Secret Classroom

When I talk to women about beauty and style, one motif surfaces again and again: “I feel like I missed a class all the other girls attended."

The first time a woman said this to me, I didn’t know how to respond. I was that girl too, and I thought I’d struggled uniquely.

I remember sitting behind a classmate in middle school, looking at her perfectly messy bun and wondering who taught her how to do that. My messy buns looked like I was renting to birds.

Who taught the other girls how to apply their mascara and lipgloss just so? How to shape their brows? To take care of their skin?

Who taught them to pair accessories with their outfits? How to put together an actual outfit in the first place? Or what constituted a good fit?

My mother was faultlessly groomed, but she taught me little about beauty or style. Maybe I didn’t ask, maybe she thought I wasn’t interested. But in my heart of hearts I was always looking for answers. I fumbled along, a bookish, imaginative child who became a teenager and desperately wanted to know how to define myself as a woman.

I didn’t know how to style my hair, how to dress my body, or how to choose and apply makeup. I looked to what other girls were doing for answers, but their hair wasn’t my hair, their bodies weren’t my body, their coloring wasn’t my coloring. This would be so much easier, I thought, if I just looked like someone else.

That belief led me, and so many women, down another twisted path, where you are afraid to even attempt to dress more stylishly, or try a new lipstick color, or style your hair differently, because if you don’t try, you can’t fail…or so the thinking goes.

And that’s how, all these years later, you’re a generally confident woman. You have a career, you have kids, you’re intelligent, and you feel worthy, and you’ve read those quotes about how comparison is the thief of joy, and how flowers in a garden don’t compete, they just bloom, and yet here you are, still afraid to wear red lipstick to the grocery store, because what if someone looks at you and thinks,

“Who does she think she is?”

I don’t want that fear for you. I didn’t want it for myself, and I don’t want it for my daughter either.

I want you to have the tools and the confidence to put on that lipstick, to rock that skirt, to flaunt that hairstyle, and know that all of them are absolutely perfect for you.