How Working From Home Can Make You Rethink Your Office Wardrobe

Social distancing has many of us working from home. In pajamas. Which I understand, but don't recommend for a number of reasons. My social media feeds are full of people embracing the elastic waistband with a level of enthusiasm usually reserved for major sporting events.

But anyone with a closet full of Vikki Vi Classics knows that polished workwear can be comfortable. I know how much I used to hate my work wardrobe, but I never realized how many other people loathed their office clothes.

If you work in an industry that requires uniforms or dry clean only tailored suits, then wearing your work clothes as rarely as possible makes sense. And if there are toddlers in your life, you should probably wear a rain poncho or coveralls so leaving your nice things in the closet makes sense.

But for the rest of us, we can take this opportunity to think about why we find our officewear so unpleasant. 

Is It Fit?

No one is comfortable in ill-fitting clothes. If your outfit is too tight in one spot, you'll be tugging and adjusting your clothing all day long. This is pretty common because we're told that we can shrink just one body part. This a big, honking lie and by the way, there's nothing wrong with the fact that your this isn't in proportion to your that. Bodies come in all different shapes and sizes. And no, plus size is not a body shape.

The solution here is to wear styles that work with your body. I've written loads about which styles are most comfortable on you if you're apple-shaped, or pear-shaped, or both. And knits give you more wiggle room than woven fabrics. (Psst - Vikki Vi Classics and Jersey Classics are made with knit material.)

Since you have the time, do a deep dive into my older blog posts, measure yourself, and contact us for help deciding what size to order. It may seem like a lot of effort (and it is) but it's the sort of education you only need once. You will be so much happier with a work wardrobe that fits you properly. 

Is It Fabric Care?

Are you reluctant to wear your workwear at home because washing it is such a hassle? Garments that must be dry cleaned or hand washed aren't for every day. Fabric that's too delicate to stand up to stain removal is downright scary. 

Maybe you assumed that only high maintenance fabrics were office appropriate. As with a lot of aspects of plus size clothes shopping, it's all about knowing where to shop. Vikki Vi Classics and Jersey Classics are machine washable. Just saying.

Is It The Company Culture?

If you change clothes the moment you get home so that you can feel like yourself, the problem may be more than your wardrobe. I've worked at companies where an extremely strict corporate dress code was just part of a toxic, outdated company culture. I would've been unhappy there no matter what I was wearing. Or maybe you thrive in a structured environment, and you work at a super casual loosey-goosey company. 

Rather than spending the rest of your career as a square peg in a round hole, you may want to consider looking for a new job, or even a new profession.

You Do You

I'm not saying that there's anything wrong if you're all about leisurewear these days. But now is the time to think and reflect so that when things return to normal we can create a better normal than before.

Check out our other posts about working while plus size.