Building a Remixable Work Wardrobe Series Part 1; Assess what you have

I have mentioned this before but one of my shopping Resolutions for 2014 is to focus on business wear or work appropriate clothing. In fact I will go a step further and say I want to start  building a remixable work wardrobe that will allow for easy mix and match within my work-wear as well as mix with my weekend casual looks too.

I have spent the past 5 years on an extended maternity leave as I stayed home after my daughters birth in 2009 and continued to stay at home with her through my second pregnancy. Now it is 5 years later my oldest is in Kindergarten and my youngest will be starting preschool. So this year I am phasing back into the work world.

But what will I wear?

The first step in this building a remixable work wardrobe series is to take a look at what you already have in your closet. Ask yourself these 2 questions:

PS feel free to pin the above image to refer to from your phone while undergoing the following exercise.

1. Do you have clothing left over from your former work life?

If the answer is yes you have more work. If the answer is no then you are starting from scratch in your effort building a remixable work wardrobe.

If the answer is yes, pull everything you have that is work appropriate and put it on your bed and start trying stuff on.

Be very critical of each piece. Does it fit? Do you still like it? If the answer is yes to both questions keep it. If the answer is no give it away (assuming it is in good condition, otherwise toss it). This is the perfect time to go through an exercise that I like to call recycling your closet.

If you are not sure invite a friend over for a critical eye, or take pictures. One thing I have learned from style blogging is that even when looking in the mirror I can think something looks good, until I am photographed. It really highlights when an outfit is not flattering.

When I did this exercise myself I found out I had much less work appropriate clothing than I thought I did as some items didn’t fit any more, others were damaged, others were just not all that flattering.

2. Do you have casual items that can be re-imagined?

Calling these items casual might be a stretch but you likely have items in your wardrobe already that could be paired with more traditional business clothing like trousers, suit jackets or pencil skirts.

Things like colourful silk blouses, tweed blazers, thin wool sweaters, even printed pants. All these items are the perfect things to mix and match to give your work wardrobe more versatility.

Again try all these items on, make sure they fit and of course are something you like enough to wear regularly.

Once you have determined what you really have identify the holes in your work wardrobe you need to fill. Is more of what you have pants? Blouses? Blazers? Knowing what you have allows you to by default know what you don’t have or rather need to buy.

So where would you start building your remixable work wardrobe?