Have you ever looked in your wardrobe and felt that the clothes on the hangers don’t match the task ahead? Or even the person inside?
Ever felt like what looks great on the rack might not look so great on… umm… yours?
This, my friends, Â is where I am at.
I’m about to launch into the ‘workplace’ after over two years at home with my son, and I feel a little lost.
My at home uniform has consisted of …… sometimes my PJ’s (which can at times be one of Cowboy’s old shearing type singlets) Oh God did I write that out loud on the world wide web? Glory be!
Sometimes I wear tracky-dacks / shorts/ a one-stop dress  or simply whatever I glance at first, whether it belongs to me or the Cowboy. Monte is not fussed. Anything goes is our strict dress code.
If I am going to the shops I usually don my best jeans and thongs and maybe a sassy little floaty top. Sometimes said floaty top might have a smudge of Vegemite on it.
The SAHM workwear is easy, flexible and reflects the mood of the day.
Returning to work has left me a little flabbergasted, and my current wardrobe is NOT helping matters.
You see, my wardrobe is a Stuck-up Snob. Â He often leaves his door ajar to tease me with snippets of my former life.
Snooty little dresses  snicker “You used to wear me, and now I don’t fit, but I cost hundreds of dollars and there is nothing wrong with me, so you can’t BEAR to throw me out, or donate me, and HELLO! you are not the girl you used to be- you’ve changed. It’s not Cue – it’s YOU”
Yep plenty of cute little size 10 corporate dresses filled with immature attitude spout nonsense at me.
The scariest part? Â They are right.
I have changed.
I had a baby two years ago. The light of my life. The apple of my eye. My body changed, my heart changed, my wardrobe changed.
In mere DAYS I am returning to the workforce.
In a NEW town, as this….. Â new working person but not the same working person I once was…. and I didn’t know WHAT this incarnation of me should wear.
How do you dress someone who has been born again in many ways and is not sure how to find an outfit that reflects this?
I needed an expert.
I turned to Birdsnest.
No, I am not describing my Stay-at-Home Mum hairstyle.
I am talking THE most excellent fashion website I have discovered since living in the OHT, and let me tell you I have discovered a few (thousand).
Birdnest is sooooo  fun to  navigate because you can shop by shape, personality, occasion, colour… and someone else does the thinking for you! Everybody, and I mean everybody I tell to look at Birdsnest joins in the chorus. They are unreal.
So…… I emailed the gorgeous Holly, aka’ Stylist to the Stars’ from Birdsnest and told her of my dilemma. The “I don’t know what to wear now I am starting work as an Ad Exec and nothing from previous life fits, and I don’t know who I am anymore, and what —”
She cut to the chase.
I emailed her some pics of me, answered some style questions and she came up with some amazing suggestions.
AMAZING. I am going to show you what she suggested real soon along with the outcomes of these suggestions , but first I want to know – have you faced a Clothing Identity Crisis? What was yours?
Read Part Two: How to Solve a Fashion Crisis: 101
14 Comments
It is times like these that I’m glad that I have a uniform for work …
Uni, on the other hand, is a headache. Surrounded by beautiful 18 year old, decked out in the latest fashions while teetering around on campus in heels. I have never felt so old in my life!
This is exactly where I was a couple of years ago, only I had a whole wardrobe full of clothes that didn’t fit my body or my personality, and a budget of approximately $7.35 to fix it.
Luckily I had a sister who’s wardrobe I could raid, then I just picked up some basics from places like Target. Now I’ve got a “working wardrobe”, and I’m about to start a new job with a uniform!!
Ha!! Typical eh?!
I’ve just started consultation with clients in my Clinical Psychology prac and I am clueless about what is appropriate for that setting. Plus all my sessions are videotaped so I have to watch them back in a group Yikes! I’m looking for a smart casual “hide the lumps and bumps” look :) Plus I have no time or money to shop right now…
Hmmmm… when you get time and money (stare at that poster haha) Get onto Birdsnest Heather. Honest to goodness.
I know how you feel! My wardrobe is a hodge podge of clothes that I used to wear when I was pregnant, my mum wardrobe of shorts and singlets with a few ‘grown up’ outfits for corporatey type events, that desperately need updating.
I need new clothes.
Dressing for work in a tropical climate is my daily drama. We devised a uniform for work that just screams “daggy” and is in urgent need of an update. We struggle to find the line where corporate, approachable and tropical all meet. Where I live now, shoes are for formal occasions only.
I stare in envy as the winter fashion mags are published and think of all the lucky girls who will buy a new coat or new knee length boots for the season. I used to have a coat and boots, once.
The dress code crisis then takes on a new angle when I need to travel south for a professional conference or meeting which happens perhaps once a year. I know that my professional colleagues will be dressed smartly and that I will have absolutely nothing suitable to wear and I have forgotten how to pull a pair of tights on without having them ladder every time.
Sigh, one day I will get the balance right.
hahaha -particularly at ” I used to have a coat and boots, once” life is tough in Cairns Jacinta. But yes, a dilemma I can see!
As soon as I read the title of your post I thought Sharni needs to go to BIRDSNEST!! They are so wonderful. Every communication with them is a delight and I spend hours playing on their fantastic website. YAY! Birdnest and thank you Sharni for sharing them with your world.
Thanks Kate! My pleasure. Birdsnest exists to be shared!
I had the same crisis when I went back to work when Lil was 7 months old. I sat in the middle of a shopping centre and burst into tears.
I must go and check out this website! Good luck!
I moved to the country about three years ago, leaving my city job where pantyhose were compulsary and I wore heels everyday. It wasn’t really appropriate to continue to wear these same clothes to my much more casual workplace but I needed something in between a suit and RM Williams and button-up shirt (I work in town afterall, not mustering cattle!). It took awhile to adjust my wardrobe but I’ve now found my ‘country style’ with floaty tops, skirts and dresses and denim casuals mixed with my staple pair of black pants for work. Not that I dont have the occasional (okay more than occasional!) wardrobe crisis!!
Yep that was another crisis – City to Country, (before child) when I first moved I thought I’d still wear the same things but I felt a little silly hoppling down the street in mega heels and stood out like a sore thumb!!
wow. it’s a good site. Whoever is styling it is really good. I like all the suggested outfits. hard to understand how they can have such a huge range. Now that I’m working full-time I don’t have time to shop anymore. Key things I’m always looking for are – dresses (lessens the number of choices you need to make in the morning), flats (when you are rushing around) and iron-free fabrics.