This Thursday, Americans will say thanks by putting on their fat pants, taking a few days off and stuffing their gobs with turkey. It’s such a lovely holiday filled with gratitude, vacation days and food. Thanksgiving also kicks off the holiday season when most people have one foot in and one foot out at work. It can get hard to focus and take work seriously.
Work style during these shortened weeks tends to get more relaxed. Unless you took a few vacation days this week, you still have three more days before you get your much needed time off. Heading to the office this week? Here are my tips on holiday work week style and how to look casually appropriate, even if you are just dialing it in.
Holiday Work Week Style
Here are some tips and outfits to check out that will give you some ideas on how to create a professional holiday work week style.
Tip #1- Use jewelry and accessories to elevate your more casual pieces
It completely normal and acceptable to want to be comfortable this week. However, don’t dress like a slob. Knits are great choices. Also, don’t forget your accessories. A sweater and leggings may scream weekend, but when some jewelry is added the outfit look elevated and business-casual. Use your accessories and jewelry to elevate your more casual and comfortable pieces.
Here, for example, I took a relaxed cardigan from Bailey 44 and layered it over a basic t-shirt from Boden and added a pair of tailored pants from J. Crew in Burgundy. Added to this look is a pair comfortable black booties from Nordstrom, burgundy and bronze earrings and a wrap bracelet from Max & Chloe. These little touches, that take no time and add no extra fuss, make the outfit appear more polished and professional.
Tip #2 Wear one piece that is more professional
Another tip is to wear one piece that is really professional and keep the rest of the outfit casual, like wearing jeans with a blazer, for example. The blazer elevates the look of the denim and the denim pulls down the formality of the blazer. In the first outfit, you can see how the tailored pants make the more relaxed cardigan look more professional.
In the outfit above, this houndstooth blazer, that was layered over a green sweater by Tory Burch, gets dressed down with these MICHAEL Michael Kors bootcut jeans. Also notice that the denim is in a darker and more professional wash. For shoes, I chose these rich cognac Sam Edelman booties. Finishing the outfit, using the first tip, I added a necklace from Sella & Dot and stacked bracelet set from Bauble Bar.
Tip #3 Choose comfortable pieces that look good without a lot of effort
If you want to keep it simple, like with a sweater and leggings, during a holiday work week, instead of going too basic, choose pieces that can stand alone without a lot of effort.
Take the above outfit. The sweater from Modcloth is more of a statement sweater and makes the outfit look a lot more dressed up than a more basic tunic sweater would. Sweaters like this require little effort to look polished but are still really relaxed. With the sweater, I added a pair of J. Crew signature leggings and a pair of boots from Frye. Just a few accessories are added to add some polish to the outfit, a pair of colorful drop earrings and a bangle bracelet.
No matter how check out you will be this week, your holiday work week style should still look as if your head is in the game. With these tips, you’ll be able to look appropriate while you are thinking of other things, like turkey and yams.
Are you working this week? What will you be wearing?
