Reader Question--I just read your post about wearing your good clothes every day and its effect on how people see you as well as how you feel about yourself. I work at home. People see me from the waist up. How important is it that I wear a full-on "good" outfit every day at work?
Should You Be Wearing an Entire Good Outfit When You're Working from Home or Just From the Waist Up?
If you're working from home and you're only seen from the waist up, you don't have to wear a full suit and high heels to still be looking stylish and feeling smart. The idea of wearing good clothes is that you feel good as well as look good and this means the whole outfit, not just the top half that can be seen on your video conference calls.
Good Doesn't Have to Mean Formal
Firstly, let's just clarify what good means - a smart casual outfit can still be classed as good clothes, it's not sloppy, it looks well dressed, it's pulled together.
So even if you're working from home and you're wearing a blazer or jacket or more refined shirt, it's easy to pair that with a smart pair of jeans (you don't have to wear the suit pants if you don't want to) that are still casual but aren't sloppy or ill-fitting or way past their prime and you wonder why you still own them.
Good Doesn't Have to Mean Uncomfortable
With the rise of stretch in clothing, it's really easy now to find clothes that have some ease and stretch in them that still look smart. It may be a good pair of pants with stretch or a skirt or even a tailored pair of shorts, that as long as they go with your top half, will make a smart outfit as everything works together.
You may have some ancient belief that good clothes are always uncomfortable or restrictive because maybe growing up your good clothes were uncomfortable, but it really doesn't have to be this way with the improvement in fabric technology
The Value of Dressing in Your Good Clothes
Even if nobody else sees you in person, you see yourself in mirrors when you go to the bathroom, you're still aware of what you're wearing and if you only feel half-good, then this can affect your psyche and you may perform worse (there is research that shows that what you wear impacts on your abilities, and when you wear good clothes, you perform better cognitively on whatever task you're doing).
Remove the Sloppy Clothes That Don't Make You Feel Good
If you don't want to feel sloppy or frumpy, remove all the clothes that make you feel sloppy or frumpy from your wardrobe, and let them go. Only keep what makes you feel good, that you feel good wearing, that represents your ideal style, that way, you don't have to think about it in the morning when you get dressed, as you know everything you own is going to make you feel good. Remove any clothes that are uncomfortable from your wardrobe too, if you don't enjoy wearing them, you won't wear them and they're just taking up space and making you think you have more options than you really do.
Your wardrobe should be filled with clothes that:
- You love
- Work for your style
- Make you feel good
- Are comfortable to wear
- That fit your lifestyle
Anything else should be released to the wild (aka donated to a charity store) so that someone else may get some wear from them.
When is it the Right Time to Wear Your Good Clothes