Anyone Else Confused About Work From Home Outfits?

Most of the time on the blog, we try to share as much valuable advice as we can in our content. Today’s post is a little different though. Kate here, and today I’m the one who is humbly seeking advice - about my current work-from-home wardrobe dilemma.

This year has thrown a lot of things out of balance to say the least, and I’ll start this post off by emphasizing that this ‘dilemma’ is pretty much the definition of a first world problem. By no means is this a big deal or some earth-shattering issue whatsoever, but it is something I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past four months that’s started to reframe my thoughts and feelings about one of my favorite subjects - fashion - and so I felt compelled to write about it in case anyone else is feeling utterly confused about what the hell to wear when working from home.

For those of us who are fortunate enough to be able to work from home right now (and it is certainly not lost on me that not everyone can), there’s no doubt that this is, to say the least, a very weird season no matter what job you have or field you work in.

When the quarantines and lockdowns started earlier this year, I think we all probably spent several weeks give or take in heavy sweatpants rotation, hibernating ourselves into comfy and cozy everything as if it was almost instinctual. This whole safer-at-home thing was such a new and unfamiliar normal that it just felt like the only thing to do was go all out and get as comfortable as possible, especially since we weren’t allowed to go anywhere or see anyone anyways.

Then the lockdowns kept extending. And extending. And extending. And for me at least, after about 3 weeks of working in whatever was in my lounge and PJs drawer, I started to realize that this wasn’t gonna be a short term thing. It became clear to me that if I didn’t start putting on a pair of jeans every now and then I would probably start to feel exactly how I looked every day, which could best be described as “blah.”

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t all have a blah day every now and then. Sometimes it actually feels good to just not try at all and let it fly in whatever comfiest possible combo of clothing is available. But I’m not talking about looking/feeling blah every once in awhile. I’m talking about what happened when I got so wrapped up in the bummer vibes of the climate of the times that I didn’t even feel like trying at all at something that used to bring me a lot of joy and has historically been an outlet to express my creativity - getting dressed.

I started to wonder how much of the joy we find in getting dressed has to do with the satisfaction we feel at the thought of other people potentially seeing us dressed in this or that way. I even wrote a blog post earlier this year before all this quarantine craziness about the fact that when deciding if I should keep an item of clothing it helps me immensely to ask myself if I would be happy to be wearing that item should I run into someone I admire that day. That tells me a lot about my motivations around getting dressed.

I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing to be more motivated to ‘try’ with an outfit if I think there’s a probability I’m going to see someone I admire that day, but it does feel a little weird to be realizing that maybe I don’t entirely dress just for myself. Shouldn’t that be the ultimate goal?

Ever since I started forcing myself to think outside the PJ drawer and put on a pair of jeans , I’ve been regularly getting dressed in ‘normal’ comfy daytime outfits like I used to before quarantine on days when I worked from home. But in doing so I’ve realized that I’m not really that inspired by most of the ‘normal’ comfy daytime outfits I own.

I realized that even before the lockdowns ever started I would save the pieces and outfits that made me feel most like myself for times when I was working outside of the house, touring, or generally seeing a bunch of other people. This strikes me as weird and kind of a bummer, and I’m hoping I can shift this now that I won’t be working outside of the house or touring or seeing tons of people for a hot minute.

There’s no doubt that there are inevitably always going to be some differences in the way we get dressed to work on Zoom vs. in an office, but my goal for myself right now is to minimize the gap between those two things. My husband and I adopted a dog during quarantine and since she’s never been a part of our lives before lockdown, she’s actually put it together that the only and I mean ONLY time either of us put on shoes is when we’re about to go outside. Noticing how insanely excited she gets at the sight of a pair of shoes was my first clue I was phoning it in to say the least on the work-from-home outfit front.

This weekend I actually put something on that lives on a hanger in my closet - in this case, a jumpsuit - for the first time in who knows how long, and it felt so good. Why should that be so hard to do more often?

So I guess my question to you guys is - how are you adjusting your work-from-home wardrobe if you are, in fact, working from home right now? Do you put together full, thought out outfits? Do you wear jewelry and shoes every day? Do you feel like it’s important to dress up for yourself, or not so much? So curious to hear everyone’s take!