Decoding corporate dressing for the Indian woman

If you’ve landed that dream job you’ve always wanted, it may come with the pre-requisite of ‘Corporate dressing’. Dressing in business formals may not be as challenging as you think. All you really need to do is decode the term for yourself and you’ll be surprised to see how much scope there is to stay fashionable and personalise.

Thus, before you get started putting your wardrobe together for your dream job, it might help to think through the following.

1. Identify the ‘conservative quotient’ of your workplace

It’s always important to take cue from your working environment and curate accordingly. If you see people dressed in full suits, sharply cut blazers, and formal pants every day, you’d do well to follow suit. (Pun intended.)

While law firms and investment banks in India follow a largely traditional approach to corporate dressing, other places may follow a conservative or relaxed dress code depending on where you are on the corporate hierarchy or what day of the week it is.

So read your surroundings well and then take the plunge!

1. Stay true to your style to avoid looking like a corporate clone

The minute you step into work, you see multiple human masses dressed in identical looking clothes, which may make you feel lost in the crowd. It may also make the Fashionista in you cringe, as there’s very little you could do to break free.

There are subtle ways to be just as inimitable in your fashion as you are at work, so go on discover them!

1. Be comfortable in your clothes and confidence will follow

Comfort is critical to confidence, so never compromise on it. If your corporate clothes are not as comfortable as you’d like them to be, ask yourself how to work around them. Try to find substitutes that will give you a ‘no nonsense’ business like look without making you want to discard your clothes every second of the nine hours you spend at work.

1. Power-dress your way through a tricky day

Make black, white, navy, and grey your BFFs on trying days as you cannot wrong with them. Such days should begin with these “safe” choices so that you worry about anything but your clothes. A well-tailored pair of black pants, a black blazer, and a crisp white Oxford shirt will carry you through the best and worst of days.

It is great to be ambitious and even greater to be able to walk that path that leads to your dream, so why not let your clothes contribute to your confidence and success. As Coco Chanel would put it, ‘Dress shabbily, people remember the clothes. Dress impeccably and people remember the woman.’