Buying your first "working" wardrobe.

I notice that the female dress code (spoken or unspoken) in our medical centre has changed a lot over the last five years. We have two or three younger female doctors now, and I don't think they would be seen dead in the outfits that their older counterparts have been wearing for as long as I can remember. The doctor I saw yesterday was wearing a lovely pink dress that wouldn't have looked out place at a party. About time too IMO - as long as they look clean and tidy, and aren't wearing anything impractical, I think it is great!

My first job was in a very 'traditional' school where the teachers all wore black academic gowns, so that had to be my first purchase. The headmaster also wore a mortarboard but the rest of us were spared that. The gown did cover a multitude of sins, though laddered stockings were unfortunately visible. My mum had made me a beautiful tweed skirt while I was still at University and that could be teamed with many different colours of jumpers and blouses. With my first tax rebate, I was able to buy a lovely navy suede coat and I had trouble passing any shoe shop - kitten heels were fashionable and went well with black lacy stockings. It was another five years before tights became available.

I was a university graduate and sixties chick when I started work in 1965. I didn't buy any special clothes to start work. I just wore the same clothes - skirts, dresses etc that I wore anyway.

As a woman in a mans world, there were not not female economists around then and I mainly worked in male dominated industries.

One hint I was given early on during my return to work in the early 1980s, was always dress a grade above your current grade - a hint I found very useful, as by then I was working at the engineering end of the energy industry.

I had a wardrobe of good suits, Jaeger in the sales, usually in distinctive colours, so people always saw me when I was in the room. I never acted 'one of the boys'.

Towards the end of my career, in the mid 1990s, dress did become more informal, but I always dressed smartly and assertively. As one of the few women at management level in, by then, a gas exploration and production company. I had to make it clear to some men that i was not present at meetings to do the copying and make the teas, worthy though these jobs are, but to make a useful contribution to the matter of the meeting.

I wore a uniform all my working life. Never needed any other special clothes for work.
My nurses uniform in the 1970s consisted of 7 blue and white dresses in a small check and three orange belts. As I was training in mental health nursing we didn't wear caps.
Once qualified we changed our orange belts for red ones.

I worked in an office in London with an older lady who had been there forever. At some point she started talking about it being time to get out the winter woolies. I had no idea what she was talking about. I just had 'clothes', that I wore whatever the weather. I now have 3 wardrobes full of clothes for all seasons, think that I'm over compensating for a deprived childhood!

I started work in 1974. I worked as a translator in the offices of an aircraft factory. I didn't buy any special clothes for work. I mostly wore dresses which I bought in Etam, C&A or if I felt flush in Bus Stop. The fashion then was sort of 1940's retro, midi length and very flattering. I've still got some of them.

Only one woman in our section wore trousers (smart tailored ones) and I used to hear some of the men "muttering" about it. Mini skirts were still hanging on in there but few of us wore them to work as we would often have to traverse the hangar shop floor. The male aircraft fitters made our lives hard enough by catcalling and some of the comments definitely crossed a line, so we didn't want to encourage them by wearing short skirts.

I didn't have to give my parents money as I had left home and had my own rented flat.

My first teaching job was in an all boys’ school. There were only two other women, much older than me. The men wore suits or smart jackets, flannels (!) and ties. I was not given a dress code. I wore blouse, skirt, cardigan. On a special occasion ( Founders Day) I wore a lime-green short coat-dress which caused quite a stir.
My last school was an independent all girls’ school. At first the dress code was very strict but a new Head relaxed it. Once trousers were allowed, it meant we could wear more comfortable shoes, thank goodness. One lady pushed the boundaries by wearing trousers that looked more like pyjamas!

Seems adequate to me too. Presumably she’s moaning about not being able to spend her day in pyjamas or joggers. If she hasn’t bought clothes for months she should have enough money to buy some - and what about the pre-covid clothes, or don’t they fit after years wfh?

My first job in 1978 was an office job in a textile mill. I don't remember there being a specific dress code, but we girls / women all wore skirts anyway. But I wasn't in a 'client facing role' unless you include employees coming into the office sometimes to dispute their wage on pay day. Maybe it was different for the receptionists - not that I remember them ever 'receiving' anyone in person - it seemed to be very much a phone-based role.

I certainly don't remember buying a special wardrobe for my new job, but it is perfectly possible that I already had the basics in my wardrobe - my mum was always (and still is, despite being in her 90s) more interested in clothes than I have ever been, so there might already have been plenty of suitable clothes in my wardrobe!

Like many of my generation, I had to hand over a third of my take-home pay to my mum to pay for my keep, and was expected to pay for any clothes I wanted or needed out of the rest, along with anything else that didn't come under the heading of 'keep'. But I was one of those lucky ones who was allowed to keep me first week's wage for myself, biglouis.
I do remember buying - and making - clothes that I then wore to work , but I think that if there was any dress code in our offices, it was unspoken and quite relaxed.

The thread on MN arose because a woman who had been WAH since covid now has to go back into the office for 2 days a week. This is probably a dilemma that many are facing now with the push back from many employers to go into the office. Many employees will have spent the last 2 years in joggers and hoodies (or the equivalent). This is at variance with the experiences of professional women in the past who regarded their working wardrobe as an "investment".

She resents having to spend money on clothes for work and had not bought anything new for months. However she announced that she had 2 pair of smart trousers and about half a dozen tops. That seems quite an adequate wardrobe to me for 2 days a week, given how informal most offices now are. If you have access to a locker (and Ive always worked in jobs that do) you can always keep a smarter and more formal outfit for special meetings or clients.

You were in a client facing’ job I guess, and I expect the ‘standards’ expected were very different then. Even after I qualified as a solicitor there was no real dress code for me in the public sector so long as I was decently dressed and had a black skirt suit (good old M&S again) and white blouse for court. I remember buying my second skirt suit, a navy one, from Next when they opened a shop in the town. When I left for private practice, the dress code was much more formal.

Germanshepherdsmum did you have a dress code when you first went into the law? I was reading on Mumsnet that solicitors now wear smart casual clothes and only dress up when meeting clients or attending court.

When I began in local government (libraries) there was no official instruction against women wearing trousers but it was frowned upon by some of the men! When the Equal Pay Act came in (1970) one of the provisions was that people doing the same job could not have different pay or conditions imposed.

I began wearing trousers one cold winter, They were smart plain well cut trousers but and my boss objected. He said if I wore them again I could "go home and change in my own time." I referred the matter to the union who in turn invoked the Act. The union in those days was very powerful and no one wanted to cross it. The boss did not like being opposed and never forgave me for it.

I was the deputy and some of the younger staff wore outfits which he insisted I challenge. One girl wore "hot pants" and another boy never wore a tie. He then took to coming in with a loosely tied and very scruffy school tie. He also had shoulder length hair and when the bos challenged him he answered that "Jesus had long hair".

I dont think anyone would care what the librarian was wearing if they went into a library now. However back in the 1960s and 1970s it was still a very staid occupation and people were expected to look "professional".

I started work as a legal secretary in the public sector straight from secretarial college. I remember buying two dresses in the M&S sale to wear for work. I got married just two months after starting work and we had bought a real fixer upper, so there wasn’t a lot of money to buy clothes. Luckily nobody cared what you wore and jeans were acceptable.

I had a purple woollen skirt and a lighter purple cardigan which I wore with a couple of alternating tops. I must've bought other clothes but these stick in my mind. I was a Civil Service clerical officer too having worked for a City finance firm for 6 months and hating it.
I was engaged to DH at the time and we'd just got a mortgage, so the same outfits were worn again and again.

We all used to sew and make our own skirts

Yes, I sewed most of my own clothes after that. We had a good market in town and you could buy really good wool fabric for skirts. I lined them all too!

My Mum kitted me out!
Pencil skirts with a kick pleat were in then and some blouses from M&S plus cardigans.

I remember when mini skirts came in and we daringly wore skirts a couple of inches above our knees for work with tights,
which had just been invented.

After a week in my first office job I realised how much rivalry there was among the staff. The young ones, my age, were all trying to look better than the next person so I did the same. We wore short skirts and jumpers almost all the time. I had several jumpers all the same but in different colours. We all used to sew and make our own skirts and one girl always turned up in something new on a Tuesday for some reason. I think most of my wages went on clothes back then mainly to compete with the others. I do remember my first wage packet when it was agreed I would give my parents one-third of my wages which I did and then spent all the rest on a fabulous black coat with a huge fur collar. I then had to limp along financially to the end of the next month but I didn't care as I looked so glamorous (I thought).

Right up until I retired, our L.A. had a policy of Dressing for Excellence.

I once had to speak to a young teacher, whose dress was so short, you could see her pants through her tights, when she bent down.
She had no idea why that was unaceptable.

Our HT would not allow us to wear trousers to work, It was unprofessional. That was until the heating broke down and we were freezing. We continued to wear them, even after it was fixed.