Week from home

Today marks the culmination of my first full week of teleworking. I know I'm not unique in this experience, and while I'm sure all of the recently homebound have different challenges, my personal favorite one has been deciding what to wear.

Should I go purely for comfort in my coziest of house clothes? Should I dress to impress just in case of an unexpected video chat with the dean? Should I explore the possibilities of mullet-outfits (business on top, party on the bottom)? How professional is too professional? Should I bother changing out of my pajamas at all? There were so many questions, and I had fun trying to answer them over the course of the week.

Adapting to my new fashion reality is still a work in progress, but I decided early on that I was going to have to put in at least some effort. After all, getting to wear something snazzy is often the main reason I get out of bed in the morning! Besides, I have all weekend every weekend to dress like a slob, and all these clothes in my closet aren't gonna wear themselves! By the time we're cleared to enter the real world again, spring will be over, and some of my still-new clothes will have to wait another 6 months before the weather is cool enough to put them on.

So I'm dressing up for my future! For my sanity! For the sake of keeping a somewhat familiar routine! And for you! Because I know you were absolutely dying to see what I wore "to work" this week!

Monday

Over the past few months, I'd invested heavily in fun leggings (The collapse of LuLaRoe no doubt had a large part in the abundance of wild prints at bargain prices). I'm glad I did, because they are one thing that I just couldn't see myself wearing to the office. But I wasn't shy about wearing them from home. I paired my first pair, festooned with orange birds, with a long black top, arm warmers because teleworking is no excuse for a sky-high heating bill, and my newly minted house shoes. They didn't match and that bothered me, but I was experimenting with my limits!

Tuesday

My roommate's reaction: "Those are some loud pants, girl!" Yeah, this is one pair of trousers I'm never attempting in the office.

It didn't take long for me to realize that wearing the same pair of shoes every day was going to wear on my patience, so on Tuesday, I decided to try ballet flats. This pair actually has an ankle strap, which I had to sort of twist and tuck into the shoe, because I didn't want to be buckling and unbuckling my shoes all day, and I did plan to take them off while doing things like sitting cross-legged in my office chair and doing my hourly exercises.

In retrospect, I think just leaving them on buckled would have been better, because my toes got cramps from trying to hold the too-big shoes on all day.

Wednesday

A friend stopped by my house in the morning and commented on how businessy I was dressed. But this was the day of my first video meeting with my boss, and I wanted to show that I'm serious about work even when I'm not actually there. I figured my boss wasn't going to see the not-so-businessy leggings, which I would definitely not try at the office with such a short top. Fortunately, even with the short top, I had everything under cover.

A long scarf can help keep your crotch from accidental exposure when you're wearing tighter pants.

I just learned that tip today, and I'm definitely keeping it up my sleeve for future fun with leggings!

Thursday

Generally, my work week wouldn't be complete without at least one dress, so I wore a new mauve one with a crisscross neckline. At first, I tried on some grey thigh-high socks, but decided against them. They wouldn't really keep me warm enough, they'd probably be falling down all day, and who was I really trying to impress? My dog? Maybe I should have tried harder, because my roommate's friends showed up. One of them complimented the dress, so I'm glad that my efforts were not all in vain.

Friday

It was the last day of the week, and I realized to my chagrin that I'd worn leggings every single day. Not very diverse, and an Unfashionista is all about variety. I decided to branch out into pants, but found that there were very few options that actually worked.

Full leg mobility is paramount (for some reason, I can wear jeans all day at work no problem, but can't stand having them on when I'm at home), which left most options off the table. My looser pants tend to be on the long side, and I wasn't about to bust out high heels just to hang out in my bedroom (plus the constant clacking would probably drive my downstairs roommate crazy!). Eventually I found a pair of cropped black pants that fit the bill. I worried I'd be too cold in them, but I survived, with the help of some arm warmers again.

With a full week behind me, I can say I've learned a lot about dressing for work-from-home.

1. My sense of comfort still trumps my sense of style. While I'll make small concessions, like showing more skin than is totally temperature-appropriate, I will not concede to wearing anything binding or restrictive.
2. I really have a wealth of clothing for wearing at home, beyond the limited collection of "house clothes" I'd designated previously.
3. Leggings every day may work for some girls, but not for me!
4. I am pleased to have found a matching pair of soft ballet flats for nearly every outfit I've tried. If I succumb to the urge to shop for more indoor clothes, house shoes are probably gonna be at the top of my list.
5. Dressing up for work, while it seems somewhat pointless if I'm only doing it for a blog, actually does have a purpose in that it keeps me on task. At least, I can't embark on really dirty housecleaning projects (which I've been tempted to do almost every day) while I'm wearing my "good" clothes!

With one week down, I hardly feel I'm an expert on teleworking fashion, so I'll probably continue the experimentation next week. I probably won't continue to blog every outfit, but if I have any epiphanies, I'll probably share them. After all, I don't have anything else to fashion blog about for the foreseeable future!