For the girls who need going out tops now, but office attire a year from now.
Something that I have been struggling with recently is the balance between wanting to have new clothes, but knowing that the lifestyle that I am living right now may look very different from the lifestyle I will be living a year from now. I am in my senior year of college which means right now I am trying to make the most of my last year by attending socials for clubs, going out with friends and seizing every opportunity to put on a cute outfit, but also spending a lot of time at the library and wanting to wear baggy clothes during the week. This has led my closet to be full of a lot of hoodies, leggings and sweatpants for class and small shirts and fun pants for the weekend. Where my problem lies is that soon I will be graduating and need “work” appropriate clothes. Another problem with this is that I am on a tight budget because the money I get from my part-time job is mostly reserved for paying my rent, tuition and other bills. So now I have tasked myself with trying to find a balance within my wardrobe between fun going out clothes, future “work” clothes and also needing everything to be affordable because I am not working with a lot of money. Here is what I have figured out so far:
1. H&M, Zara and other stores similar to those are where I have been the most successful for both types of clothes.
The nice thing about these stores is that they have a good balance of blazers and dress pants, which will come in handy later, as well as simple sweats, hoodies and other pieces of clothing that are useful for things like class and going to the library now, and I can still use for lounging around for years to come. Although these stores can still be somewhat pricey, especially with clothes that are more business professional or business casual, they are still very affordable compared to more traditional stores where you get “work” clothes. I have also had success with jeans at these stores which I can use now and later!
2. Don’t forget about Kohl’s, Macy’s and other department stores when looking for work clothes.
The sale racks at department stores are your friend! I honestly forgot about these stores for a while because I generally associate them with being pricey and having clothes meant for people older than me, but the sale racks can provide some good basics for building your work clothes options.
3. You don’t have to change your wardrobe overnight.
I’m really glad I started gathering pieces now, because it gives me a full year to slowly gather a wardrobe that has a different vibe, rather than needing to replace everything at once. It is also giving me time to clean out my closet and sell clothes that I don’t love anymore, or won’t necessarily need after college (like my copious amounts of gameday attire). I can keep some of these pieces, but giving myself the time to slowly realize which are my favorites and what I won’t reach for after graduation has given me a chance to get rid of some to make room (and money) for the new pieces I am looking to get.
4. You don’t have to buy the best and most expensive pieces right now.
Something that kept me from making this transition sooner is I feel like a lot of the rhetoric I have seen around building capsule wardrobes on TikTok, Pinterest and other places is that you should be investing in pieces that last. The part that scared me about that is that I don’t have a ton of money at this stage of my life to invest a lot of money into clothes. Something that I have been reminding myself is that for some pieces it is okay to buy the cheaper option now and get the more expensive one later in life. An example of this is getting the plain white turtleneck from Walmart rather than a more expensive store because they are likely to be pretty similar and I usually use turtlenecks for layering so you won’t really see it anyway. These small swaps have saved me money, but also helped me gather some starting pieces for my more “sophisticated” closet.
Overall, I am trying to remind myself that it’s okay to not have this problem completely figured out yet. Thinking about it and taking small steps has helped me be a little less stressed about it as the future approaches, but I also have the rest of my life to find nice clothes for work. I think the root of why this has been so important to me is that when I feel more confident in an outfit I usually feel more confident overall, so setting myself up with a wardrobe that will help me through this transition period is really exciting and easing some nervousness.