3 Hacks To Sharpen Your Workwear Game

Be more #Boss.

Feeling ready to hit refresh on your work situation after what felt like the longest Easter break of your life? Us too.

And while we’ve got plans with a capital p to step it up at the nine-to-five, it’s our work wardrobe that’s calling our name. In search of a little something-something to give you that extra edge? Be it a new blazer, updating a few of your shirts or just paying that long-overdue visit to the dry cleaner, turns out there’s science behind this.

It’s called ‘enclothed cognition’, or ‘the effects of clothing on cognitive processes’ (and was first published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology).

In English: a few years back, a group of scientists gave a sample group of people a white coat, and told some they were rocking a painter’s coat, and others, a doctor’s coat. Each group were put through a series of exercises and those wearing what they believed to be a doctor’s coat came out as having paid more attention throughout. Their conclusion? That the way your perceive the clothes you wear affects your work potential.

This is not to say you always need something new. It’s more about having daily go-to pieces that make you feel like you’re killing it.

“I've known this forever,” designer Mindy Scheier shared recently in a Ted talk, citing the work of a UK-based professor Karen J. Pine, author of Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion and co-author of Flex: Do Something Different. “She states in her book that when you put clothes on, you adapt the characteristics of what you're wearing, whether you realise it or not. That's why you feel like a rock star when you put on those perfect-fitting jeans. That's why you feel invincible when you put on that power suit, and that's why you feel beautiful in that little black dress.”

It makes sense, though, even without the science. While clothes far from maketh the man, there is a certain mindset that comes with what you choose to don each AM. Many people who work from home insist on getting dressed each morning because they believe it makes them more productive.

For many, it’s all about working at the level you want to be at. And this follows suit in the wardrobe stakes (sometimes, literally).

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Revamp your basics
When looking to up the ante in your workwear game, it’s important to take stock and see what you’re building out on. Take a look at all those pieces you keep on high rotation. The shirts, the pants, the dresses. Are any of them in need of a visit to the dry cleaner? Or, moreover, a move to your off-duty wardrobe? Stay sharp.

Go bright
If your work wardrobe is anything like ours, you’ve got a whole bunch of white shirts and neutrals. Make these pop with a statement blazer (we’re loving yellow RN), or a silk-print shirt.

Stitched up
Have some strong tailored pieces that will dress up your everyday-wear. A live-in-this blazer is the perfect way to add instant polish to your look.