With the amount of time the average person spends at work, it can be a chore to come up with both a work and a play wardrobe, as the work wardrobe often takes priority. Not to mention, maintaining both can get expensive. Aside from the obvious solution of buying work clothes that can also be worn casually, there is another option. There are actually some common work wardrobe items that have great off-the-clock counterparts. Here are five of them.
Blazer
The blazer might just be the most quintessential piece of your work wardrobe, particularly if you are male. Most men in professional positions wear a variety of suits or, at the least, business casual outfits (including dress shirts and nice trousers) to work. Whether you are male or female, however, there are sporty blazers that will make you look fantastic for a night out on the town. They come in all sorts of colors and styles as well, so you should be able to find something that will match your existing wardrobe options.
Belt
Most men wear belts with their usual work ensemble, as do some women. But belts wear down over time, and you likely haven’t bought more than one or two for use at work. In order to preserve the look of your nice work belt, you can certainly buy and use a more recreation-friendly design, like a webbing belt. Besides, a more casual-looking belt will look cooler when going out with your friends compared to a shiny, professional-looking one.
Undershirts
At work, you might wear a sleeveless undershirt under a jacket, blazer or cardigan, and you can do the exact same thing on your off hours. Most indoor establishments stay on the chilly side anyway, so being able to put on another layer is always a plus. Undershirts are also great because if you get too warm, you can take the top layer off and just wear the undershirt for a while. Undershirts you wear to work are probably going to be less jazzy than what you might prefer to wear on a night out, so you can buy more casual ones in addition to the ones you use in your work wardrobe. There is also excellent mix-and-match potential – you can wear the same undershirt with a number of different tops for a fresh look out of the same few pieces.
Shoes
Most shoes bought for business can be worn casually as well, although they might not be near as sporty as you’d like. Fortunately, with so many different shoe designs and manufacturers, you have a lot of options when it comes to picking out more casual-looking or comfortable loafers or Oxfords. For women, dress sandals have a nearly endless amount of great off-the-clock counterparts.
Crossover
There is likely great potential for crossover items between your work and casual wardrobe. This can save you money as well as let you wear things you really like wearing more often. For example, you can invest in nice jeans that are appropriate for both a night on the town or casual Friday. The big downside to this, of course, is that your clothes and fashion accessories will wear down faster, so it’s not the right option for some work wardrobe essentials.
There are a lot of pieces from a work wardrobe that have more exciting casual variants. In fact, just about every piece of clothing you usually wear to work has a more casual cousin, save for the very professional business suits. Hopefully this article has given you some good ideas as you try and build your casual wardrobe to make it stand out from your usual work clothes. You deserve to have fun off the clock, and your clothes can go a long way towards making that happen.
