I don't have a thing to wear

Honestly, I didn’t have a thing to wear this morning. This is not just a “girl thing” where I have a closet filled with perfect clothes and I couldn’t make up my mind. As I sit here at work, I’m not naked but wearing an outfit that is completely inappropriate. Khakis and a sweater were appropriate here two years ago and pseudo-appropriate last year. In the time I have been working for my current employer, our dress code has unofficially changed from Monday through Thursday Business Casual and Friday “Jeans Day” to Business attire 5 days a week. My closet needs a full transformation. It looks like a GAP, not Jones New York.

This dress code change is pretty unofficial. Call it a trickle down policy. C-level executives move from shirt and ties to suits. A few months later, their reports start wearing suits. The need for pinstripes rolled down the ranks like an avalanche and the inevitable needed to be faced; if I were continue to move up the corporate ladder and be taken seriously, it was time to start dressing like I worked at a bank.

Due to the exorbitant cost associated with classic suits, and the personal need to have a closet that ranges in sizes from 12 – 16, suits are being slowly added to my inventory with each 5 pounds I lose. The current count is at 4, which makes Fridays quite dicey. With proper mixing and matching, I get by.

Last week, I made the decision to purchase a new suit during although I had yet to lose the next 5 pounds that marks my reward to go shopping. I was getting sick of wearing the same outfits every week and all 4 suits needed to go to the cleaners. So, off my work wardrobe went to the dry cleaners and off I went to decided if the next item to enter my closet should be black or red.

For those of you who don’t religiously watch the weather channel, the temperatures in Minnesota dropped into pretty dangerous territory over the weekend. The thought of leaving the house, going to the mall and taking my protective clothing off in the dressing room closely resembled my definition of hell. So, rather then face the peril of shivering in Macy*s, I sit at work ever aware that I look young and unprofessional among my peers. Tonight, despite temperatures in the negative double digits, I will be heading to the mall straight from work. My cleaning won’t be done until Wednesday and I can’t face my empty closet for one more day.