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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

More office attire: What if I don't want to tuck my shirt in?


Quick style tip I thought of while typing the last post:
Generally speaking office attire requires your button down blouse be tucked in. This poses a problem for me as I am both tall AND long-waisted. My shirts simply don't stay tucked in, and I can look disproportionate (especially if the slacks are sort of low-rise like the Express Editor style, one of my favorites).
My solutions? I wear my button-downs untucked, but I do one of the following three things to dress that look up:
1. My favorite technique is to throw a skinny belt on at my true waist. The belt has to be clean, crisp, and neat - leather or patent - for this to work. The model above, from Frankie B., is wearing her top with jeans, but you get the idea. This works well to dress the top up and creates a flattering waistline.
2. Add a vest. You can usually get away with a tailored, neat button down untucked with a menswear vest. If your top is too loose or is not fitted this can look messy and hipster and your boss will think you biked over from the vegan coffee bar.
3. Add a cropped jacket or cardigan with one button done. A short-length layer works a lot like the vest. Fasten one button (a cropped blazer will probably only have one button) or alternatively layer a skinny belt over the cardigan to combine looks #1 and #3.

So what do all three of these solutions have in common? Basically they are just adding shape to your outfit. The problem with untucked shirts is that they can look messy, ill-fitting, and lazy; these solutions remedy that.

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