August 7, 2026
Let’s check in our bank employee, with career goals clearly in her focus! She’s chosen to dress in a manner reflective of the way the upper executives dress, while still keeping a foot firmly planted in her current position. It’s a balancing act to clearly appear “promotion-worthy” while at the same time not alienating or offending your current co-workers…
In order to help her in her focus and shopping discipline, our heroine has chosen this painting and color palette as her wardrobe inspiration:
Before any August shopping, our heroine already has 32 pieces in her wardrobe. She’s never at a loss as to what to wear!
A big reason that she dresses with ease every day is that she has a GREAT assortment of accessories. She’s particularly happy with her shoes – she has pretty much anything from sandals to boots to wear with her navy neutrals:
If she’s EVER going to find forest green and peacock blue (or petrol, or maybe even teal), it should be at the beginning of the cool-weather clothing season. And so she looks!
The corduroy dress? She debated at length about it, in her head. But she opted for it because it’s very much the kind of garment in which she’s comfortable, and it will be an excellent option for casual Fridays. It’s certainly not “corporatish,” but at the same time it IS a dress… She’s optimistic that she can find the middle ground of ambitious and still a member of the team!
Earrings – Anthropologie; peacock blue cashmere sweater – Nadaam; blue shirt – Eileen Fisher; green merino cardigan – L.L.Bean; necklace – Anthropologie; corduroy dress – COS; suede bag – Quince
Her 56-piece wardrobe template now looks like this:
When arranged in a more relaxed way, by color, it’s easy to see that she’s beginning to accumulate a good assortment of accent colors. She is still looking for pink and/or teal, however! A cashmere turtleneck maybe? Or a silk blouse?
And her accessories just keep getting lovelier! It felt a bit odd to not buy shoes this month, but she just didn’t feel the need; she thought that a cool accent handbag might be a better choice…
Of course, THIS heroine has thought about each and every possible way she will wear her new clothes. She’s very analytic…
Our heroine still has at least one more dress in mind – maybe a navy long-sleeved shirtdress, or a beautiful forest green…
love,
Janice
If you’d like to look back to the origins of this wardrobe, you can find all of the earlier posts here: Christmas Eve Preview, January, February, March, April, May, June, July
p.s. Ten years ago, I shared with you my little black dress sightings in downtown Chicago. Timeless work outfits…
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Yes to a green dress or maybe a teal one! In my humble opinion, skirts are better than dresses for dressing up or down which is perfect for this heroine. She could wear a thicker sweater with it in the cold weather and one of those sweater blazers would be awesome too.
Just thinking out loud. This heroine has captured my interest.