Evolution of a Work Wardrobe

Yesterday I learned of an auction that was held in July at Christie's in London: In My Fashion, the Suzy Menkes Collection. Further searching led me to an excellent video of the panel discussion that preceded said auction. Featuring six fashion luminaries (plus another off camera), it touched on the emotions associated with clothing, after Suzy spoke about her memories of some of the pieces offered at auction. That panel discussion and auction inspired two threads. More about the second thread is at the end.

In this post (the first thread), I'll talk about the evolution of my work wardrobe. The older women on the panel mentioned how their work wardrobes needed to change when they became mothers. It reminded me of incidents wearing beautiful clothing when I needed to carry my sick or muddy kid ... or worse. That's just part of being a mom, so wardrobes evolve as those experiences occur. I worked for more than ten years before I added the responsibility of motherhood to my life.

By 1976, I began to develop a cohesive professional wardrobe of skirt suits, jackets, dresses and tops (blouses, mostly). Occasionally, I wore dress pants with a jacket and sweater or shirt. Fashion savvy as I may have been, I was naive about colleagues and work politics. Women in responsible corporate positions were rare, and I often blazed my own trail, learning hard lessons as I amused my male colleagues. As I became more and more exposed to corporate culture, I learned that I couldn't assume that people would act with honor. By 1977, I'd read a number of books, such as Power by Michael Korda and The Woman's Dress for Success Book by John T. Molloy, and gained perspective about corporate politics and personal success factors.

typical Evan Picone skirt suits

from the 1980s

My staple outfit during the late 1970s and into the 1980s was a skirt suit by Evan Picone. I bought several new ones each year to add to my rotation. These well made and stylish off the rack suits and separates formed the backbone of my work uniform. With dress pants in seasonal weights and business colors and basic solid skirts and dresses, I was able to use suit jackets as separates. I typically wore a beautiful silk or cotton blouse, pearls or a a gold necklace comprised of 3 tiered chains, my diamond stud earrings, and wing-tip style pumps. I often accessorized with a striking silk scarf from my budding collection.

During my tenure in corporate headquarters in a high profile national sales and support position, I began to wear more expensive, custom made skirt suits, with a collection of silk ties. After exercising one batch of stock options, I bought myself an amazing fur coat which I wore daily in the Massachusetts winters. As a joke, my product development team gave me a mink necktie (shown in the photo) after we completed an important project.

A collection of small ties for women, especially made in the 1980s to be worn with business suits. Many of mine came from Jos. A. Bank, which sold women's business clothing at that time (I owned several suits and many shirts and ties from them). Also, typical shoes I wore to work: the oxblood wingtip pumps with suits and ties, the red pumps on "power" days, the low heeled shoes after I moved to the west coast.

When I moved "inside" again, into corporate software development, I continued with my business suits except on casual Fridays, and transitioned into more striking "power dresses" that allowed me to express my personal style a bit more. This was possible only after I mastered dealing with and rebuffing the sexual harassment that was part of the experience of most professional women, and certainly a routine hassle in my work environments.

circa 1983-1984 in bespoke suit and awful perm • power dressing circa 1986-1987 • casually elegant silk dress with pearls and lower heeled pumps in 1988-1989.

By 1988, I was a working mother, and my life changed drastically. A great need for quick and easy, yet professional, clothing developed. Fortunately, it coincided with my move from the Boston area to San Francisco, where the dress code was relaxed.

By late 1989, I was working for myself, and had transitioned to a working wardrobe of oversized tops with leggings, or jeans and t-shirts, except for important meetings when my professional wardrobe continued to serve me well. My life, including demanding professional commitments, was organized around my daughter's needs, so I jettisoned my fashionable ways and began to dress nicely in comfortable, flexible clothing that was tasteful, but more appropriate to a classroom or the Pacific Athletic Club (where we spent many hours a week) than to a boardroom. My work was done using computers and networks (28.8K modems were to die for!), so I only needed to dress up for occasional meetings or travel.


I hope to add to this post with photos from my years in the 1990s wearing coordinated leggings with oversized tops that I bought at the City Lights outlet store, south of Market in San Francisco, when I find such photos. I loved that stuff; it looked good, used quality fabrics, and was modest and stylish for the time.

In recent years, leggings have made a comeback and are worn with more flattering and stylish tunics than were available in the 1990s. My favorite recent acquisitions are the excellent leggings by matty m. that are carried by Costco (and cost less than online, plus offer more colors, in the stores).

Far more expensive, but versatile and much more comfortable at home on the coast in Hawaii, plus for traveling, are these skirted leggings from Eileen Fisher. It's a great update to the 1990s leggings look! Shown here with a light jersey scoop neck T-shirt by Splendid and a graduated jade bead necklace from Macy's, it's easy to add a variety of jackets, cardigans, tunics, shoes, scarves, shawls, and jewelry to change this basic set of sublayers on a daily basis.

Back to the Auction:

Had I known about and attended the auction online, I would have paid more for both Janice Wainwright lots from Suzy Menke's collection than they actually commanded.

In another future post (thread number two), I'll feature those two Janice Wainwright pieces that were auctioned, and speculate about those two that didn't make it into my wardrobe.