It’s been so long since I did these work wear posts. I am kind of embarrassed about outfit posts honestly, but I like sharing my work wear despite. So, I still continue with doing these. I understand many of the audience here are guys, I am sorry, feel free to skip this post. 🙂 (I know that Know-All WILL comment on this post no matter what. 😛 )

So, here’s what I wore for my five work days in Philippines:

[Day 1] I wore a black blazer-trousers combo with a lemon formal shirt. Basically, I could have said that I wore a pant suit but, here in India, somehow we don’t use that term a lot. I did not click a picture of my clothes that day. Sorry for that. 🙂

Black Blazer: Van Heusen, Black Trousers: Promod, Lemon Shirt: Bombay High 

 

[Day 2] Blue Shirt: Van Heusen, Dark Blue Pants: Van Heusen, Tan Shoes: The Landmark, Makati, Philippines, Watch: Fastrack

[Day 3] Black Blazer: Van Heusen (Wore the same one as on day 1), White Top: Pantaloons, Peach Pencil Skirt: Dorothy Perkins (from Jabong), White Flat Shoes: Local Store, Rajouri Garden, Delhi

 

[Day 4] Red-Blue Dress: Van Heusen, Black Blazer: Same as above, Tan Shoes: Same as day 2

[Day 5] So I had decided while packing for Philippines that I’ll wear Indian formal to work one day. Although, I was apprehensive that they might not consider it formal since they don’t know what it is. Still, I really wanted to wear it and I did. I got lots of compliments that day. In fact, the security guard lady loved the outfit so much that I gave her the dupatta (stole) as a present while coming back. She was very happy. 🙂

Ok, I am cheating a bit. The picture below is not of day 5 because I forgot to click one. It is actually a picture I clicked in my office (here in India) long ago but I wore the same outfit on day 5. Only, the kurta (tunic) was not this pink one but a white one with stripes.

Black Dupatta: Street Shopping, Black Churidaars (Pants that I am wearing): Street Shopping, Pink Kurta: Aurelia (The white one that I actually wore was from Westside)

 

Now coming to my favorite part, my tips for formal work wear (and travel packing too 😀 ):

1. There’s a slight bias with me. I quite love formal work wear, both Indian and western. So, I am always excited to style it. Most people I know hate work wear. If that’s the case with you, I really can’t help much except that I hope this post makes you like it. 🙂 Also, I think people really hate it because they don’t feel like they have a lot of choices. Let me tell you that is not the case. Just keep an open eye and you can find work wear at quite a lot of places. (Some day I’ll do a full-fledged post on how to find work wear easily, do you like this idea?).

2. I know this post makes it look like I am endorsing Van Heusen. 😀 No, that is not the case. I like them and they have good clothes but the fact that I am mostly wearing their clothes in this post is a coincidence. Coming to Van Heusen as a work wear clothing brand, the good thing is that they have a good variety and very nice quality clothes. The bad thing is that it is one of the very few formal wear brands available in India for women and hence the clothes are so common that you can always spot people wearing the same clothes. #truestory (I am not going to count the point that they are pricey since I feel that all of these retail brands are overpriced as they charge us so much more than their manufacturing cost, so no point writing same thing repeatedly for all brands).

3. A good brand for Indian clothes that you can wear to work is Aurelia. Their kurtas (tunics) are very good quality and not shady overpriced. You can find their stuff on many online shopping websites.

4. As some of you would know, Dorothy Perkins recently started selling in India through the e-commerce website Jabong. Design and variety wise, they have a very nice collection. But I think the price is just not justified at all for the quality. Also, the clothes on the website look slightly different from reality. One reason for them being pricey is the currency difference too. Whatever be the reason, I would advice to buy them only during huge Jabong sales. 🙂

5. A very good brand to find trousers is Promod. I have praised them here too. They don’t have a lot of variety but they have clothes with perfect fit (at least for me).

6. You can also find Indian formal wear at Westside and sometimes, even Western work wear too. Oh, and, they have a large variety of shoes. They have a good collection but the quality is usually poor, so I only buy them during sales. Paying a lot for bad quality things is just not done. 🙂

7. Other brands that I have tried for work wear and liked include Bombay High and Cantabil. I have not tried anything from Allen Solly and Wills Lifestyle but I have always felt that they have good quality and nice variety (and pricey! 😛 ).

8. Last but the most important, if you think you can find work wear only in big retail giants, then you are wrong. I and my sisters have bought very nice formal dresses and blouses while street shopping. I have done work wear posts before and if you check them out, you can see that I have a lot of clothes and shoes from local stores (you can check those posts under the personal style section).

9. Whenever you are on a business trip, ALWAYS carry at least one blazer. You have to make space for it in your luggage. It’s very easy to transform any outfit to a formal one with a blazer. 🙂

10. When you are on a business trip and trying to save space in your luggage, don’t carry a lot of shoes. Some basic ones can work with almost all the outfits and if they are good ones, you don’t have to worry about wearing the same ones day after day. Relax, everyone in the office knows that you are on a trip. 🙂

That’s it, guys. Thanks for reading, really. 🙂