Being your own boss is both a blessing and a curse. On days like today I hit Friday morning and wince at how little I’ve actually achieved because I’ve been maxing out my ‘flexible working’. However I have at least been trying to dress the part. As we’re moving fully towards an Autumn wardrobe now, I’ve been trying out a few items that are on the edge of the culling pile just to see if I still like them. Unless you’re working in a highly corporate environment, workwear is so much more informal now than it used to be. I remember the outcry at Selfridges in 1999 when the flamboyant new Italian MD banned the men from wearing ties even at director level and a whole new relaxed chic style entered the management team. I also remember it being much harder to do well than throwing on a suit, thank goodness for the personal stylists we had then and how I wish I had one now! Anyway, from the sublime to the ridiculous, let me tell you about my working week.

Workwear Chic Monday

Monday (the sublime bit) got off to a very nice start because it was my sister’s birthday so I left the office at 12.30pm to meet her for a ‘quick’ lunch and of course, not having seen her for a while and having lots to catch up on, didn’t quite make it back to my desk. This is the only day that I slipped into jeans in the office, I must have had a sneaky suspicion I wouldn’t be there for long.

outfits for a working week

  • Whistles blazer S/S 14
  • Gap Supersoft long sleeve t
  • Next relaxed skinny jeans
  • John Lewis snake print shoes (past season) similar here, here and great value at M&S here
  • White Company scarf (past season)

Workwear Chic Tuesday

Tuesday was a day spent with the accountant. Numbers are never my favourite thing and even though he does his best to make it interesting for me, I find myself drifting off and thinking of all the other things I could be doing. I had dressed suitably soberly for it though, I was trying to get my head into the right place. The joy on my face here shows that the picture was taken after they let me out!

outfits for a working week

Workwear Chic Wednesday

So at least Wednesday looked like it would give me a full day in the office to finally get on with the work that was becoming increasingly urgent…until the youngest emerged from his bedroom obviously too poorly to go to school. So we had a day on the sofa with me doing my best to work on the laptop, and yes I slid into jeans again but they were new grey ones so surely that doesn’t count as being lazy. Just a word about Uniqlo jeans, they are my new favourites and yes I’m being a sheep by jumping onto the grey jeans bandwagon. As I’ve mentioned before, the ultra stretch are a fantastic fit and really comfortable to wear. I’ve bought the ones with the ankle zips because they’re really easy to tuck into long boots and don’t give you wrinkly fabric at the knees, they’re also good to dress up with pointed courts.

outfits for a working week

Workwear Chic Thursday

I knew I wasn’t going to get anything done today because I’d scheduled in a much needed haircut. So I had a lovely day reading magazines and doing some token bits and pieces on my iPad with the guilt building in the background. In the evening we had promised to go to a quiz in the village pub to raise funds for the Church roof. With the onset of the dark evenings, I’ve been sliding back into my London ways and being a bit insular and really, really didn’t feel like it but in the end I’m so glad we went. It reminded me of everything that is good about living in a small village. You know so many different kinds of people: the school headmaster, consultants at the hospital, the butcher, the plumber, the local bobby and when you get together to do something like this with them it’s really good fun.

outfits for a working week

Workwear Chic Friday

So with the arrival of Friday I had decided that I really, really had to get on to avoid spending the weekend worrying. I got up really early, saw the boys off to school and cracked straight on with this blogpost with the intention of sending it live before work. I was typing away happily when there was a huge boom outside and everything went dark. I could hear raised voices so rushed out (still in my pyjamas – the shame) to discover that the electricity substation (50 yards from our house) had blown up and acrid smoke was pouring everywhere.

Another great thing about living somewhere like this however is that you have your own village fire crew. Basically lots of the men in the village are trained as firemen too and so when something happens bleepers and bells ring everywhere and they change out of their plumber / builder / shopkeeper clothes into firemen’s outfits, rush to the fire engine and come tearing through the village. For UK readers it’s just like Trumpton “Pugh, Pugh, Barney, McGrew…” (sorry if you’re overseas, it was a TV programme in the seventies that we all watched when we were little). Here’s a clip just for the joy of it.

So here’s the ridiculous bit, apparently a swan has flown into the power lines and blown the whole village (and no, I don’t think the swan’s very well). There is no electricity anywhere, all of the businesses have had to close and for a while we all had a nice blitz spirit morning chatting in the street. Now we have retreated to a local farm which has wi-fi and a lovely cafe so here I am tapping away at my blog, drinking tea and eating toasted scones. I seem to be looking a bit Jenni Murray but there was no option of hairdryer / straighteners etc this morning, anyway Jenni’s one of my heroines.

outfits for a working week

I’ve decided that I can either feel really stressed about the deadlines that are now urgent and will hit me like a brick wall on Monday or I can just smile and decide that this was the working week that wasn’t meant to be! Thank goodness it’s Friday, have a great weekend and let me know if your week has been more productive than mine.