In Which I Show How I Use Pinterest To Figure Out My Business Casual Style
HELLO PALS,
I’m going to start this post by announcing that I am by no means a Pinterest ExpertTM. HOWEVER, since every single YouTube video about finding your own personal style begins by telling you to search Pinterest—and it’s good advice, as long as you figure out a system that works for you—I decided to share what works for me, in hopes that maybe it’ll work for you, too.
(Also, my phone has been broken for Several Weeks, so I need something I can illustrate using screenshots instead of outfit photos.)
When I first started out using Pinterest, I just threw any outfit I liked onto a “To Wear” board—which is still what I do for non-work clothes. I can just scroll through and see if anything catches my eye, and wear it without worrying about whether it fits into my office’s dress code.
But for work clothes, I needed some Meticulous PlanningTM. My ongoing objectives:
Figure out what my business casual style actually is.
Get ideas for how to wear pieces I already have and what I might want to add to my wardrobe.
Organize my inspiration in a way that makes it quick and easy to find exactly what I’m looking for.
STEP ONE: SEARCH WHAT I’VE ALREADY PINNED.
Since I already had that “To Wear” board, I began by looking through it and pinning any outfits that fit the dress code to a new “Business Casual” board. Here are some of my “To Wear” pins:
Since the pins show chronologically, when I pinned these, I must have been searching for summer outfits (my least-favorite season to dress for in any dress code—I hope to master it this year); how to wear a pleated midi skirt (I have one that I like but rarely wear); and Zeynep’s style in the Netflix series The Protector. (You can expect some Fictional Character Style AnalysesTM in upcoming posts!) It’s fun to retrace what I was interested in or struggling with styling by looking back through older pins.
BUT the struggle Currently At Hand was finding my business casual style, and I didn’t have many pins that fit my office’s dress code. (The one exception was skirt outfits—but I didn’t like to wear dresses or skirts often enough to rely on those.) Still, in addition to the skirts, I could pin the grey sweater/burgundy pants outfit from the top row, and get inspiration from the burgundy blazer outfit next to it—I would just need to exchange the jeans for non-denim, slightly looser pants. I didn’t pin any of the other outfits, because they weren’t close enough to fit, but they did give me an idea of the colors (camel, black, burgundy, navy, off-white) and aesthetics (classic, edgy, boho/vintage) I was already drawn toward.
STEP TWO: EXPLORE.
To find more inspiration, I started by searching very basic keywords: “business casual outfits,” “office outfits for women,” “work style,” etc. Here are some current results for “business casual outfit”:
Of these, I’d pin the camel and black outfit on the left, because I love that color combination and the coat; the raspberry sweater outfit in the middle, because I have a similar sweater and am always looking for ways to wear boots for Every Dress Code; and the orange sweater/camel pants outfit toward the right, because I like the silhouette of the pants.
Figuring out what I liked helped guide me toward more specific searches: “work outfits with boots,” “boot-cut pants office outfit,” etc. When bloggers or celebrities appeared in those search results, I followed up by searching for them specifically, since sometimes that meant their styles aligned with mine. I also realized that royal women are a great source of business/business-casual inspiration—my most-pinned are Kate Middleton, Queen Rania of Jordan, Queen Letizia of Spain, and Princess Mary of Denmark.
(A Note: I find all my pins on Pinterest itself, either through searches or what pops up on my home feed. I use other methods to keep track of inspiration I find elsewhere and will explain that in Another Post, but there are also ways to upload your own photos to Pinterest or pin things from other sites. HOWEVER, if you’re interested in learning how to do that, you will have to consult a True Pinterest ExpertTM, not Yours Truly.)
STEP THREE: ANALYZE
Here’s part of my current “Business Casual” board:
Seeing these pins side-by-side made it easy to see what elements kept appearing—for example, tucked-in shirts, long cardigans, boots, ankle pants, boot-cut pants, button-up shirts, and certain colors (camel, black, and burgundy/cranberry.) I already wore those things a lot, but I hadn’t necessarily realized I liked wearing them, they’d just happened. Recognizing them as defining elements helped me make them more intentional, and helped me choose more of those pieces/styles going forward.
STEP FOUR: ORGANIZE
Having my pins all together helps show the mixture of elements I like, but when I put together work outfits, I usually plan them around either pants or shoes. Because I build each outfit based on that one specific element, I sorted my board into categories:
As you can see, the pants outfits are divided by cut, while the skirt outfits are divided by shoe type. This is the way that makes sense to me—I find skirt/dress outfits a lot more dependent on the shoes I’d wear with them, while I base pants outfits around the pants themselves, not shoes. I also have a board for partial outfits—for when the photo doesn’t show the whole thing—and a miscellaneous “Wardrobes” board, which started out being for capsule wardrobes but is now a catchall for pins with multiple photos, sizing guides, historical photos, and anything that doesn’t fit the other sections.
A year into this job and this Pinterest board, I’ve gotten a much better idea of what I like to wear, why I like to wear it, and what pieces I’d like to add in the future—but it’s definitely an ongoing process. I still enjoy finding inspiration, figuring out how to make certain things work within the dress code, and putting together new outfits. That’s what this whole blog is about—figuring out my own style isn’t something to Complete, it’s something to Keep Working On, and I intend to Keep Working On It.
(And also hopefully fix my phone.)
I remain, as ever,
YOUR PAL.