working girl

I think the main wardrobe difference between college and work has got to be footwear.  I am only partly referring to heals, though they were certainly a brutal awakening; I am talking about the shoes that get you to and from work.  In college, there wasn’t really a distinction, I wore shoes and didn’t think about them.  The ones I chose never slowed me down or prevented me from getting to a meeting on time or making the bus I so desperately wanted to make.  Certainly they always seemed to work with what I was wearing, or at least didn’t totally contradict it.  But now, I can’t really see a way around wearing running shoes with dress skirts and that freaks me out.  I only occasionally let myself make this old lady fashion faux pas and it’s no good when I do, because while I make the bus, I feel awfully frumpy.  However, I think the time it takes to walk a block in heals is ridiculous and because I’m so impatient if I attempt such a walk, I usually look like I’m nose diving forward and my obvious discomfort might just be worse than the running shoes.

But everyone else seems to not have such difficulties.  Working for a major corporation, I see girls dressed to the nine and in addition to their four-inch heels, they’ve mastered how to do their hair, makeup and wear their accessories with total confidence.  No goofiness, no flustered faces.  I’m not sure they’re bringing home much money after clothes shopping, but they look good.  They even always have perfectly painted nails.  All I can say is that it’d make me feel a whole lot better to discover they all spend two hours in the morning in front of a mirror, or that their houses are really messy.  Maybe they have some crazy quirks that their immaculate exteriors are doing well to hide.  Regardless, these girls don’t wear running shoes to work, in fact, their outfits easily transition into evening and they manage to have fun and get up and look good all over again.  Impressive, girls.  I’ll try to step it up…. But in sensible shoes!

Do you think Melanie Griffith had such traumatic wardrobe issues?  Wait, she was a working girl in the eighties (no, not that kind), so she must have.  (Watch the movie, and see the above photo...there’s your proof.)