The Working From Home Slump; How to Get Out of a Style Rut
You haven’t lost your sense of style; you’ve just stopped getting dressed. Samantha Harman, personal stylist and author of Just Get Dressed, argues that your wardrobe is the business asset you are refusing to use, and shares the three-step method she runs with clients to get it working again.
Somewhere between the pandemic, hybrid working, school runs and coffee shops, you lost your sense of style.
‘What to wear to work’ has become less an exploration of self, and more a ‘whatever’s on the clean pile from the 10 items I rotate between’, whilst you have so much other clothing in a wardrobe that resembles a dusty cabinet someone lost the keys for in the Museum of Who I Used to Be.
Lately, most of my work with female founders and leaders hasn’t been about photoshoot planning or events. It’s been about dressing every day.
Whilst talking about getting dressed fell out of popularity for a few years (I know, because I was one of the few still talking about it, and getting a lot of stick on Linkedin for doing so), the data shows we have an appetite to get our wardrobes back to work.
According to the Workwear Trends Index 2025, searches for ‘workwear outfit ideas’ rose 1876 per cent across the year.
And with the balance in the job market now tipped firmly in favour of employers, (there are currently 2.5 unemployed people per vacancy, a ratio that has remained unchanged for nearly a year), Business Insider has called your work wardrobe ‘career risk management.’
But if you’re thinking this only applies to employed people, think again.
As I wrote in my book, Just Get Dressed, humans have been using clothing as communication for longer than the written word.
Whether you’re showing up online, in person, or in a social media post, potential clients are making a split-second judgement as to whether your pricing, expertise and image stack up.
Now before we go any further, I should tell you this annoys me as much as it does you.
But how do we create systemic change without being in the rooms where we can make that happen?
If wardrobe is a tool men have been using for centuries as a business asset, we can do the same.
Besides, as we all wear clothes, we can’t really opt out of the clothing conversation.
To quote the character Miranda Priestly from The Devil Wears Prada film:
“You go to your closet, and you select I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back, but what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean (...) that blue represents millions of dollars of countless jobs, and it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing a sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room… from a pile of “stuff.””
Photo: Samantha Harman, personal stylist and author of Just Get Dressed
Asides from perception (one of my clients hired me after bumping into her client at the supermarket, where she was wearing a ‘lumpy jumper and old leggings’ and ‘felt like I wanted to die’), I’d argue that self-perception is the driving reason as to why it’s time to refresh your style.
Are you really pitching yourself for the opportunities you deserve when you feel more like a potato than a powerhouse?
Are you charging what your services are actually worth, or are you negotiating with yourself because when you look in the mirror, you don’t see someone who gets paid premium numbers?
I tell my clients about the 1 in 60 Rule.
This is the aeronautical equation that shows for every one degree a plane goes off course, it will land 60 miles away from its intended destination.
If yesterday’s outfit was one degree off, and the day before’s outfit, and the day before that, and tomorrow’s, you won’t just end up 60 metaphorical miles away from where you said you wanted to be at the end of the year. You’ll end up hundreds, if not thousands, of miles away.
Think of your outfit every day as you getting yourself back on course. This will sharpen your focus, and help you assess what in your wardrobe is really worth wearing.
Then there is the psychological impact of what you choose to dress in.
Enclothed cognition is the term for what happens to our psyche when we wear clothes that symbolise certain characteristics. It all started with a study using white coats. Researchers told participants that they were wearing doctors’ lab coats and found they made about half as many errors on tests requiring attention and focus than those wearing ‘normal’ clothes.
The researchers concluded that you take on the behavioural traits you associate with specific items of clothing. But the key is wearing the items. You can’t buy a fancy suit and hang it on the back of your wardrobe and expect it to have magical powers. You must wear the suit to create the effects of enclothed cognition.
I can almost guarantee there are things in your wardrobe that would make you feel like a powerhouse, and thus behave like one. But you’ve fallen into a comfort-over-everything working-from-the-dining-table rut, and for the sake of your business, it’s time to put your clothes back to work.
I believe your wardrobe has the potential to be your best employee. But, thanks to our societal conditioning, we as women have a hard time owning its power.
We have been led to believe that womanhood should equal martyrdom; that it’s somehow selfish or frivolous to invest in our clothes. Whilst women shop more frequently (likely because fashion companies don’t adequately serve us, keeping us in a never-ending search that wastes the valuable brain power could be using for other things - and that when we shop we’re actually looking to answer emotional and psychological needs, not physical ones), men spend more money on their clothes.
I believe that for men, there is less emotional labour and existential dread required when it comes to buying clothes. He runs his own company, of course he needs a good suit! She, by contrast, runs her own company and bought a designer bag? More money than sense!
Researchers have consistently found that status displays are interpreted differently depending on gender. Because women are expected to be communal rather than status-seeking, visible displays of wealth, ambition or prestige are more likely to trigger negative judgments than similar displays by men.
Context aside, it’s time to go from potato to powerhouse using my 3 Ps Method.
1) Purge
This doesn’t just mean your physical wardrobe; it also means purging all the old stories, beliefs and habits that dictate your current style.
There are lots of exercises in my book that you can use for this, but for starters, you should be asking yourself what your style identity is based upon.
What are your earliest memories of ‘style?’ Growing up, what did you learn about women who spend money on their appearance? How has your working life impacted your wardrobe? What judgement is coming up right now, as you think about being a woman who invests in her style?
When it comes to your wardrobe, you must get rid of clothes you hate.
Give yourself a benchmark from 1-10, with 1 being ‘rotten potato’ and 10 being ‘Mariah when they defrost her for Christmas’ as to how you need to feel every day.
With every item in your wardrobe, rate it against the benchmark.
Any lower, and it either needs to go, get altered, or be styled in a new way that changes your relationship with it.
2) Plan
You might need another P for this (Pinterest).
How do you want to look and feel everyday? Create a moodboard for your new style direction.
The key is ensuring it’s somewhere in the middle of practical and aspirational. Too practical and you’ll get bored. Too aspirational and it remains a pipe-dream.
From the time spent in your wardrobe, what have you noticed is missing?
Most of my clients are missing basic, foundational items that are the building blocks of good outfits. Is it any wonder you have ‘nothing to wear’ when your wardrobe is full of fabulous tops and nothing to go with them?
Split your list into three sections: Right now, Seasonal and Investment
Right Now covers the basics - the things you need to get ASAP to get you out of this style rut. It could be that one good-quality shirt or wearable (and walkable) mules would unlock countless items.
Seasonal - these are similar to above, but will keep your wardrobe functioning when the weather changes. For example, if we’re heading into autumn winter, it may be that you need some new boots that go with everything.
Investment - these are the things you’d love to have, and that you deserve, that you can intentionally work towards. Having this list will keep you focussed. No more emotional ‘I have nothing to wear’ splurges on ASOS at midnight (buying clothes you inevitably won’t wear). Save and buy the thing you really, really want, and you’ll wear it way more often than any ‘bargain.’
‘Plan’ also means the outfits you’re going to wear. Take 20-30 minutes on a Sunday to look at your schedule, think about how you need to feel, and pull together some outfits. Then, when self-sabotage raises its head, you have no excuse to listen. The outfit is right there, ready to go.
3) Play
Going through your wardrobe will give you a renewed appreciation for what you do have, and hopefully some ideas for new outfits. But it’s always helpful to have someone guiding you, as you become ‘blind’ to the options. Your brain creates habits to save time, so it’s likely when you open your wardrobe, you see only the same five combinations.
I was with a client just yesterday, and whilst she has a relatively small inventory (and we made our list of items to add), I found several new outfits amongst her existing clothes that she just couldn’t see before.
Play means actually having! fun! with! getting! dressed!
Make it a ritual. Set an alarm, even for just five minutes, and allow yourself to get dressed.
If you need additional motivation, you can use my secret fourth P - Promote.
When clients are struggling to get dressed every day, I set them the challenge of filming content.
If I put a camera on your right now, and told you that we’re going live on Instagram, would you panic, or would you feel fine?
When you are running a business, you are the face of the company. If you would feel embarrassed for a client to see you right now, you need to get changed.
