Don’t let the blog title fool you. Dressing for success is dressing in a way that is comfortable, makes you feel great and is appropriate so that you can rise to the occasions.

It is NOT about external validation based on what clothes you wear.

This past year I have being attending varied work and social events, a huge part of this has being determining the right outfit.

What works for the office does not work for the week long training trip or the more formal black tie event.

The engineer that I am decided to come up with a formulaic approach for this to minimise decision fatigue, brain drain, wasting daily bandwidth and of course to be dressed appropriately for every occasion.

So here are my 7 key tips I have learnt from getting it right and wrong over this past year.

1) Play it safe

Figure out what you like to wear. Is your comfort zone – trouser, skirt or a dress?

My top tip here is not to focus on trends or what other people are wearing and just figure out the style that make you comfortable.

Being comfortable in your surrounding is easier to achieve when you are comfortable in yourself and what you are wearing. There is nothing worse than pulling a hem line up or down or having to constantly re-adjust an item of clothing when you need to be present.

2) Get the Basics

Pick the basic items to be the backbone of your wardrobe. These basic items for me are: blazers, fitted shirts, a white t-shirt, a white blouse, a fitted navy trouser, fitted black trouser, fitted coloured trousers. These backbone items are based on my number 1 – my comfort zone.

With these basic item, you have the outline uniform that can be mixed and matched.

Bonus tip: For your basic items ensure the clothing items fit correctly. As nothing ruins as good style combination like a bad fit.

3) Outerwear

This might be UK specific but as the weather constantly changes here. A key part of any outfit here is outwear. The rules for this are quality & base colour palette.

• Quality outwear stand the test of time and prevents you contribute to the fast fashion industry

I advise investing in three quality pieces of outwear – a formal Jacket/Overcoat, a waterproof jacket and a casual jacket.

• Base colour palette mean picking outwear that goes with the colours in your wardrobe.

For my wardrobe, this base colour platter are black, browns and tan as there allow maximum outfit combinations.

The quality and neutral colours rules also applies for bags, shoes and accessories as this make outfit combinations a breeze.

4) Pre-style options

If you ever seen the 90s movie Clueless you may remember the scene where Cher has a digital catalogue of her wardrobe and mix and matched outfits that way. This tips aim to achieve the same thing.

This is made up of two parts:

• Organisation
• Preparation

One you have this wardrobe staples, you need to be able to see them and access them on a daily basis. So get organised -tips for organising your wardrobe:

• Clear out unworn items from your wardrobe
• Roll casual tops so you can see every item to pick from
• Hang formal clothes so there remain unrumpled
• Section your wardrobe into section – Outwear, Trousers, Skirts, Dresses and Tops

Then it’s all about preparation.

Once you done the big wardrobe sort out – You can then mix and match the outfit and take pictures of the various combination and save to an album on your phone.

Then you can then pick you outfits from the pre-styles looks daily or plan your outfits weekly.

5) Nothing new

The biggest tip is to never wear anything new without doing a practice run of the combination at a smaller, less fraught event or even at home.

This is key as you don’t know that those new pair of shoes don’t dig in or that new blouse need constant readjusting till you have worn it for a day so do exactly that. Trial run everything!

6) Make it Routine

To ensure you keep up with the process of dressing for success. You need to make it a routine so it become a daily occurrence. For me that’s 22 minutes to shower, dress and make up each morning coupled with my favourite playlist.

I recommend listening to your favourite music playlist to get hyped for the new day. It allow you to be present and get my head on the day ahead and the outcome you want to achieve.

7) Keep it up

Once you have followed all these tips and have an organised wardrobe and routine that works for you, you must keep it up by addressing when you have too much or are missing a staple, investing in quality pieces and looking after them well e.g. follow the washing instruction.

I hope you find this blog post helpful. It just some of the stuff I do to ensure I feel great in every outfit and can focus on being present and being my best self.

So good luck and go ahead and dress for your Success!