Two days before Harper's first day of middle school, I tried on every pair of work pants I own in the hallway, because that's where the good mirror is. Harper walked by twice and asked if this was going to take long. The pants all fit. The navy pair looked like it had been through a lot, which it had.
Summer meant fewer office days. Between our week at Gulf Shores in June, a couple of vacation days around the Fourth of July and a few Thursdays I swapped to home for camp pickups, I was in the office about 19 days from mid-June through July instead of the usual 27 or so. My work clothes got a rest. They also got ignored, because nobody looks closely at a closet in July.
With school starting and fall meetings picking up, I wanted office mornings to take zero decisions. So that Tuesday night I pulled everything out and checked three things: what still fit, what had worn out and what was missing.
The check itself is simple. Everything goes on, one piece at a time, in front of that hallway mirror. Then I sit in a kitchen chair for a minute and lean forward like I'm reaching for a laptop, and I see what pulls, gaps or rides up. Last, I hold each piece up to the window, because pilling and fading hide under a closet bulb.
What had worn out
- My loafers. The Sam Edelman pair from January 2024, $69. Two and a half years, most of it at three days a week plus the walk across the lot. The heel had worn through at the outside edge and the leather had cracked across the toe. Honestly, that's a good run.
- The navy ankle pants. LOFT, 2024. Pilled on the inside of the thighs and faded to a navy-ish gray.
- The ivory blouse I had darts added to last summer. The collar had gone yellow and the fabric had thinned out.
What still fit and still looked right: everything else. The black pants and the shirtdress from the spring refresh, the gray trousers with the $14 hem, the navy blazer. I was relieved, and a little smug, that the April refresh was still pulling its weight.
What I bought for $236
| Piece | Where | Paid |
|---|---|---|
| Sam Edelman loafers, same style | Nordstrom Rack | $79 |
| Navy ankle pants | LOFT | $48 |
| Two sleeveless knit shells, ivory and navy | Banana Republic Factory | $50 |
| Unlined lightweight blazer in stone | J.Crew Factory | $59 |
| Total | $236 |
The loafers cost $10 more than the first pair. I didn't shop around. I knew exactly how the last ones held up, and that's worth $10 to me.
The shells replace the ivory blouse and then some. They go under both blazers, they don't wrinkle in the car, and on a 94-degree August afternoon they're what I want to be wearing across the lot.
The unlined blazer is the piece I'd been missing for two summers. My navy blazer is too warm for August and September, so on client days it used to ride on the hook behind the driver's seat and go on in the lobby. This one is thin enough to wear on the walk in, and stone goes with every navy and black thing I own. It's been to the office twice so far, with no complaints.
Harper, who now has her own phone, got a picture of the new loafers from me on Wednesday. She texted back a thumbs-down and then, a minute later, "jk they're fine." That's about as good as reviews get in our house right now.
From the HR side, the first few weeks after summer are when work clothes look the most tired, because nobody looked at them in June or July. It's an easy thing to catch in one evening and a hard thing to unsee once a coworker's sleeve is fraying in a meeting.
For the year, I'm at $456 of my roughly $600 workwear line: the charcoal sweater in January, $180 in April and $236 now. That leaves room for one more thing this fall if I need it, and I'm hoping I won't.
