It's my uniform

Escape the uniform

Although we work in the wardrobes of men and women from backgrounds as diverse as C.E.O.s to checkout chicks, there is usually one thing they have in common: the uniform factor.

Not a uniform in the sense of the 'corporate wardrobe' that an employer may require us to wear, rather the uniform we often adopt without even knowing we are doing it. Somewhere, sometime we've found something that we love to wear, and we wear it - in mildly different forms but repeatedly over and over.

Ask yourself when you wear an item and what with and you’ll find it: the shirts worn as a jacket uniform, the three-quarter pants and t-shirt uniform, the little corporate suit uniform or the tailored shirt and classic pant uniform. For men it’s the Chinos and Chambray shirt uniform or the branded polo and jeans uniform. Then there’s the colour uniform: loads of black and white with no colour or navy and grey or camel. Funnily enough it's also your own set of self-imposed clothing rules that create uniforms: “I hate T-Shirts”, "I never wear ruffles", "I'm not a skirt person", "I just don't do prints" or "I don't wear dresses."

Many uniform wearers profess to absolute boredom with their wardrobe. Not surprising if everything within the closet is a variation on a theme. I remember one of my first "wardrobe audit" sessions - my client had over 27 pairs of black pants, all slightly different and some even still had the sales tags hanging from them. Yes, black pants are extremely versatile, but realistically how many pairs can you wear?

While it's great to find styles that work for us and wear them, it's also far too easy to get stuck in a fashion rut. Yes, plan your wardrobe by using colour, but don't forget to sneak in the odd surprise, too. No, true style doesn't mean slavishly following fashion trends, but it doesn't mean leaving the house looking the same every day, either.