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Emerald belt, Hermes collier de chien bangle, Halftee (all own) and knit dress c/o Femme Luxe

When you leave the house to go to work, getting dressed is a taken for granted. But when you are tele-working dressing up seems to be a waste of time unless a virtual meeting is scheduled. This post provides various reasons and motivations why to go thru the effort of putting on a nice outfit every day. Read to get the motivation to dress your best every day.

Contents
  1. Why Do Humans Dress?
  2. Why You Dress for Work
  3. Reasons Why to Dress Every Day
  4. How to Motivate Yourself to Dress during Lockdown or as Tele-worker
  5. Conclusions on Your Motivation to Dress Your Best
  6. References
  7. Feature of this Post

 

Disclosure: This post has affiliate links.

 

Why Do Humans Dress?

Thermal comfort and protection of the skin motivated humankind to create clothes. If a tribe lived in a warm climate where thermal comfort was granted, still sensitive body parts where covered. And, of course, the protection material was often used to exaggerate body parts and show them off. In these early cultures, often skin paintings served for decoration and adornment.

 

indigenous woman wearing only bottoms in a painting by Paul Gaugin
Two Tahitian Women. Painting by Paul Gauguin (French, Paris 1848–1903 Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas Islands) of two Tahitian indigenous women who only wear a bottom (1899). Oil on canvas. From: Met Museum open source.

 

Eskimo woman named Newarluk, Nome, Alaska, between 1905 and 1910 by Lomen Brothers UW via wiki commons
Eskimo woman named Newarluk, Nome, Alaska, between 1905 and 1910 by Lomen Brothers. University of Washington, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

 

In regions with cold winter, protection from the elements was a primary reason (see above). Nevertheless, adornment became a second nature.

Clothing also served to indicate the societal status. No wonder that the less fortunate wanted to dress like those who had more. In Europe, but especially in Germany, this desire let to various Sumptuary Laws in Medieval times. Still today, there are many dress laws. They vary among the different states (Länder) of which Germany is composed. Many of them have laws and policies that prohibit wearing religious symbols (jewelry, headscarves, etc.) in schools and other public state-powered (not federal) institutions.

 

Why You Dress for Work

When my late Mom and Granny Hannah dressed up, it was for special occasions. They were the generation that had a Sundays best. A Sundays best would get into the general wardrobe for weekday outfits after a year or two. Typically, at that time, the piece already looked old fashioned. Especially, when back at the time of purchase, it was the trend of the season.

Today we dress the opposite as those generations. Most of us work. We invest in work clothes for the week. We believe in sayings like

Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. #dress4success Click To Tweet

or power suits, career style, etc. We believe that how we dress may have an impact on our career. Young female scientists even fear to look their best because they believe it may harm their progress in their field.

They fear to hit a glass ceiling.

Since even fashion-forward corporate style is uncomfortable, we dress down for the weekend. Becoming a tele-worker seemingly over night, totally screwed up our dressing behavior. We work from home where we were used to dress casually comfy. But now with a sudden, a room at home became our office.

Our brain is confused.

Sure we still dress up, when there is an online meeting with the boss, clients or colleagues. Well, because it seems that then the work world is more real. But in between? You are working from home! That’s where you recharged your batteries. Therefore, you used to go for relaxing, lazy, comfy, not dress-up style.

We forgot why we dressed to begin with!

 

Reasons Why to Dress Every Day

Besides why in many regions of the world, humankind started to cover up, there are various other reasons to get dressed up every day. Not all of them are culturally rooted. Here a list of the most important reasons to get dressed up every single day:

  • You dress to not die from hypothermia in winter and to not run into trouble with the police in summer. In other word, it is a societal expectation that people wear clothing.
  • You don’t want to catch a cold. It is crazy to wear a bikini at 40 below.
  • Don’t wait for your feelings to get into the mood to dress up. Dress up to change your mood. Learn more about upping your mood with color at the link.
  • Looking great and ready energizes you to get going.
  • Clothes don’t look great on a hanger.
  • It is better that you enjoy your beautiful clothes before they go out of fashion.
  • Enjoy your diamonds, jewelry, Louboutains, Gucci bags, etc. before your heirs sell them.
  • Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life. - Bill Cunningham #fashionquote #highlatitudestyle Click To Tweet
  • Dress up so you never need to apologize for your appearance when your run into your boss while grocery shopping or when you get a call for an emergency work meeting starting in less than 10 minutes.
  • Dressing up is an instant self-esteem booster. You feel better about yourself as you can hide what you think are your flaws.
  • Your jeans watch your weight. They protect you from beefing up during lockdown. Yoga pants, leggings or sweat pants fail to have that build-in property to alarm you to watch what you eat.
  • Dressing up means editing your wardrobe like a curator and following trends. These creative activities keep your brain young.
  • Send the message to your kids/grandkids that it is worth getting dressed well.

 

street style blogger in LBD with lace, belt, tall boots and hat
Back view of LBD look

 

stylist in black knit dress with lace layering top and leopard print boots
Outfit details: Emerald belt, Hermes collier de chien bangle, moonstone ring, Halftee (all own) and knit dress c/o Femme Luxe

 

 

How to Motivate Yourself to Dress during Lockdown or as Tele-worker

The following list provides various motivational tricks to dress up.

 

Don’t let your outfit be a random thing. Learn How to Dress for Success in Midlife. Buy the book now.

 

influencer in colorful fun skirt, teal v-neck sweater
Front view of dressed-up look

 

outfit details of necklace, print
Zoom-in on outfit details

 

bold color skirt with teal long sleeve sweater give motivation to dress your best
Outfit details: Belford V-neck cashmere sweater, Lulu Roe abstract print dress, Hipstik pantyhose, Very Fine Dance Shoes sandals, Chicos Best Girl Friends bracelet, quartz necklace, Hermes collier de chien bangle (all own)

 

Conclusions on Motivation to Dress Your Best

You dress for yourself and you should consider yourself being important enough to treat yourself well. Not dressing up is unhealthy for your spirit and makes the entire pandemic even more miserable for you. These negative impacts should give you motivation to dress your best every day to care for yourself.

Wake up, dress up, even when you feel like you could throw up. #pandemic #mentalhealth Click To Tweet

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Do you dress up when working from home? How do you style your look? Let me know, I am curious. Post your work-from-home outfits on IG and tag @highlatitudestyle so I can find your look.

 

References

Döbler, Hannsferdinand, 1972. Kultur und Sittengeschichte der Welt – Kleidung, Mode, Schmuck. Bertelsmann Verlag, München, Germany.

Mölders, N., 2019: Outdoor Universal Thermal Comfort Index Climatology for Alaska. Atmospheric and Climate Sciences9, 558-582.

Smithsonian, 2019. Women: Our Story. DK Publishing, New York.

 

Feature of this Post

This post was featured on Links à la Mode fashion roundup by Independent Fashion Bloggers.

More fashion articles:

 

Photos of me: G. Kramm

© 2013-2022 Nicole Mölders | All rights reserved

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. I am in agreement – dressing well makes you feel so much better. Throughout the pandemic every day I always put on my make-up no matter if I see absolutely no-one but I haven’t been wearing my quirky unusual slightly goth clothes, those really are for being out and about. I look forward to the wearing those again, in the meantime I always try to wear something bright and cheerful.

    Great post!

  2. Erika

    “Dress up because you were never that young as today.” Love this!
    I’m a fan of dressing up. Makes me feel good about myself. 🙂

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