The best clothes to wear to work from home – 5 Easy and Comfortable Working From Home Outfits for Busy Women!

Is your working from home outfit rotation in need of inspiration? Here are some of my favourite outfits for staying comfortable whilst working from home.

Every morning, I’d wake up and have some sort of lightbulb moment of the potential blouses, tops, and a sea of navy and black dresses I could choose from to wear to work. The act of getting ready to work and deciding what to wear was an important part of my morning. I seldom would plan my outfits in the evening. In Spring and Summer, I’d enjoy making more of a statement with my corporate attire – colours, patterns, the occasional Dolce and Gabbana dress was what I looked forward to. Being able to wear an outfit without a coat, wearing blazers instead of winter jackets, and feeling inspired by how I could get away with wearing an H&M floral maxi dress in the office. I could go on with all my ideas about work fashion…

 For the first month I worked from home, I didn’t think much about what I’d wear. I had my moment of just working in my pyjamas and wearing them on rotation. Stripy bottoms were my slacks. However, after some time, the novelty of being able to wear nightwear every day soon took its toll, and now I only do it once a week. I’m still trying to experiment with working from home outfits to wear each day but the most important thing for me is ensuring that I am comfortable sitting in this item of clothing for 8 hours.

I decided to turn to Corporette’s opinions because, despite the heavy NYC undertones, I can always find some valuable advice on creating the ideal working from home outfit that I could apply. They gave me some pointers for the type of bottoms I could wear: leggings, jeans, black jeans, comfortable stretchy bottoms; but I still was in the same place of feeling lost. Personally, I don’t believe in wearing fleece tops as the only answer for the ‘top’ part of the outfit.

 The biggest challenges with deciding on the best working from home outfits are:

• Your priorities. My priorities are being comfortable however yours might be trying to wear business-like clothes to make you more productive.
• Being comfortable. You don’t want to wear something that isn’t comfortable to sit in.
• Function. I’ll most likely not just be working, I’ll also be hoovering or cleaning the kitchen
• “Acceptable” on a Zoom or Skype call. What would you feel happy wearing that your co-workers can see?
• “Business casual” – it can sometimes be hard to wear something which looks professional but also something that you’d wear on the weekend if you were going out.

After feeling inspired by Vogue’s 5 Zoom Outfits series, I’ve decided to do my own personal take on what I, a training Accountant at a Big 4 firm wears in a week whilst I’m working from home:

Monday: comfortable business suits or a blouse with a miniskirt/ trousers.

Mondays are always days where I start off wearing my most comfortable business outfits, even when working from home. A common mantra we have in my firm was “The suits get closer to jeans by the end of the week”. People would start off wearing their most formal corporate attire and by Thursday and Friday, people would relax and wear jeans to work with a colourful top from say like Topshop or H&M or for men – a Gant sweater or relaxed shirt from Ralph Lauren.  Recently, our firm also introduced a “Dress for your Day” concept, this meant that if we were at a client site we should adapt our business wear to the level of formality of the client (i.e media clients would have a relaxed dress code, banks and law firms would take a more conservative approach, etc). I still think this concept to be true.

DRESS FOR YOUR DAY!

My Mondays typically involve me having at least one daily stand up call with the audit team or calls with people I’m working with. I always have the option to hide my camera if I’m not feeling up to it but I always dress up for these calls.

For Monday, I chose to dabble into my white blouse collection and wear a silk white blouse I got from H&M and a pair of wide-leg corduroy blush pink trousers from Anthropologie (these are now on sale and was worth the wait). Before the pandemic, I’d be a skirt and blouse girl but I’ve been converted into wearing wide-leg trousers. I love baggy trousers because I’m a little self-conscious of my chunky thighs but these wide-leg trousers are the perfect disguise for lounge pants. I also adore the blush pink colour – I’d love to get a work suit in pastel colours and jazz it up a bit. So many people wear Navy and Black suits, I’d rather wear a blush pink suit to embrace my new romantic style, spring and my femininity in business.

Here are some of my top favourite blouses and wide leg trousers for your working from home outfits:

Photo credit: H&M	Photo credit: Anne Fontaine
Photo credit: Anthropoligie	Photo credit: H&M
Photo credit: Anthropologie	Photo credit: Anthropologie

Tuesday: floral maxi dresses

Tuesdays are still pretty jam-packed for me, typically I’ll be having calls with the client and occasionally we’ll have a department meeting call. Tuesdays are also days where I’ll go running with Ryan to Alexandra Palace straight after work.  I find that wearing floral colourful prints for my working from home outfit will boost my mood and optimism for the sun rays I’ll later be feeling when I go on my run. It’s no surprise that florals and puffed sleeves are safe combination designers will focus on showing in the early weeks of Spring.

This particular dress, I bought before the pandemic with my friend Issy at Oxford Street and I remember saying to her “We’re going to H&M, I need to get this exact maxi dress”. This dress is the perfect working from home outfit – it’s great for a walk to your local park, to brighten up your day if you’re having a call with your date or friends, or just a nice dress to wear in your front/back garden if you want a mini picnic.

Add some exaggeration by going for a dress that has big sleeves. Princess Diana is my fashion muse if there is anyone I can emulate or be inspired from – it is her. One of Di’s signature looks was the big sleeves – this adds dimension to any outfit, draws attention to the craftsmanship of the blouse or dress and adds a statement to any working from home outfit or business outfit which has a fitting counterpart.  

Here are some of my top favourite maxi dresses for this season:

Photo credit: Anthropologie	Photo credit: H&M
Photo credit: H&M	Photo credit: H&M

Wednesday: tropical prints

Wednesdays are officially the type of day when I’ll have a social evening. I’ll have a games night with a friend or watch a movie with Ryan or do some mid-week baking. I like to wear something fun and chilled on these days.  I believe the best people who know how to do business attire, they’re the people who balance wearing something formal and professional with an exuberance of calmness by wearing business casual clothes on another day. I’d get to know the real them. This is something I’d try to do in the office. I’d turn up one day wearing a tartan blazer, tartan skirt and a cream blouse, on another day, I’d wear a Zoe Karssen Paradise sweater ( the same as Rihanna) and jeans.

Taking inspiration from Desmond and Dempsey ( and their latest collaboration with H&M), I’d wear a palm leafy dress I got a while back from H&M. By now, you probably can guess that my favourite high street brand is H&M. Second place, Anthropologie.

Thursday: knitwear and jeans

Thursdays  – I already start to dress down by now. As I’m currently staying at Ryan’s and not got full access to my wardrobe, I had quite a lot of knitwear back from February when I was staying at his ( when not in Richmond for work). Despite my surname being Winter and the inspiration of my website name, my staple outfit for Winter is a high-quality jumper from COS, H&M, Barbour, or Ralph Lauren.

If I am not wearing a big chunky jumper in red or green with dramatic puffy sleeves or a turtleneck, you can guarantee that instead, I would have opted for a cable knit sweater made out of merino wool or cotton.

I’m thankful for my knitwear collection being given to me by my mother, her sense of style has always been relaxed, loose-fitting with a hint of cashmere or merino wool. It’s the best option for feeling fancy and cosy at the same time. I’d get away with looking professional because I invested in quality knitwear pieces that will last me another decade. These versatile knit pieces can be worn with a navy mini skirt, leggings, or your favourite high rise Mom Jeans. I stick with the pair of ripped White Cone Oak 501 Levi’s I got for $12 from my work trip to Dallas.

My favourite jumpers and jeans:

Photo credit: H&M	Photo credit: Levi’s
Photo credit: H&M	Photo credit: Cos
Photo credit: Ralph Lauren

Friday: sweatpants and sweatshirts

Fridays – the day I used to wear jeans and a casual top from River Island or H&M but instead have opted for this being my loungewear day.

Loungewear to me is all about being happy on the sofa and wearing clothes you’d wear if you were watching a movie. That can range from pyjamas or wearing jogger bottoms and a hoodie.

Tommy Hilfiger is my go-to brand for loungewear I actually enjoy wearing. The signature cuffed joggers are the perfect length and oh so soft. I can go about my day doing anything in these joggers and love the 90s back to basic sports trend. I don’t believe paying these full-price so I’m always looking out for sales and managed to get these pastel joggers for £34 from House of Fraser.

If you’re needing any sweatshirts or sweatpants I highly recommend House of Fraser – they have lots of really good designer brands on sale currently.

To match with my pastel joggers, I have a grey Tommy Hilfiger hoodie which is my all-time favourite hoodie I’d pair with my Levis. In terms of tops, I’d just go back to basics by wearing a coloured plain t-shirt from Uniqlo. Uniqlo do affordable, high-quality essentials range if you ever need any vests or simple t-shirts to complete your look!

For me, sweats are a fashion equivalent of a hug from your best friend. They’re the right level of comfort and warmth but also remind me of all the good moments I’ve had socialising before the pandemic. It also puts me in the “weekend” mindset mood – one thing I try to do is not work on weekends or look at any email or anything. Nada. NO. I’m going to enjoy my weekend and not worry about work.

Some more working from home sweatpant and sweater love:

Photo credit: Tommy Hilfiger	Photo credit: Tommy Hilfiger
Photo credit: Anthropologie	Photo credit: Kenzo

I hope you found this helpful. As you can see, you don’t need to wear suits or pyjamas every day. I think it is all about balance and I try to plan my outfits by sticking to what type of day it is – i.e Mondays are business suit/trousers day and Thursdays is the day I’ll wear one of my green jumpers with Levis. Remember dress for the type of day you’ll be having and what YOU feel comfortable with. The benefit of working from home is that there is more flexibility with what you can wear and you don’t have to worry about your outfits being creased from the packed train commute!

What is your favourite working from home outfit that you wear every week?