When you’re searching for plus size business suits for women, there are two terms which are “tossed” about casually. Sometimes, they are incorrectly “interchanged” but as you pursue the perfect business wardrobe, it’s essential that you know the difference between these two terms: Style and Fashion.
You must know the difference between these two terms if you’re to successful build a plus size business wardrobe filled with appropriate business attire. Learn more at What to Wear – A Business Woman’s Guide to Dressing Professionally.
Plus Size Fashion
Fashion is all about what’s “in” at the moment. Hemlines rise and fall, colors fall in and out of favor and for the fashion slave – it’s all about staying “current”.
Fashion changes constantly. There are some professions where being fashion conscious is an essential part of the job. If your career requires you to be fashion conscious, then by all means, follow the trends and be a fashion slave.
Plus Size Style
Fashion is the antithesis of STYLE! Style is not about what’s “hot” or “new” but rather what works for you and your body.
There are those professions where being a fashion victim is a requirement. If you’re in one of those professions, then you know what you must do. When fashion dictates that yellow is “in”, then yellow you will wear. However, for the rest of us, we are pursuing careers and professions where fashion must always take a backseat to STYLE!
As a career woman, it’s essential that you develop your own sense of STYLE! Your style will help to define your career. If you haven’t established a style, then it’s time to get one.
Begin by auditing your current business wardrobe. Can you see your style? If you can’t, grab a girlfriend whose style you admire and get her by your side as you hit the mall.
Your style isn’t a color, it isn’t a fabric and it isn’t a hemline. While each of these factors does come into play in defining your style, none of them fully encompasses all that is your style.
When it comes to creating your “style” it’s essential that the term used to define your style isn’t “eclectic”. You don’t want your business wardrobe to look like it suffers from multiple personalities. We’ve all witnessed the poor soul who comes to the office one day looking polished and who comes in the next day in an outfit that screams “Party Girl!”
I’ll never forget working with a woman who made that fashion faux pas many years ago. An advertising executive, she had a fashion “brain fart” and wore a pair of pants to work which revealed clearly her choice of undergarments for that day. Her manager had to call her into his office and send her home to put on something more “appropriate”. I’d like to say her career recovered, but it didn’t. I heard that she was working as a low level assistant at a small town phone company.
Being a complex and interesting woman is your right and your privilege, however make sure that your business suits demonstrate the same style – that of a competent professional who knows the difference between what to wear in a bar and what to wear in the office.