European women
Posted by: Lydia in Leuven, Belgium, tags: discomfort, fashion, office, shame, shopping
I am finding it very hard to dress stylishly for the office. I end up looking like Betty (above), while the rest of the women here resemble Amanda (below). My workplace is full of international women who shop in Paris and who have a knack for pulling together an interesting corporate outfit. I end up looking like a grandmother, a school child, or a flight attendant, rather than a competent business woman. I have no training for this. I have spent my adult life in university settings, where anything above track pants was considered glam. I don’t even know where to shop. I guess the first step is to change my shoes. I am going to try a tiny bit of a heel and if I don’t break my ankle on the cobblestones, I shall consider it a success.
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I think you look natural in Europe and your new outfits are very stylish
Good luck! I love dressing for work these days – I managed to break out of the jeans, sneaker mold and havent looked back…
You always look cute Lyds – no sign of any grandma!
Move to Gent. The business types all look like librarians and everyone else does the Brit-punk thing, or the dirty hippy thing or the “I don’t care what it is as long as it’s black, grey or brown” thing.
You have great taste – and some great jackets – the basis of a good wardrobe. And yes, good shoes with tailored pants. When, thousands of years ago, I “dressed” for work, one trick I often used was to apply an interesting piece of funky jewellery – maybe something that told a story, or was made of millions of jingly bits, or was very colourful and large – to my jacket. Then people only noticed the jewellery, on which they felt free to comment, and the rest went unnoticed. Or so I hoped…
And anyway, I LOVED Betty’s outfits – I used to look forward to watching the show just to see how she would be turned out!
The soldes are almost here. If you are looking for expensive outfits in Belgium you should go to Knokke or Antwerp. And let’s face it, London and Paris are really just around the corner from Brussels.
Haha.
Luckily we’re so close to all the shopping Mecca points of the world!
But some of it, I think, must be cultural.
I remember sitting on a Parisian metro, feeling like I’d tried so hard, and failed so thoroughly.
These Parisian woman have “effortless” in their veins.
Thank-you for all your supportive comments. Maybe after a few years I will pick up the fashion as well as the language.