Office Outfit - navy silk shirt and silver pink pearl

Necklaces can serve many purposes, depending on colour, size, and material.
Here the pearl acts as a step from the very dark navy shirt to my paler skin, making the contrast less dramatic. Office outfits need to keep that balance between adding contrast to add interest, without tipping over into clashing and becoming distracting.

Nineteenth Century Day Jewellery - Chatelaines

As I wrote in my previous post 'Nineteenth Century Day Jewellery', women of the nineteenth century were constantly instructed not to wear 'showy' jewellery during the day, often on the grounds of taste, marriageability, and morality.

One way women who wanted to wear jewellery but still be 'in good taste' could get around this problem was by wearing ornaments that served a purpose - Chatelaines.

Chatelaines were originally the keys to the castle, worn in earlier centuries by the Lady of the castle, then later by the housekeeper of great houses. At a time when pockets in women's clothing were seen as symbols of privacy and secrecy,  and depicted in paintings to symbolise a woman's private (sexual) life and therefore her immorality (!), the keys to the castle were worn on a chain fastened over the clothes around the waist. N.B. - I'd intended that to be a shorter sentence, and to provide a single link to explain. Turns out this is a larger topic than I'd remembered, and a single link won't be enough. Try here, here, or here, for some good articles on the history of women's pockets.

Necklaces at the office.

As I wrote in my last post on officewear, conservative clothing is not supposed to draw attention to your body, or distract people's attention from your work. While bright patterns, long flowing fabrics, and loud (literally and figuratively) accessories are great for expressing yourself on your own time, they are best worn away from the office.

In most of the western business world a suit is still the outfit of choice, made in a dull fabric, in a quiet colour, cut to follow but not draw attention to the body's lines. Drawing heavily on the dandy menswear tradition rather than the peacock one, the men's business suit is designed to be visually formal, often in dark colours to imply authority, with a general lack of pattern, contrast, or texture.

Although this can be very confining in some ways, it does allow individualism in the small details. Menswear blogs write at great length about the size and shape of pockets, which buttons to use, which cuff style is appropriate when, and the best width of jacket collars and ties. (I know this because I have spent many happy hours reading their almost obsessive discussions.)

Personally, I like to keep the cut very simple. I tend to wear silk shirts rather than cotton ones because I find them more comfortable, and I add interest through texture and colour. In the above image, I am wearing a simply cut, dark coloured velvet jacket, with mid-grey pinstripe straightline trousers. Not the most formal option, so appropriate for my workplace.

Blank Canvas

After three months of waiting, and a very tense final 48 hours of worrying it might not happen, I have finally settled on my first apartment. Watch this space 😊