After 11 years of being at home with my children, I am preparing to return to the workplace. While I have enjoyed my MSP membership as a stay at home mom, I find that it is super important now, because I need to invest in a professional attire for a management position in my new work place. I recently invested in 3 business suits (jacket/skirt or slack) in black, grey and navy. I am a body type C and winter color. I need these suits to go the mile, but don't want to appear to be wearing them everyday. Would love some tips on keeping my outfits fresh and new without breaking the bank. Any ladies out there with some suggestions?

@handerson68 Adding other items to these basics will keep them from looking repetitive. For example, 1) black pant w/printed blouse and jacket, 2) black pant with another blouse and cardigan, 3) jacket with printed dress 4) jacket with printed skirt and solid blouse. 5) Printed dress could then be matched with cardigan and 6) printed skirt could be matched with another solid blouse w/cardigan. You can do the same with the other two suits. 7) Black pant can also be worn with solid or printed blouse and gray jacket and 8) gray pant can be worn with solid or printed blouse and navy jacket and visa-versa. Look for prints that add visual interest yet conservative enough for your workplace. Add pops of color in your shoes, purse and accessories. Remember, no one is going to notice if you wear your black pants twice a week, but they will notice if you wear the same blouse more then once a week. These 3 suits are just the buiding blocks of your wardrobe. Take your time and choose your pieces carefully. Think of how many ways you will use each additional item. You may even want to start a wardrobe photobook by photgraphing each wardrobe combination. Then as your choosing what you're going to wear the next day, you can flip through your book and make your selection. I hope this helps!

Thanks for the great ideas! I love the idea of the wardrobe photo book.

handerson68-- I love your ideas too. If you have an interest, I'd appreciate your comments on my Style Recipe--Closet organization Ideas for the above. Thanks

Wingatprsc, I also love the photobook idea. How do you go about making one? I just have all my outfit photos in my camera and it takes me ages to scroll through to the one I want.

Dear Handerson, Don't forget to change up your jewelry. Buy a few trendy pieces now and then. Buy inexpensive stuff and you can send it to Goodwill next season and buy new. I think you will get more umph this way than just slapping on the same old pearl studs or gold chain. bert

I am not sure exactly how formal your workplace is going to be, but I would also consider wearing the black pants with the grey jacket and vice versa, as well as buying one or two nice cardigans in your neutrals, so you can combine those with the pants/skirts of the suits. A little structure will also help add visual interest (a knitted detail, a structured bag). I also wholeheartedly agree with wingatprsct: get some (affordable) tops and blouses and inject some color in your wardrobe. If you're on a budget (aren't we all these days?), it's easiest to choose to have either neutral-colored printed tops and skirts and brightly colored accessoiries (bags, shoes, jewelry) or vice versa. I tend to opt for neutral shoes and bags and go for brightly colored tops, because nice shoes are not a afforadable as tops where I live. Also, I need some color near my face, or I tend to look washed out. Good luck!

Scarves are great to add some style, colour and your own signature to any outfit. If you pick current design it makes the outfit more sylish and chosing one in your season colour makes the outfit your own.

I think this is a perfect setup for exploring local thrift or consignment shops for scarves, tops & jewelry to jazz up your conservative basics. After a few forays you'll know where to go for things that appeal to you (in my city there's one small church thrift shop loaded with high end office apparel, and the local Good Will is a great place to find shoes) and you can experiment with your new professional look for very little money. Have fun!