let’s work together

Where I’ve been

After a long hiatus from the blog, I’m back. I promised I’d explain why – so here it goes:

During the holidays, my Newsfeed was filled with bloggers. Bloggers doing everything from sniffing some new perfume in front of their mirror, to posing in front of JFK airport with their swanky new luggage, to showing all of the beauty products they use on their warm weather vacation. Now, I am a blogger myself so appreciate the work that goes into all of these posts, but everything has started to feel ungenuine to me. This is not a dig at fellow bloggers out there, more of a wake up call on what I want and don’t want my site to be. Instead of wanting to go out and buy that bottle of Sarah Jessica Parker perfume, I found myself wondering how long it took the girl to get ready and find  that perfect pose in the mirror that hides the photographer and shares a glimpse of her very white and bright apartment that of course always has fresh flowers. Keeping fresh flowers in a house is a lot of maintenance and money! Unless you’re part of a flower delivery service, buying, cutting, and caring for fresh flowers twice a week just isn’t sustainable for a corporate lifestyle. You see where my head goes?

When I started That Pencil Skirt, I set out to build a community of working women and share not only what we wear to work, but also some of the challenges and successes we find in our day to day. The New Year is a great time to reassess your personal goals, and this year I did just that. Although I am incredibly proud of the following I have built and so appreciative of all of you who spend the time to check out my site, I am realizing that TPS to date has just been me and hasn’t yet built the community I would like to build..

The company I work for recently featured the TPS story on a newsletter that went out to thousands of people. I have been so touched by all of the emails I have received and inspired by the stories sent my way. Although I thought I knew this before I started TPS, this was proof that working women do want a forum to talk about the issues we are faced with, starting with what to wear every morning.

Lets do this together

I’m asking for your help – I would love to start featuring some of you on a regular basis. Whether you are  a fashion lover and obsess over your work outfits like me, just started a new job, or have been at the same job for a long time and have insights to share, I want to hear all about it!

If you are interested, please send the following to thatpencilskirt@gmail.com and we’ll chat:

• Name
• A photo of your favorite work outfit (it could be a bathroom selfie, don’t worry, I won’t feature anything without your permission)
• Your favorite place to shop for work clothes
• What you do every day (if you do not want to list the specific company that’s totally fine, just give me a sense of what you do)
• The best work advice you’ve ever given or received

Keeping it real

I’m not going to stop the professional photos, because they capture outfits way better than I could in my mirror, but, I am also going to start incorporating some real photos of me everyday. I just can’t promise that they’ll be as pretty as the professional ones. If you’re anything like me, you spent way too much money around the holidays and are trying to curb the shopping for a bit. I’m going to spend February focusing on how to make the best of everything you already own. Now isn’t really a great time to shop anyway, sales are picked over and we’re in between seasons.

Stay tuned for more and please send any of your thoughts my way to thatpencilskirt@gmail.com!