What to Wear to Work | Masculine Style

I'll forewarn everyone, these photos were taken before the snow blizzard hit the East Coast. As you can imagine, working 9-5 doesn't give me a lot of time to take blog photos on a daily basis. To make the most of my time and daylight (especially in the winter), I take 2-3 photo sessions on the weekend. This week I'll be sharing outfits that were taken a few weeks ago. For those ladies in colder areas, hopefully these looks can be inspiration for warmer days! 

This is one of my favorite "work looks" to date. I love the masculine style, mixed with feminine pieces like the petite bow blouse and dainty jewelry. Being creative with work outfits is key to making my workday go by faster. As we all know, it's easy to grab an all black outfit and head out the door. The way I look at it, I spend most of my time at work and I feel better throughout the workday when I love my outfit.

With that being said, today I'm sharing a few of my favorite trends of the season to spice up your work wardrobe. 

 One of my favorite trends of the season are neck scarves/bows. This is a trend that can easily be translated into the corporate world. Here are a few of my favorite pieces: 

Another trend that is filling up my closet are culottes. Last week, I wore these from J.Crew. If you want to dabble in the trend, try out these from Zara, they're a low investment and go with almost any blouse. With that, here are some of my other favorite culottes:

If you're looking for more inspiration on how to wear culottes, check out this article here and here.

Wishing everyone a great week at work! This is the last week of our fiscal year, wish me luck! After this week, I'm packing up my bags and heading to Kansas City to visit family and then San Francisco to treat my dad to the Superbowl!

Blazer - Citizen's Mark  (similar save & splurge)

Top - Zara (similar here & here)

Culottes - Zara sold out (similar style in a jumpsuit)

Heels - Manolo Blahnik (similar save)

Sunglasses - Anthropologie

Bag - Fendi (love the Fendi Dot Com Bag)

Photos by Lydia Hudgens

What to Wear to Work | Culotte Pants

This week I wore this look to work, but I changed out the heels for black ankle booties. It was a little different from my normal look, but I wanted to try something different and it was freezing outside, so I didn't want my feet to be too cold on the walk to work. 

This season I purchased a few pairs of culotte pants. These from J.Crew and a pair of navy striped culotte from Zara. A few other staple pieces in my closet is this black turtleneck. It's only $30 and comes in four other colors. What I love most about this turtleneck is that it's a thicker material, so you can't see through the top. The necklace is another one of my favorite pieces to wear to work. Last year I got it on sale from J.Crew. Pendent necklaces are an easy way to add an accessory to a "work outfit" and still look professional.

Here are some of my other favorite pendant necklaces:

Turtleneck - Zara (similar here)

Coat - J.Crew (similar here)

Pants - J.Crew 

Bag - Zara (love this one) More styles from the Spring Collection

Watch - Kate Spade

Necklace - J.Crew old (love this style)

Heels - Manolo Blahnik

Photos by Lydia Hudgens

Weekend Review | All Black

Hope everyone had a great weekend! For most of the weekend we had beautiful weather, with temperatures in the forties and fifties. On Sunday evening it finally snowed. As much as I've enjoyed  the warm weather, snowy New York is magical. To celebrate the flurries, we took Batman to the dog park to run around Madison Square Park. He played his little heart out in his adorable American flag sweater.

While it was nice out, Friday we cooked Blue Apron at home and then headed to one of our favorite speakeasy bars in the city - Raines Law Room. If you're every in NYC, make reservations at this place, it's in midtown and has an impressive cocktails menu. The 'El Diablo' is my favorite!

On Saturday, we watched football and then met friends for drinks at Keens Steakhouse. This restaurant has been around since 1885. It's a two-story restaurant and the second floor's ceiling is covered in pipes. Once upon a time, Keens had a pipe club, with members including Babe Ruth and Theodore Roosevelt. Behind a glass case, they have one of Teddy Roosevelt's pipe. It was incredible to see a piece of history. On Sunday, we made our way to the west side and had brunch at Gallow Green at the McKittrick Hotel. In the summer it's a popular rooftop bar. During the winter, they change the rooftop into a ski lodge themed restaurant. What I love most about the McKittrick Hotel, at all the restaurants, the wait staff is always in character. From the moment we stepped into the elevator, there was a man dressed up as an elevator operator to take us to the rooftop. If you want a unique experience while you're in New York, make reservations at The Heath and then go to Sleep No More. It will make for a fun night.

Today's outfit is what I wore to bunch on Sunday, before it started snowing in the city and yes, I changed to go to the dog park. 

Sweater - J.Crew

Pants - AG 

Shoes - Chanel (similar here)

Coat - J.Crew sold out (similar here & here)

Sunglasses - Nordstrom old
Watch - Kate Spade

Hat - J.Crew (similar here)

Bag - Clare V. 

Lipstick - MAC

Phone Case - NDC

Photos by Lydia Hudgens

What to Wear to Work | Fit & Flare Dress

Hope everyone is having a good start to the New Year!

January is the end of my company's fiscal year, so I'm spending a lot more time at the office to close out a successful FY16.  I'm doing my best to post as much as possible, but the next few weeks you might see less activity on social media. I'll be more active in February!

Moving on to today's outfit, I wanted to share a "cold weather" look for the office. When it's cold outside, I struggle to find something to wear to the office. There are a few tips for us corporate girls to look our best, while staying warm during the winter. The one obvious tip is to stock up on tights. I've purchased a few pair from WHBM, but my favorite tights are from Wolford. They're an investment,  but they're worth every penny. I've had this pair for over 3 years and they're still in excellent condition (also worn here). No snags from my nails and they also keep my legs warm.

The other tip is to try out a wide leg trouser with your favorite pair of work boots. Instead of wearing slim fit pants with heels (like I wore here), the wider leg pant will keep any part of your leg/foot from being exposed to cold temperatures.

Here are a few options for tights and wide leg trousers:

Another tip is to have a few key blouses for layering. For example, this Kate Spade blouse can be worn with any color blazer, under lightweight sweaters and v-neck dresses. What's great about this blouse is that it can be worn with or without the bow. Sometimes a big white bow isn't appropriate for customer meetings. 

Here are a few more of my favorite white/cream blouses:

A special thank you to my mom who gave me this beautiful dress for Christmas. She's always been my style icon and continue to inspire me everyday. Dress - BarIII comes in several colors, I'm wearing a Small Top - Kate Spade Heels - Manolo Blanik (love these by Ivanka Trump) Bag - Chloe 

Photos by Lydia Hudgens

Casual Look | Pink + Neutral

Sweater - J.Crew (similar here & here)

Sunglasses  - Illesteva 

Denim - Paige (worn here)

Boots - Sam Edelman old 

Scarf - Club Monaco (similar styles here)

Coat - J.Crew (worn here)

Hat - Club Monaco old (similar here and worn here)
Watch - Kate Spade
Ring - Monica Vinader 

Photos by Lydia Hudgens

First Work Day of the New Year

Happy New Year and welcome to the first day back to the office!

With every New Year, comes a chance to set goals and strive to hit them everyday. Three things I'm doing to make sure that stick to my goals are:

1. Write down goals and save them in a Word Doc

2. Spend 15 minutes a day working on my goals

3. Use a planner* and use it daily
(*Nina Truing recently sent me an XO Planner, it's been a great way to organize my days, weeks and months. I like that it has a section for "Health" and "Brilliant ideas".)

Two of my New Year's Resolutions are to plan out my daily work outfit and keep my closet organized. Nothing makes my mornings more than rummaging through my closet and not knowing what to wear to work. Last night I spend 15 minutes looking  through my closet and planned out today's outfit, I've already had a good start to the day! 

Today, I'm sharing some of my favorite work looks to help others get inspired for the first week back to work!

Above photo wearing Reiss trousers and J.Crew Blazer. More photos here. 

Wearing Citizen's Mark Blazer. See more photos here. 

Wearing Banana Republic sweater and pants. See more photos here. 

In the above photo I'm wearing a Citizen's Mark blazer with a J.Crew cardigan and Banana Republic top. See more photos here. 

Three staple pieces in my closet, J.Crew dress, Zara trench coat and Saint Laurent bag. See more photos here. 

Wearing J.Crew sweater and skirt. See more photos here. 

One of my favorite looks. Wearing Zara skirt and Ann Taylor button down. See more photos here.

Follow me on Twitter, I'll be sharing more work outfits and articles for busy 9-5 women. 

Photos by Lydia Hudgens