I’ve been wearing a personal uniform for nearly a decade. Once I decide on a look for the season, I wear the exact same outfit every day, without exception, until the weather demands an update. Early on, I bought separates from different online stores including Lands’ End, L.L.Bean, and SHEIN. But things really got streamlined four years ago when I decided to just order everything from that bastion of high style, Amazon. Now, if a piece gets torn, stained, or worn out, I hit “buy now” and get a replacement the next day. When an item is discontinued (which happens!), Amazon’s bot can recommend a nearly identical substitute. My current uniform, for winter-spring 2024, is my favorite so far:
This shirt comes in 32 variations of buffalo plaid, each more horrifying than the next, but I buy the plain black version. With its roll-up button sleeves, flap chest pockets, and slim fit, this stretchy polyester wonder makes me look like a glamorous lady laborer on a Soviet propaganda poster. At least, that’s what I tell myself.
This high-waisted, pull-on pencil skirt is a little on the slinky side, to offset the camp shirt. But the thick rayon and nylon fabric is quite substantial, so it doesn’t feel flimsy. And it’s so stretchy! I’ve happily worn it riding my bicycle all over town, not to mention on a Hudson Valley hike in woods. It comes in 31 colors including a shiny version “for dancing all night,” but again, I stick with plain black.
What I like about these tights is that they just keep making them. Year after year after year, same tights! Plus, unless you snag them on your bicycle chain, they last forever.
Total cost: $70 or so. I usually buy five to seven uniforms per season so I’m not doing laundry all the time. And everything can be machine washed, though I should warn that the skirt should be line dried or it shrinks to the size of a postage stamp. I’ve worn this outfit — paired with black leather ankle boots — for grocery shopping, CEO interviews, first dates, a writers’ networking event, teaching meditation classes, a birthday party, a potluck supper, dinners out, and a walk through Green-Wood Cemetery. Not once did I question (or even think about) what I was wearing. It would be disrespectful, of course, to wear my uniform to a fancy shindig. So for nicer cold-weather occasions, I have a nifty red dress I bought from Brooklyn clothes-maker Privélege. What’s the feedback on my uniform? Zero! My outfit is so basic and so boring that people never comment on my attire — they just tell me I look great. I don’t think they even realize I’ve adopted a uniform. And that’s the point. I want people to notice me, not my outfit.
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