Clothing Allowance - Ideas
You know that clothing allowance you're expecting?
Use it for clothes.
Pick a good store - one of your professors or other adults may be able to recommend one. If you go into a store where they sell good business clothes, they often have sales people who will help you. These people will probably be excellent - since fashion is what they do. Listen carefully and balance their recommendations with what you're willing to wear. Don't be afraid to buy a couple of items that are outside of your comfort zone. Also, business clothing tends to last forever - so try to buy 'classic' stuff - nothing too trendy and it will be more of an
investment than an expense. 'Separates' are a good strategy - because then you can mix and match, so it looks like you have more than you do.
You might want to go shopping alone. If you can find a good salesperson to help you, you'll want to listen to them. You will probably get more done on your own.
If you don't want to ask someone which store to visit, you can pick one from the window displays.
You need everything - from shoes up. Conservative.
Undergarments are important, too. You should pretty much always wear a full slip with dresses and skirts. They also keep the clothing clean, which means less laundry and fewer trips to the dry cleaners. You can
wear stuff many times before it is dirty if you only wear it to work, eat carefully (napkin in lap), and change when you get home. Buy a bunch of slips. They last forever.
If it says dry clean only - keep it clean and have it dry cleaned. If you feel bad about the expense, remind yourself what they are paying you. Also, there is something to be said for handing a person wadded up
clothing and receiving it back clean and pressed, already on a hangar.
You might need to iron. Be prepared. Read labels on the clothing before ironing because you can destroy delicate fabrics with an iron.
On the bright side, an organization that emphasizes pride in appearance often works at a higher level and every
one behaves better. There's studies about that stuff.
Cheap, crappy business clothes look like cheap, crappy business clothes.
And - you have to take care of the nice, expensive clothes. When you get home, they have to be hung up. Hanging stuff up is easier than folding it.
You can do this in a few trips, to a few different stores and set a budget for each trip - for example - $200 at Trendy Store for this Saturday. That way you won't feel as overwhelmed, and by the time you
have to start working you'll have a good collection of clothes.