If you are a woman and wish to be dressed for your job, there will come a time when you will have tired of the poor range of choice available for a professional wardrobe. You will find yourself dreaming of clothes that fit and look great. Consequently, you will gravitate towards getting your corporate wardrobe custom made and will find yourself in the position of designing your own custom skirt suit or pant suit. You will have a host of decisions to make about color, cut and style preferences. There is however one additional decision that will be included in the design process. This is especially so for women. And that decision would be, whether to wear skirt suits or pant suits at work. Since it is a custom made suit, these have a wider than ever choice of options, one of the most important design decisions that you will need to make will be whether or not you prefer to wear a pair of custom pants or a custom skirt with your custom suit. During the design process, there are several questions that you need to ask before you identify and finalize your ‘corporate style’. Some of the things you will be thinking about are…What event or purpose are you designing this women’s suit for? What will you be doing at this event? What are you most comfortable in? What are others wearing to the same event? What is are the climate considerations when you wear the hand tailored suit?
What Event Are You Wearing Your Custom Suit to?
Start by considering where you will be wearing your custom suit. Is it at the office in an everyday corporate environment? Is it doing special directors or board member meetings? Is it at some sort of presentation, lecture or at a sales venue? Is it at a seminar or conference? If your custom women’s suit will be worn primarily in an office setting, then you might want to customize a pant suit. Pants are so much easier to move around in, bend, kneel, twist etc. than a skirt and is ideal for normal corporate environments where a lot of movement about the office is needed. Provided of course, the corporate culture does not restrict women from wearing pants. However, you might consider getting both a skirt and a pair of pants made with your hand tailored suit so you can wear them interchangeably as the occasion demands. On more formal occasions, generally, for women, a skirt is considered more appropriate.
What Will You Be Doing at This Event/Location?
Another primary factor to consider as you are deciding between designing a custom made pant suit or a tailor made skirt suit is what you will be actually physically doing at the event or occasion where this hand tailored suit will be worn. If the event requires a great deal of physical activity, then a custom skirt may not be the wisest choice as you design your women’s suit. Skirts can hinder the level of activity that you are able to engage in, such as it takes more attention when kneeling, bending, lifting things, moving around fast and so on, so remember that as you are in the midst of the design process.
What Are You Most Comfortable In?
Your comfort level is another important, if not the most important factor to consider when creating your custom made suit. If you are uncomfortable in a skirt or are not used to its restrictions, then it is best to avoid a skirt suit and settle instead on a pant suit. Since skirts do take getting used and if you have spent most of your life in pants or jeans, it will be effortful and need your constant awareness. This discomfort with your wardrobe will instantly show up on your face and reflect also on how much attention you put to your work. If you are not comfortable in a skirt, then, by all means, go ahead and design your women’s suit as a jacket and a pair of pants. Remember, no matter how stylish your look is, if you are uncomfortable in your ensemble the look will never read pure style!
What Are Others Wearing to the Same Event?
In the corporate world, conforming is very important. You do not wish to stand out like a sore thumb or as if you had a mental wardrobe malfunction! You need to take into consideration what others will be wearing to the event. It is one thing to be comfortable in the outfit that you chose, but your choice can be impacted by the choices of others. If you are too far off the style grid, then you may be uncomfortable when all eyes are on you for being different. Only you know how that scenario will impact you, so make your choice accordingly. The debate about whether to wear pants or a hand tailored skirt with your custom hand tailored suit is a battle with a long history. At the end of the day, weigh your options accordingly and make the best decision for your own personal situation.
What are the climate considerations to take into account?
When designing your suit, especially when deciding whether to get a skirt or a pants done with your jacket, it is important to consider what climate you will generally wear the suit in and what sort of climate control is available at your work place or at the location where you will be wearing the suit you are designing. For instance, if you work in a very ‘green conscious’ office environment in a temperate region of the work, and the thermostat is set generally to be too low, you might want to consider pant suits instead of skirt suits. On the other hand, if you work in a tropical climate and your office thermostat is set too low as well, there might be large temperature differences outside and inside the office which means you might want to opt for a pant suit as well to avoid the ‘chills’. If for example, you work in a tropical climate and your office pretty much keeps the thermostat high to save energy costs or for environmental reasons, a skirt is probably best to keep cooler throughout the day. Yet again, if it is a cooler climate you live in and the office thermostat is kept unusually high, it is better to opt for a skirt suit to stay cool at work. All in all, as you can see, the work environment and the place you use the suit has an impact on your decision to get a skirt suit or a pant suit custom made.
A lot of women opt for having a skirt and a pair of pants made with their jackets so that they have the option to use both with the jacket, depending on the variables discussed above. In my opinion, this is the best choice and the most ideal decision which gives you the most flexibility and choice at least cost.