My daughter has completed high school and is in her second year of junior college. Studying and classroom work has always been difficult for her and she does not have a career focus. She announced to her father and I that she wants to find a job and quit school. I know that she can always go back to school and that it is a waste of her time, financial resources and the college’s time to have her in classes if she does not want to be there. I told her that if she wanted to be self supporting in a job she is going to have to find some clothing that she can interview in. She has worked since she was a junior in high school for a nursing home. She works in the kitchen setting up meal trays and delivering them to the residents. She wears a uniform to do this job. The rest of her wardrobe consists of jeans and various tops. She occasionally will wear a pair of dress pants or a denim skirt; however she has never liked dressing up. She did agree that she needed to have something else to wear and asked if I would help her find something.

My daughter has a nice figure and wears a size eight. I thought a blazer and dress pants would be the best investment. This is appropriate for any job interview and then she could purchase additional clothes once she knew where she would be working and what the dress code is. My daughter surprised me by wearing her denim skirt and a nice knit top for our shopping trip. She said that the denim skirt was easy to get on and off for trying on clothes. She knows that her clothing choices bother me because I think she is too casual most of the time, but I have learned many years ago that the less said about this with my daughter the better off our relationship is. I did feel that her wearing the denim skirt was her way of letting me know that the rebellious stage was over.

My daughter has always liked Ragstock. I told her that we would go to my version of the store. We went to a consignment store that handles office wear as well as special occasion dresses. I wanted my daughter to know that there was a place to come to build her wardrobe that was within her financial means. She found a navy blue blazer and a tweed blazer. The navy blue looked great with the denim skirt. The clerk suggested wearing a white button down blouse with the blazer and the denim skirt for a great  casual office look. She also found a pair of dress pants and a black denim skirt to add to her purchase. This created several mix and match outfits for fewer than fifty dollars.