ThrowBack: 80s Power Suit

Photo Via: Who What Wear

Photo Via: streetfsn or jak and jil

Photo Via: ELLE Sweden

Photo Via: "Head To Toe" - Blogger, Atlantic Pacific. She is wearing RED Valentino.

ever heard of the term "power dressing"? it stems from the 1980s working woman who started hustlin' and dressin' to get ahead in the game....seen the movie, "Working Girl"? designers like Ralph Lauren, Giorgio Armani, Donna Karan and Anne Klein made it happen and the 80s woman splurged on sharp "matchy/mactchy" blazers, pantsuits or midi skirts, which eventually led to striped and softer power suits due to Madonna's "Blond Ambition" era and don't even get me started on Ally McBeal...a show my sister still watches! at this time, my sister was a newlywed and her whole team and company was all male (i remember because she had to babysit me and take me to work). her closet back then was jam packed with a colorful array of fuchsia  dark red, black, pin striped, gray, lily, purple, navy blue, light blue, olive green, cream, yellow, white, baby pink and many more power suits that differentiated her from the rest and lead her to bigger roles. till this day, she still has them (well not ALL of them) and I can tell she found them at Macy's. 

little by little i've been vintage browsing her closet for blazers or adding tailored trousers to my everyday look and now, the whole look is making a comeback! except now in floral, bolder stripes, palm prints, animal print, all prints, and with shorts! simply wear a crisp white bottom down, button it up all the way, add a bow tie if you like, pintate la boca (literally: paint your mouth) as my mom says, throw on leopard or silver pumps, pick up your tote and don't forget your i-phone! 

my favorite example of power dressing is Hillary Clinton, I saw the picture below over a month ago and thought, is power dressing really dead? So, I started cleaning up my interview look and felt a lot more confident. I felt a little too confident, that I started trying on blazers completely out of my budget around the Meatpacking district at DVF, Alice+Olivia and had a pricey but delicious lunch at Pastis.

So thank you, Bianca Jagger, YSL, Giorgio Armani, Hillary Clinton and Coco Chanel for the original crisp power suits but ... I'm kinda obsessed with the spunky, Jenna Lyons (J. Crew) working girl look. 

But I'll never forget,

DRESS FOR THE JOB YOU WANT NOT THE JOB YOU HAVE.

"Wall Street may be 95 percent men, but don't dress like one. But don't dress like a girly-girl either." - @marieclaire