Fashion

Monday Gets This One Thing Right

by Erin Mayer

Is there a rhyme or a reason to the way we dress during the week? Do we wear different things closer to the weekend than we do when it's further away? A new survey commissioned by U.K. department store Debenhams suggests we might. According to the survey results, almost three-quarters of women dress to impress on Mondays.

You might assume that Monday would be a lazy day sartorially, but it looks like the opposite is true, at least for the women Debenhams surveyed. According to Debenhams stylist Alain Mehada, women try and look their professional best on Monday morning to prepare for the week ahead, but the effort decreases a bit which each subsequent day. According to the Daily Mail:

[A]lmost three quarters of women (74 per cent) choose a smart or formal outfit on Mondays. However, the 'sliding scale of smart' gradually decreases as the week goes by, with Tuesday seeing 69 per cent dressing to impress, although 32 per cent admit they spend less time on their hair and makeup than they did the day before. By Wednesday almost half of women (47 per cent) have ditched their smartest outfits, with 65 per cent of these women swapping high heels for much lower ones or even flats at this mid-point in the week.

On Thursday there is a boost in more polished dressing, with some 70 percent of women planning their outfit ahead of time and choosing a more formal look, but the trend turns toward the casual side come Friday with lots of women coming to work in jeans and flats. Some women (about one in four) take a change of clothes and shoes to work on Friday so they can get ready to go out and socialize straight from the office.

According to the survey results, a typical week of getting dressed looks like this: On Mondays women want to prepare themselves for the week, and dressing sharply is a great way to do it. By midweek a malaise sets in, but once Thursday rolls around, a much-needed pick-me-up might be necessary to get you through the end of the week. And Friday is called "casual Friday" for a reason.

Since I'm a freelancer, my "dressing for work" deal is a bit different. In fact, I'm lucky if I put on real pants before 5 P.M. But for those of us who are office warriors, I could see how personal dressing habits would be influenced by the day of the week and the vibe of your workplace on that particular day.