And farewell to the blissful break from packing lunches and yelling “WE’RE LATE!”, at children for whom that phrase has lost all meaning.

Back-to-school is fast approaching for many, which means one thing: the return of the school run.

Given that it takes up such a small portion of the day, you wouldn’t think it would need its own sartorial category. And yet it demands a surprisingly strategic dress code.

For me that means polished enough that I’m not wishing for an invisible cloak when I get caught in an unexpected conversation with another parent, but comfortable enough to bundle multiple kids into and out of a car, fully dressed, fed and (usually) on time.

And, ideally, still feel effortlessly stylish.

So, today’s newsletter is for the mums:

• Working mums.

• Stay-at-home mums.

• WFH mums.

• Overwhelmed mums.

• Half-the-wardrobe-on-the-floor mums.

• Type-A-everywhere-except-their-wardrobe mums.

• And already-stylish-but-completely-out-of-ideas-mums.

If you’re not a mum, stay with me. The principles are universal. Motherhood just happens to provide the perfect stress test for whether an outfit formula actually works.

What this newsletter won’t tell you to do:

Wake up earlier to plan your outfit.

God forbid.

Those of us already sleep-deprived and waking up at 5.30AM for Pilates, showers, lunchboxes and getting everyone else dressed, do not need to start chipping away at our remaining six minutes of sleep in the name of personal style.

The trick is not waking up earlier, it’s building a wardrobe that can produce a good outfit even when you give it almost no thought.

So, every week I recommend three outfits for your week ahead; for work, for brunch and for attending a wedding. This week I’m hijacking the usual categories for the school run.

Here are this week’s FOUR outfits.

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How the Chicest Mums Get Dressed in 3 Minutes

For the working mums, school drop-off style needs to encapsulate the entire day. It’s workwear, errand-run-wear, school-run wear, commute wear, 7am-7pm wear and everything in between.

These are the four rules I’ve observed and learned to rely on.

RULE 1: Embrace the chaos. Mix your tailoring

If your washing machine is running full-time with kids’ uniforms like ours, it’s impossible to have matching sets clean at the same time. Particularly if one half is a dry-clean-only blazer and the other is a high-rotation trouser.

Luckily I prefer tailoring when it doesn’t match

Matching blazer and trousers can look rigid, corporate and formal. Switching up the top and bottom instantly makes tailoring feel more creative and relaxed while keeping all the polish.

Polish does not mean everything needs to match.

So if you can’t find the matching trouser, don’t. Have fun with other options!

Grey blazer + navy trousers.

Chocolate blazer + grey trousers.

Navy blazer + brown trouser (forget the old fashioned rule).

One of the great lessons motherhood has taught me about getting dressed is to work with what’s available rather than labouring over the perfect combination.

RULE 2: Build a colour ecosystem

I adore white and still wear it often, but I minimise those wears to adult-only outings.

The white shirt + jam fingerprint risk assessment is one I no longer bother with at 8am. But practical doesn’t mean you have to limit colour. There are also many other colour combinations that are safer near jam fingers and still give vibrance to your outfit.

I’ve mentioned the work of Josef Albers before, who wrote Interaction of Color.

Albers did not believe in rigid colour theories, he encouraged us to experience colours for ourselves and discover how a colour changes depending on what surrounds it.

Changing the proportions of the colours can change the whole mood of the look. If you’re colour shy, maybe you can still wear the bright hue but give it less real estate. Use neutrals to dilute it and bring it down to an interesting but more comfortable zone.

Rather than trying to match colours, ask yourself:

How do I build on the colour story?

Work Outfit 1

This week’s work outfits present two examples of building colour ecosystems.

RULE 3: Start with a chic but comfortable shoe

On school mornings it can help to build from the ground up. Literally!

I’m biased, I’m a shoe gal through and through but your shoes are the single biggest impact item in your wardrobe.

Start with the shoe that your day requires. Walking to school and running errands demands completely different footwear than driving and working at a cafe. Then build the outfit around it.

This outfit starts with a tan suede open toe-shoe that looks sleek, but importantly, you can walk a mile in.

Then I built on the colour story:

• A buttery yellow shirt picks up the warmth of the shoes but takes it somewhere more energetic.

  • A white shirt here would make the grey/navy combination much more serious and corporate.

• Navy + grey base balance out the energy. They’re cool, serious tailoring colours.

• The electric blue bag builds on the navy story but with a saturation explosion.

• Tortoiseshell sunglasses and shell pendant repeat the warmer brown tones of the shoe, adding in intentionality

• And the open toe also lets a fairly covered-up outfit breathe.

We built in colour relatives while changing their intensity.

Work Outfit 2

Same principle, completely different colour ecosystem. Once again we start with a comfortable shoe and build from there.

• The chocolate blazer picks up the brown of the the shoe, making the comfortable shoe feel intentional.

• Grey trousers give all those warm colours some space. Black would work too but wouldn’t leave room for any other colour stories without overwhelming the outfit with contrast.

• The red top follows the warmth, then turns the saturation and energy right up.

• The butter-yellow bag disrupts the colour story while still following the warmth. That’s why it works. It’s fresh, without competing with the red.

And remember that your skin is part of the colour story too.

• Rolled up sleeves

• An open-toe shoe

• An open neckline

Those little flashes of skin can give a covered-up outfit breathing room and make an outfit more relaxed and balanced.

If your school drop-off is proceeded by working from home or stay-at-home mum duties (aka work!) it’s much harder and less practical to put in the effort for a more polished look.

RULE 4: Find your hardest-working garment and exploit it mercilessly

Here is where I have to make a case for leggings.

I used to hate leggings! I’m not one for spending the day in athleisure and leggings are very much in the same family.

But Christine Centenera, EIC of Vogue Australia, made an excellent case for them through Wardrobe NYC.

I wasn’t initially completely sold on them. I didn’t love the bodycon styling. But once my kids became school-aged, those stretchy, comfortable beauties became one of the hardest-working garments I own.

I found new ways to style them that did work for me because (and here is the real takeaway)…they remove friction from my mornings.

My leggings can go:

• loafers + oversized shirt + cardigan over the shoulders for preppy.

• sneakers + scrunched socks + hoodie + blazer for active days when the kids are riding bikes to school.

• boots over them in autumn.

• ballerinas + trench for a more polished transeasonal look.

The same boring black leggings and the options are endless. Their versatility offers at least 2-3 wears with completely different outfits per week.

Brunch Outfit 1: The polished WFH day

This is for the days when I have to duck into Zoom meetings straight after drop-off or head to a café to write.

Brunch Outfit 2: The everything day

This is for the post pilates + housework + errands + school run day. Comfortable, warm, but most importantly LOW EFFORT.

In summary:

1. Embrace the chaos: mix your tailoring.

   Polished doesn’t mean everything matches. Can't find a matching garment? Wear something that builds the colour story instead.

2. Build a colour ecosystem.

3. Start with the shoe.

   A good shoe can compensate for a bad outfit. A bad shoe will ruin a great outfit.

4. Find your hardest-working garment and exploit it mercilessly.

   Sometimes we get the wardrobe investment concept backwards. The Wardrobe NYC leggings are pricey, yes, but my philosophy is always to spend more on the pieces that do the most work. It can tie in the rest of your wardrobe together and remove friction in your mornings.

   If you would spend that amount on a Dôen dress that might see the light of day twice each summer, why wouldn’t you consider spending it on something you wear two or three times a week?

   I bought my leggings in August 2022. They are still going strong, not a seam out of place, and their wears are increasing over time rather than decreasing!

I love fashion and the creativity and self-expression it offers me. You’re here, so I presume you do too.

That shouldn’t mean using up all our decision-making capacity before 8am.

I want getting dressed to require less from us and give more joy in return.

The best wardrobe for this stage of life is one that lets feel fabulous all day, even when you have three minutes to get dressed and a four-year-old to rescue who has started applying your mascara.

See you next week!

xx

If you know a school-gate mum who needs these rules, share this piece with her. It’s the single most useful thing you can do to support my work. And if you’re not already subscribed, join 6000 others reading Three Outfits every Sunday.

Send it to me!

* These pieces were kindly gifted

** This piece is designed by me for my brand Yaneth

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