Style Letter

The New Business style: Refresh Your Wardrobe for 2019

by Julia Zirpel

Beige, suits and pastel power. Our Fashion expert explains how to refresh business style: Refresh for 2019 and why everybody is talking about new elegance

Julia Zirpel is the co-founder of thewearness.com, an onlineshop for ethical fashion and used to work as a fashion director for several women’s magazines.

Beige (the new black), suits, and pastel power — no, these are not the new business trends, these are the most important runway trends for spring 2019.

Of course there’s also the boho style, romance, and animal prints from head to toe. And yet it is amazing how “reasonable” and wearable many of the new trends from Paris, Milan, and New York are.

After a few seasons of athleisure, streetwear style, and overload à la Gucci, fashion is reinventing itself and suddenly everyone is talking about new elegance.

So much better for us, because our everyday office choices are growing. Even if you don’t want to spend on a new designer piece at the moment, these trends are also able to be found at Zara and the likes.

Beige is the New Black

Fortunately, beige is not just beige—sand colors, khaki, caramel—the color scheme is substantial and diverse. And when spring finally rolls around again, natural linen is a particularly beautiful variation!

A casual style with one of our all-time favorites is the trench coat with a smart, white silk blouse and wide, dark denim jeans. White sneakers go just as well with this as high heels, but pay attention to the length of the jeans; even with higher heels, the hem of wide trousers should almost reach the ground.

Beige is particularly elegant combined with white. I love this caramel, midi-length, knitted skirt. Combine it with a white turtleneck and some cool pumps—nice also in black—and the perfect look is ready.

White turtleneck from Ivy & Oak at Zalando € 110

Midi skirt from Arket € 115

Earrings by Stella McCartney at mytheresa € 318

V-Line-Pumps by Arket € 150

Envelope bag by Centseize € 290

Suits

Recently a man told me, “If you fly business more often, you know that women in suits never look good.” Unfortunately, I generally have to agree with him, but at the same time I want to shout out a loud, “NO!”

There are such great suits this season! There are unusual cuts, asymmetries, oversized blazers (with or without buttons), pastels, and strong colors. It’s time for us to rediscover the suit—and become more courageous!

Two of my favorites:

The asymmetrical, slightly patterned blazer with matching 7/8 trousers by Mykke Hofmann, paired with a simple T-shirt and a pair of white sneakers or booties are enough. This suit will always look great!

Suit by Mykke Hofmann: jacket € 399

Suit by Mykke Hofmann: pants € 239

Organic cotton t-shirt by Phyne € 40

Mini bag by Alesya Orlova € 249

White sneakers by Nat-2 € 299

Ring with cut pebble by Saskia Diez € 99

A double-breasted jacket in pine green, casually oversized and worn with wide trousers. And why not match it with blue!? Everyone can wear black or white.

Malaikaraiss suit: jacket € 499

Malaikaraiss suit: pants € 345

Sweater from Arket € 59

Naturally tanned leather bag by Ruigrok van der Werven € 399

Ankle boots by Aeyde at Zalando € 250

Pastel Power

You think pastel’s too girly for the office? In fact, it’s rarely the color, moreso the material and cut. A delicate light blue silk dress is less suitable for the office than a light blue cotton shirt. A pink chiffon skirt less than the boxy, pink blazer.

Those who are still unsure should start with only one item in pastel. It’s worth it!

How about rust, red, and brown tones combined with pink trousers?

Rust blazer from Yvy & Oak € 130

Brown silk short sleeve shirt by Arket € 69

Pink trousers by Malaikaraiss € 345

Pumps by Aeyde at Zalando € 225

Bucketbag by Alesya Orlova € 450

Necklace with pendant made of fair gold “With love No. 1” by Kuck € 1890

My “Catch of the month“

Aya Jaff on the cover of the German magazine Business-Punk!

First, because she is a cool woman and many more cool women should appear on the covers of business magazines.

But secondly because we love her look on the cover; an oversized pink blazer worn casually with jeans! The best proof that pink worn the right way doesn’t turn us into little girls and that oversized doesn’t signal, “You’re probably not grown up enough for your job yet.”

Quite the contrary.

Bravo, Aya. Keep up the good work & style.