Macy’s has introduced “The Work Wardrobe Style Guide” with four “styles”: Corporate Chic, Dresses That Work, Business Trip, and Creative Casual. Now, you may not know this, but I am a sucker for style guides. It started back in college with Sherry Masonave’s Casual Power, continued on with the Lucky Guide to Shopping, and most recently has resulted in several purchases of various In Style books. It makes me feel hopeful and excited for travel when I see suggestions for what to pack for a weekend in the city, or how to create a business casual capsule wardrobe. Rational? Probably not. I just love the potential of having all of the “What to wear?” questions answered by a simple list.

But I digress. Of course I immediately had to look at what Macy’s considers appropriate for a 3-day business trip. And actually, they did pretty well. Their outfits consist of a suit, pencil skirt+blouse+cardigan, dress+cardigan, and jeans+trench for the travel day. I love that they included flats on their list, even though they are not shown with any of the actual business outfits.  Another thing that gets a thumbs up from me is using the cardigan twice. However, that’s the only piece they used twice. If you have read this blog for a while, you know that I am a strong believer in wearing solid basics more than once on business trips. So here is what I would have done differently:

1) Wear the suit pants instead of the skirt on Day 2.  There’s no reason to have slacks, a skirt, and a dress for a three day trip. Plus, wearing gray bottoms with the black cardigan means the cardigan+blouse+skirt combo looks less, well, suit-like. Unless that’s what you’re going for. In that case, I would suggest bringing a black suit, although I do love that gray one.

2) The Dooney & Burke pocket satchel bag is gorgeous. For a simple workday, or even a commute, it would probably be fine. But seriously–it’s white. Does Macy’s know how dirty airports are? And don’t get me started on airplane floors. This purse could easily be a bright color or even black, look just as good, and not show dirt.

3) You can get at least one more outfit out of these clothes. If your company has a “jeans Friday” policy like mine does, you could wear the dark jeans+suit jacket+flats (or heels, if that’s how you roll) for a sharp casual look.

Overall, I would give them a B+ for their efforts. I sure did enjoy looking at it though! Love that trench coat–maybe it’s time to invest in a new one?