WORKING MOTHERS NEED WARDROBES THAT WORK

Meredith had always been a career-oriented person. But something changed when she had her daughter, McKenna, now 2 years old. “I really didn’t want to go back to all the stressful hours and commuting that I’d been doing,” says the 38-year-old marketing executive, who lives in the Chicago suburbs. “Suddenly I had this miraculous little person in my life, and I realized that I wanted to slow down and enjoy this time with her.”

At the same time, she needed to bring in an income. So Meredith, who’d been working for her firm for six years, approached her employer about working from home two days a week. The company agreed, rather than lose her, and Meredith found the balance she was looking for.

“Being home those two days immediately helped drop my stress level,” she says. “I am still available for a presentation if the office needs me, but I’m not running out the door every day. And I love that I can go downstairs and take a ‘baby break’!”

These days, many women with young children are actively seeking out flexible work options that allow them to be home more with their families— pursuing consulting work, part-time work, or working from home. According to Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor™, 16.9% of women respondents said they work from home, an increase of 4.2 points over last year.

That’s something that Carol Evans, CEO and founder of Working Mother Media, hears a lot of these days. “Flexibility is the number-one thing that working moms are looking for,” she relates.

So important is this issue to women, that flexibility was the overall theme for Working Mother Magazine’s 2005 list of “The 100 Best Companies,” an annual ranking of the most family-friendly companies.

Evans notes that currently, a little more than half of all companies offer some sort of flexible program for employees. The most popular option? Telecommuting. “It works well for women with kids of all ages,” says Evans. “These women don’t want to cut their paycheck, and being home gives them a release valve.”

Other options include job-sharing, flextime (where an employee might work from, say, 7:30-3:30, rather than the typical 9-5), and working part-time. Many companies are also providing more flexible maternity leave offerings, such as phase backs, where a woman can return to work just one or two days a week at first, and gradually ease back into full time.

Of course, with such flexible work situations also comes the opportunity for a more relaxed approach to apparel. “People who work from home are able to be more creative in what they’re wearing,” relates Wendy Thayer, a spokesperson for Garnet Hill. “Their choices can be more colorful and more individual.”

Certainly, these women are not all sitting around in pajamas or sweat pants all day. So, how exactly do you dress for work, when a typical day might find you doing a report at home in the morning, giving a quick change to the baby before handing her off to the sitter, and then attending a lunch meeting or giving a presentation in the afternoon?

“Separates are the way to go—especially knits,” advises Linda DeFranco, senior trend forecaster with Cotton Incorporated. “There have been some beautiful innovations in cotton mercerized knits; they can be worn with jeans on the weekend, or with a pair of trousers during the week.”

The key is to create a look that’s put together, but comfortable. “It’s all about the polished casual look,” advises Thayer. “The polish comes from wearing a tailored jacket with your corduroy trousers, or wearing something like a novelty floral cardigan sweater or an asymmetrical sweater. It’s fashionable, but not fussy.”

“Casual doesn’t have to mean sloppy to be comfortable,” affirms Sean Krebs, a spokesperson for Gap. “There is a way to be casual and comfortable— the key is to pay attention to fit and proportion.” This season, Gap is featuring a number of pieces that allow a woman to transition easily from home to office, including refined cable-knit sweaters and cardigans, which can be paired with the brand’s corduroy trousers, or dressy, stretch-woven cotton pinstripe trousers.

Another popular apparel option—particularly for women working from home with small children—are cotton fabrics treated with stain-resistant coatings. “If you have a baby, and you’re dealing with bottles, formula, etc., then finding clothing that’s stain-resistant and easy to wash is a real plus,” says DeFranco.

While the benefits of flexible programs for women are obvious, companies who provide such options also see tremendous advantages. In short, says Evans of Working Mother Media, “You get an employee who’s very focused, very dedicated, and who wants to get the work done is as short a time as possible—what more could a company ask for?”

Can we expect to see more flexible work options for women in the future? Evans says the trend will only continue to grow. These days, she notes, flexible programs have even been “trickling upwards,” appealing to moms of older kids, too. In some ways, these moms may need such programs even more.

This story is one in a series of articles based on findings from Cotton Incorporated’s Lifestyle Monitor™ tracking research. Each story will focus on a specific topic as it relates to the American women’s wear consumer and her attitudes and behavior regarding clothing, appearance, fashion, fiber selection and many other timely, relevant subjects.

Publisher: cotton inc
A research and promotion company funded by US cotton producers and importers of cotton goods into the United States designed and operated to build demand for cotton in the US market and for US cotton in world markets.
Published: October 2005
Region: usa

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