fashion

Arianna Huffington's brilliant advice for women who struggle to dress for work.

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The founder of Huffington Post and Thrive Global CEO, Arianna Huffington, has a very useful tip for any woman who resents the drudgery of choosing something to wear to work everyday.

When it comes to public events or special occasions for work, Huffington has only a small handful of dresses, which she wears on repeat.

It’s a work uniform – and she swears by it.

“Men have a competitive advantage,” the 67-year-old said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit. “They don’t have to waste the kind of energy we waste.”

Huffington said she wants to spend her time making business decisions, not clothing decisions, which echoes Barrack Obama’s policy of wearing only blue or grey suits.

LISTEN: We discuss the idea of work uniforms on the latest episode of Mamamia Out Loud. Post continues below. 

“I’m trying to pare down decisions,” he told Vanity Fair during his presidency. “I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

Psychologists call it ‘decision fatigue,’ and male CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, with characteristic jeans, sneakers and a hoodie, certainly aren’t wasting their time agonising over what to wear to the office tomorrow.

Huffington shares photos of herself wearing her staple dresses on Instagram and hashtags #repeats, encouraging other women to do the same.

“At the core of Thrive Style is the belief that when we’re able to reclaim all the time and energy lost to picking out clothes and getting ready, we’ll gain a serious competitive advantage,” Huffington said.

Arianna Huffington. mage via Getty.
 For some women (as for some men) the process of choosing what to wear to work the next day is inspiring and exciting. Fashion is an entirely legitimate pastime that we wouldn't want to discourage.

But for many others, dressing can be a source of stress, inciting bizarre and unnecessary competitiveness that is ultimately counterproductive.

If clothing doesn't get you all excited - then choose a work uniform. Whether it's all black, or a few standard dresses, it might be time to take the decision-making out of work wear.

You can listen to the full episode of Mamamia Out Loud, here.

This content was created with thanks to our brand partner Coles.

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