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Try them on and walk around in them before buying. Shop for shoes in the evening, after you have been on your feet all day, to make sure the shoes can accommodate your feet even when they are tired and swollen.

Pull it all together with the right accessories. Just because you work in a casual environment, does not mean you cannot dress things up a bit with fabulous earrings or bracelets. Give yourself an excuse to wear your jewelry without having to wait for a special occasion. A pair of gorgeous chandelier earrings, worn with your hair up, and paired with a ballerina-neck three-quarter-sleeve t-shirt, nicely cut jeans and wedges makes for a fantastic look. Don't overdo the bling - you don't want to look like a walking Christmas tree, but do pick one thing that would make you pop, and go with it.

BUSINESS BAGS

Why do so many professionals go around ruining their outfits - not to mention their postures - by trucking those huge ugly nylon computer backpacks or by dragging around the huge ugly computer roller bags. Stop! Go through the content of your bag and determine whether you really need to be carrying around everything that's in it. Chances are, those files you keep dragging around to and fro between your home and your office, can just stay at the office for good - or stored on your computer in electronic form. Do you really look at them all that often after hours? And besides, leaving that stuff at work will reduce your temptation to work from home, thus, leaving you more time for you and for your spouses and children.

If you carry some cosmetic and hygiene supplies, minimize everything. You don't need an entire bag of this or a whole box of that. Almost any pharmacy sells just about every product imaginable in travel-size now (due to the airline restrictions) - so if you think you'll need a touch up in the middle of the day, find what you need in miniaturized form and use it.

Once you have emptied your bag of all the junk, you will realize, you don't need this huge steamer trunk anymore. eBags.com, Ross and TJ Max have tons of very nice laptop bags and portfolios that are not black, not nylon, not ginormous and not ugly. Get one or two of those instead of your ugly black hulk. You'll be amazed, how much better you look and feel - what with a nicer bag to compliment your outfit and a better posture to go with it.

In general, remember that even casual dressing can be done wrong by wearing clothes that do not fit you properly and do not flatter you in any way - there are, in fact, many ways you can mess this up. So, if you are picking khakis, pick the ones with flat front instead of pleated, because the flat ones look neater and trimmer, whereas the pleated ones make everyone look pregnant - men and women. If you are picking jeans, pick the ones in a nice dark or in an attractive gray wash and TRY THEM ON. If you look slouchy, or shapeless, or like you are about to fall out of them - don't buy them, regardless of how trendy they might be. Do not obsess about labels and size tags - find the right fit and look, and if the number on the size tag is upsetting you - cut the stupid thing off and go out to enjoy summer!

Learn more about this author, Maria K..
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