How Do I Make My Internship Outfit a Pinterest-ship outfit? – Finding Your Corporate Style

Life post-grad is like the mean girl in high school – you dread it, it’s sort of a mystery, and no one can stop talking about it.

by Ali Cook

Graphic by Katelyn Holland

Being the high-achieving BU students we are, our conversations consist of incessant resume talk, building LinkedIn connections, networking events, and – biggest of them all – internships. 

I was lucky enough to get into the London study abroad internship program for the spring semester. After celebrating and dreaming of my perfect study abroad experience, with weeks at the coolest internship and weekends vacationing around Europe, the question settled in – what clothes am I going to pack?

I love playing around with my style and crafting outfits for specific themed events. Now, I’ve decided to make “corporate” my theme and spend the next few months finding the perfect pieces for my London internship wardrobe. 

Here’s what I’ve learned so far: 

You don’t have to give up your personal style just because you have started an internship. As long as outfits are modest and work-appropriate, you can mix patterns, bright colors, vintage pieces, and more into your corporate fashion. You don’t have to wear a black blazer and slacks every day!

Since I have to pack lightly for study abroad, I plan on creating a capsule wardrobe of basic pieces. I want to bring simple white, black, gray, light pink, and pastel blue short-sleeve and long-sleeve shirts that I can layer with more unique cardigans, sweater vests, and jewelry.

Right now, you can find high-quality-looking cardigans with golden buttons both in thrift stores and at stores like American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch, and H&M. The golden buttons bring a more professional touch to the classic sweater and jeans look, especially if you trade out the jeans for slacks.

Abercrombie & Fitch is TikTok’s favorite store for internship clothes. The pieces come at a higher price point, but some are eco-friendly. H&M sells more affordable corporate pieces, from sweater vests to slacks. 

Lately, I’ve been trying to exclusively thrift clothes to avoid contributing to overconsumption. I tend to find a lot of Ralph Lauren sweaters and simple shirts. Over the summer, I found the coolest pink leather blazer from a flea market. Unfortunately, curated vintage pieces always come at a higher price point than your local Goodwill.

I’ve found that it is hard to find enough staple pieces to feed your whole corporate wardrobe by thrifting; it’s easier to thrift a unique piece here and there. If you have the right eye for good fabric and shiny buttons, you can find some quality pieces that will elevate your corporate wardrobe.