How to Easily Switch Up Your Oversized Blazer Outfits for Work

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I know that I sometimes say I’m hesitant about jumping on to trends sometimes. But I’m confident in saying that oversized blazers was the hardest trend for me to get on board with. For the longest time I avoided blazers of any kind. I just didn’t think I looked good in them and someone had actually told me that they agreed! With that in mind, I avoided them at all costs, unless I had an interview. The first time I even attempted to wear them for normal life was with sweater blazers. I loved those, but anything more than that seemed like a stretch.

Oversized blazers seemed completely out of the picture. They weren’t even on the same gallery wall. I was too petite and the idea of finding one that looked good on me just seemed ridiculous. But like every trend, it kept appearing everywhere….until the trend basically convinced me that it was a good one. Then I found this perfect, petite oversized blazer at Old Navy and it fit like a glove. It was also soft and unstructured, which got rid of most of the issues that I hated with other blazers.

Does this mean I’m completely on board with the blazers or oversized blazers trend now? Well, no. But I love this one and I still wanted to share with you how with a few simple changes you could give it a completely different look!

Old Navy Boyfriend Blazer (Similar, Similar, Similar)
J.Crew Factory Turtleneck Sweater (Similar, Similar, Similar)
Everlane High-Rise Skinny (Similar, Similar, Similar)
Everlane The Day Boot c/o (Similar, Similar, Similar low price option)

How to Easily Switch Up Your Oversized Blazer Outfits for Work

Since we’re working with a work outfit here, we have some guidelines to keep our outfit in check. First, we’ll avoid blue jeans (to avoid going too casual). Second, we’ll aim to keep this outfit fairly modest. I always find it’s easier to go that way when looking at work outfit.

Pick Your Staple Pieces

I mentioned in this post that I wanted to show you a way to switch up your oversized blazer outfits for work, as opposed to doing completely different outfits. What’s the difference? Instead of doing completely different pieces (except for the blazer) in each outfit, I’m actually doing more than one duplicate piece in the outfits.

In this case, I wanted to show how you could take this blazer and a pair of black pants (in my case, I’m wearing a pair of nice black jeans, which is acceptable at my office), and make two completely different outfits. The blazer and black pants are the two staples of my outfit.

These are also good pieces to pick because the jacket is a great statement piece (what I want my outfit to be focused around). The black pants are a blank slate and will go with basically everything.

The Pieces to Play With

This then gives me room to play with my top, shoes, and whatever accessories I decide to add (bag, jewelry, etc.).

The First Outfit

For my first outfit, I chose to forgo any accessories, since I felt like the jacket was enough. But I would typically have some sort of bag with me because I’m going to work.

I also wanted my jacket to really pop here, so I decided to put it against an all black background. But I thought a black tee but look a little stagehand-ish (can you tell I was in theater growing up?). A black turtleneck though gave it a little extra pop, made it look a tad more professional, and more intentional.

Old Navy Boyfriend Blazer (Similar, Similar, Similar), Everlane Long-Sleeve Crew (Similar, Similar, Similar), Everlane High-Rise Skinny (Similar, Similar, Similar), Everlane The Modern Loafer c/o (Get these while they’re still marked down!!!) (Similar, Similar, Similar)

The cognac boots were also chosen to give the outfit a little extra pop. While I love black and white during the winter, wearing black boots with this outfit felt like it would be overkill. These boots added a nice extra touch to the outfit, without overwhelming it.

The Second Outfit

This time I was definitely aiming for the more casual side of business casual. I loved how the brightness of the white completely contrasted with the blazer and made it seem much more of a white-gray. The loafers also helped to add that touch of professional back into the look.

I did decide to add in a tiny, but colorful accessory to this outfit. My small, dangly blue/green earrings added a fun little pop to what would have otherwise been a completely black, white, and gray outfit.

The one thing that did frustrate me a little bit about this outfit is that I normally wear it with a long sleeve tee that has a little bit more structure around the collar. The tee I used this time was a little looser, which made it look a little sloppy in the pictures. Please make sure that your collar does not look stretched out!

Now that I’ve shown how you can easily switch up your oversized blazer outfits for work, I think I may show an alternative option for casual looks. What do you think? Let me know if I should do it in the comments!

Photos by Kimberly Graydon