I am blessed to work in a creative industry where wearing suits every day is not required. Thank Jesus because when I graduated college, some two odd years ago, I vowed to never have a suit touch my body EVER (because I despise them) … and so far so good. But with that being said, I still do not dress like a slob every day. I dress up most of the time, meaning tights, a chic skirt, a top and some accessories and heels. But, I have the luxury of wearing jeans (dressed up of course) on a random Wednesday if I wanted. And why do I dress up every day? Because it makes me feel good. Plain and simple.

But on Fridays I have this incredible urge to dress down. Perhaps after a long week, like this one, the thought of putting on a dress with heels makes me want to crawl in a hole and die. But I think it is because mostly, in my mind, Friday is a “casual” day, meant for casual clothing. For example today I wore jeans, a black and white striped cow neck long sleeve shirt and my over the knee black boots with accessories and my hair kind of just, ya know, there. But I felt like an absolute slob all day, which is a terrible feeling. And unfortunately, this isn’t the first Friday that this has happened.

I get it for the people who do have to dress “professional” every day that a “Casual Friday” is like Gods gift. Wearing jeans to the office with sneakers and a sweater is like heaven I bet. But for me, what I wear sets the tone for the day, and if I’m not feeling like an absolute bad ass rockstar when I put my outfit on in the morning, it kind of brings the day down a bit. Wearing something that makes you feel confident and fabulous not only puts you in a great mood, but gives you confidence in the workplace I feel, even on Fridays. So today, when I felt like a doubty slob … it was just not conducive to my work flow.

I’m not saying Casual Fridays are heinous. They are meant for those days when you just want to rock tasteful jeans styled up to be office appropriate because you are so tired, and the fact that most offices allow people to do this is fantastic. But not EVERY Friday needs to be casual. There are some Fridays where all I want to do is rock a fantastic skirt, heels and a great blouse … but stop myself because it is “Friday.” What the hell does that even mean?

I’m going to put a new definition to “Casual Fridays.” This should be a day where you shouldn’t be forced to wear anything you don’t want to. If you want to wear a ball gown skirt with a plain, long sleeve top … go for it. If you want to wear leggings, a blazer and heels, go for it. If you want to be that guy who wears sweats and tries to make them not look like sweats … I mean I personally wouldn’t recommend, but if it makes you feel good, go for it.

I blame TV, movies and shows like The Office (sorry, I just have never been able to get into it … throw rocks if you will) that put these definitions on work place buzz phrases like “Casual Friday.” If I were taking the SATs and I was at the analogy section it would be “bread is the butter as Casual Friday is to …” and I would ABSOLUTELY put jeans.

So after I sat at my desk all day thinking to myself, I wish I was wearing heels, I wish I wasn’t wearing these jeans … I look so boring, blah blah blah … I’ve vowed to not let myself get restrained by what Casual Friday has meant to people in the past.

And I will sum up my thoughts with this quote by the great and fabulous Audrey Hepburn because I too would rather be overdressed any day than looking like a slob, AHEM:

“I believe in overdressing. I believe in primping at leisure and wearing lipstick.” ~Audrey Hepburn