‘I found it impossible to find really nice workwear that wasn’t going to break the bank’, she tells Legal Cheek
Former Love Island contestant Rosie Williams has designed a clothing line inspired by her time practising as a solicitor.
‘White Collar’, which officially drops tomorrow, offers a range of fashionable but formal workwear aimed towards professional women.
According to the solicitor-turned-social-media-influencer, the fashion line includes ‘White Collar Classics’, a standard mix-and-match range of tops, shirts and skirts which all together create 65 looks. Meanwhile, the premium ‘Boardroom Collection’ contains more formal pieces.
Williams, who trained with Manchester law firm Just Costs Solicitors and was only three months qualified before entering Love Island in 2018, recalls that office chic was difficult to come by. The now-fashion designer tells Legal Cheek:
“I never found a specific store or an online retailer that I could go to get those sorts of clothes. I found it impossible to find really nice workwear that wasn’t going to break the bank but still looked quite smart and premium.”
Shopping around wasn’t easy either. “I would only really find the time, to be honest, to go shopping if it was in my lunch hour,” says Williams. “And even then as a solicitor you don’t always get a lunch hour, it’s at your desk.”
The former solicitor previously described working 18-hour days and having sleepless nights — which left her little time to search for the perfect outfit, let alone the perfect man.
White Collar also aims to tackle a classic workwear conundrum: comfort. “My shirts obviously fitted perfectly when I stood up but when I sat down all day I found that they would pull on the back, felt like they might rip and that was really, really uncomfortable,” says Williams. The new collection — which runs in sizes 6 to 18 — includes shirts with added stretch, making it comfier for desk-bound workers sat in front of a computer all day.
It appears that dressing up can also make you a better lawyer. Williams recalls feeling more motivated on Monday mornings — wearing heels, pencil skirts or trousers — than she did on dress-down Fridays. She adds:
“It made being in work a bit more exciting as well — I felt like I was doing a professional job, I felt more the part.”
Opting for sophisticated and smart over casual office garb is important especially when it comes to making first impressions, says Williams — as captured by the header in White Collar’s Instagram bio: ‘A Statement Without Speaking’.
Though many offices remain closed following COVID-19, Williams believes that sprucing up your working-from-home wardrobe can increase productivity — even if it’s just the top half of your body.
Meanwhile, with schools set to re-open in September, Williams hopes that working parents will look to buy new office uniform. “Just like they go and buy their children’s school uniform and pencil cases this time of year, maybe they can then think about buying new workwear for themselves,” she says.
Williams hasn’t completely got away from sleepless nights as she manages White Collar alongside her main Instagram account, which has nearly 800,000 followers. She says:
“If you want to be successful at anything, you have to put everything into it. But I never really stop now — probably just as busy as I was back then.”
Asked if she plans on returning to law, Williams replies, “I never want to say never — I still love it”, adding that becoming a solicitor “is still my proudest achievement”. For now, she’s enjoying making use of her organisational and legal skills as she prepares for the next collection dropping in November, designed in mind for Christmas parties and work-dos. For our male readers — don’t fret, a men’s range will be dropping next year.
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