A week in work outfits with Australian designer and Founder of Après Studio, Meg Wilcher

“I never leave work in the same thing I arrived in as there is always something to test or try on or an indoor microclimate in our office that drastically contradicts what’s happening outdoors.”

Working in a creative role, it can be difficult to know how to dress for the day. Instead of having a set uniform of crisp white shirts and tailored black pants (as much as I love both), an ever-changing schedule means every morning requires a set of questions. Am I running around, or just sitting at my desk? Do I need to dress specifically for a project? And most importantly, will I be in the background of someone’s TikTok?

This week, Meg Wilcher, an Australian designer and the founder of Après Studio, takes us through a week in her busy life. Working out of an office in Sydney, Meg views getting dressed as a creative outlet. What she puts together each day is heavily influenced by her mood and is never preplanned ahead of time. There’s also a practical element to what she reaches for, as she’s often testing out the wearability of designs she’s working on for her label.

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“My day-to-day changes so much, so I often dress to suit my schedule. I live by the beach, so if I decide to take time off over the weekend, it’s spent outdoors exercising, swimming, wearing mostly lycra and lathered in sunscreen,” she tells us. Read on to see what garments she’s gravitated to.

Monday

By the time Monday comes around, I am usually feeling inspired to dress up in something cute. I like to kick the week off with a beach run and a dip so I can enter my work week with a clear mindset. I have Mondays alone in the office. This means I usually catch up on admin, accounting and plan out the week ahead. This day to myself gives me mostly uninterrupted time to put any thoughts I had over the weekend into action and create lists for my staff to work across for the week.

I have a general outlook of the next few months for Après Studio pencilled into the calendar which means I can be quite proactive with both my own work and the work my team gets up to for weeks to come. I am heading to China next week to check in on Daisy and Alice my makers so my partner is heading into the city on his way to a meeting to swoop up our passports with our Chinese visas ready for our trip.

I have just listed my cute little Clifton Hill apartment on Airbnb so that took up quite a bit of my afternoon organising from afar. Other than this, I have been organising the last three photoshoots before the year comes to a close. Today I am testing a new oversized shirt sample made from deadstock 100 per cent cotton stripe fabric I bought here in Sydney from Wall Fabrics. I wanted an effortless and oversized look today so I paired it back with our Black Sage Cotton Pants and a burgundy loafer from Massimo Dutti. I will never ever get over the burgundy and bright yellow colour combo.

Tuesday

Tuesdays are always busy. I like to kick the day off with a class to clear my mind and move my body. I usually opt for Pilates at Mode in Manly and today one of my favourite teachers led us through a killer barre class; I honestly thought I was going to pass away at one point. My amazing customer care person Coco is back from her weekend. We always have a little coffee debrief about our weekends and share any thoughts or plans for the week or month ahead.

Coco dispatches all online orders, attends to customer enquiries and also helps with marketing and design decision-making. I am so lucky to have her! Today I wanted to share and get her opinion on a marketing strategy for our upcoming winter collection, a product idea and touch on the next products to go live on our website. We launched our Depop sample sale today, so we have been busy organising that and marketing to coincide with this.

This is in place of a Black Friday sale as we don’t usually participate in this. I have a shoot this Sunday so I visited some local thrift stores to see if I could find some vintage items to style back with our pieces. Today I am wearing a vintage Ferrari tee and our Après Studio Black Mini Skirt. I paired it back with some vintage leather boots to make it feel less feminine and my favourite pair of Chanel sunglasses.

Wednesday

This morning I gave my body a rest. I took Sprout the little dog I am dog sitting for a walk and got a coffee on the way. I rarely listen to podcasts when I walk as I like to listen to the sounds around me and be present with little Sprouty. Coco is turning 30 soon so first things first, we got to designing and picking out fabrics for her custom birthday dress!

My maker Daisy knows it’s for a birthday so she will be sure to take extra care when making it for her. I can’t wait to see it. I always start my morning with DMs, emails, WeChat and WhatsApp. This usually allows me to ensure everything is running to schedule and to check in on what everyone wants from us. I spent the afternoon racking up my winter 2024 sample collection and culling anything that wasn’t super strong.

Coco and I also went through the collection and added in anything we thought was missing from the lineup. I relaxed pretty hard with my partner when I got home and we ordered in. We have a lot going on in our personal world at the moment so we are prioritising supporting one another and taking it easy whenever we can. I always find it difficult to project so far ahead particularly when we are a direct-to-customer brand. I have a plan to help with this that we will be rolling out in the new year.

Today Coco and I rocked up in essentially the same but ever so slightly different pair of grey pinstripe pants. I am yet again testing another oversized shirt sample in blue cotton voile. This fabric is much lighter in weight than the yellow stripe I wore on Monday. My handbag is Prada, my thongs are from Carmen Store in Amsterdam and my belt is from The Lair in Newcastle. My laptop bag is from Kaan Bags.

Thursday

This morning I got into the office at 7am. I have a new intern named Maggie who has just begun working with us on a Thursday. Maggie’s main focus is PR and TikTok marketing. It’s really nice to have someone else take care of our TikTok strategy so I can focus on the creative, the design and ye olde Instagram. I am so grateful to have this side of the business become something I get to give approval on and randomly appear on rather than something I have to manage, film, edit and strategise too.

I spent the morning listing out tasks for Maggie for the next few weeks and giving her access to all of the socials, stats and cheat sheets she needs. As soon as she arrived Coco and I sat down with her and went through our brand guide and welcomed her! After lunch, we filmed a bunch of TikToks for Maggie to edit over the next few weeks to coincide with our EDMs and our product launches.

I got back to my desk and designed a little Après tote bag and unpacked our new beautifully branded gifting satchels that have arrived just in time for Christmas. Today I arrived in our Black Ruched Cotton Tee, a pair of Carhart jeans and some Y-3 x Adidas collab sneakers. I never ever leave work in the same thing I arrived in as there is always something to test or try on or an indoor microclimate in our office that drastically contradicts what’s happening outdoors. Today I exited in a flurry, clad in lycra to chase an optimistic 5.30pm heated vinyasa yoga class.

Friday

Today I am back at Mode Pilates doing a form class. Form is a mat-based Pilates class with a focus on technique. It entails a lot of repetitious, slow and mindful movements. I finish up with a dip at Queenscliff Beach and a coffee. I headed into the city at 9am to pick up an artwork from Facebook Marketplace, a pair of classic black pants I purchased from the beautiful Pantalon store and to drop off a bunch of my clothing to Swop in Darlinghurst.

I never buy something new without getting rid of something I already own. This way it limits the amount of clothing I am consuming and means I purchase more mindfully. I then head across to I Love You Beads in Leichhardt. I am making a couple of quick pieces of jewellery for Sunday’s shoot. I don’t like buying too many accessories but the one area I do splurge on is shoes. I think I am an addict.

I call Mum during my drive to check on how she’s going – she’s currently relabelling some styles for me and taking in some inseams on some bulk production I wasn’t 100 per cent happy with. Mum is a retired textiles teacher so every now and then I ship some product up to her in Northern NSW to outsource some manufacturing. Made by mum!! I head back to the office and make an online order for snacks and supplies for Sunday’s shoot.

I rack up the looks ready for tomorrow to steam and finalise all styling details. I submit an online order at Officeworks of prints for shoot imagery references to make the talent and photographer’s life easier. Today I am wearing a chocolate cotton mesh oversized tee, a sample I am testing, a pair of vintage red flares, my Margiela Tabis, The Row 90s bag and Celine sunglasses. Woah, no days off this week! Looking forward to China next week and the Christmas holidays. Thanks for having me Fashion Journal!