Who What Wear: Josie Riebe

Is this your usual office look?

This is my standard look for meeting with donors and board members. The rest of the office is pretty casual; there’s only myself and two or three others who wear suits on a daily basis.

Where did you get this one?
In Paris while on holiday last fall. It’s funny because I did see it here about nine months later. It’s just a BCBG Max Azria, so it wasn’t that exclusive. It was around 300 Euros.

Not counting the cost of the flight.
I never include that!

Did you get the top there too?
I got it here. It’s a Chulo Pony, which I got on sale for about $89. It’s mostly silk, and what you see through the V and on the sleeves is brocade with little velvety buttons. The mandarin collar is velvet too. I like wearing mandarins because you don’t have to worry about lining it up with your lapel or anything.

It’s quite dainty; do you tend to go for feminine stuff?
I love ribbons and silk and satin and little poofy capped sleeves. Because the suit itself is so strong, I don’t feel that it’s really me. But I like wearing suits because it gives you that sense of, “Okay, everything’s together.”

So what do other people in your office wear?
Jeans, cords, polo shirts or button-up shirts and sweaters. It’s very, very casual. Some of the recreation folks wear, like, windbreaker pants and stuff like that. It’s very, very different than what I’m used to. I started here two-and-a-half years ago, and it was a bit of an adjustment from my previous job at the BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.

What was your first reaction to the workplace?
I thought, okay, I’m not going to have many fashion discussions with people!

Josie Riebe is the Manager of Fundraising and Development, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation.