Dress for Success

What are you wearing?

No, that isn’t the start of a creepy late-night text. It’s a legitimate question more and more workers are asking one another in the post-pandemic professional landscape. With many companies still deciding between remote, hybrid, and in-person schedules, there’s plenty of sartorial uncertainty going around — and more than a few awkward Zooms where it seems like everyone played their own game of dress-code roulette.

But the work-from-home revolution isn’t the only factor at play these days, clothing-wise. Fashion is always moving forward, and trends can come and go in the time it takes to fetch your favorite deskside salad.?

Here’s the good news: Expectations for dressing the part at your job are looser than ever, which means there’s a whole lot of opportunity to get creative and look appropriate. Join us for a journey into your closet as we unpack what “business casual” means now — and how the newest office-going generation is reinventing the workplace wardrobe.

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For the Ladies…

Freya Drohan , executive fashion director for The Daily Front Row , agrees that strict dress codes are increasingly hard to enforce. But how are professional women using all that freedom? There aren’t as many elastic waistbands as you might expect. “There’s a real yearning for structured workwear again,” she tells us. “I’m seeing a shift back to very traditional pieces, like pencil skirts and great shirting.”

But joining the trendsetters who are embracing blazers and tailored pants definitely doesn’t mean dressing like your grandmother. In the video above, Drohan shares the new rules of functional at-work fashion (spoiler alert: fit is everything) and the brands she turns to these days for high-quality pieces at every price point.

...and the Gentlemen

The craving to look a little more buttoned-up isn’t exclusive to women, fashion writer Max Berlinger tells us: “Streetwear and athleisure have been such huge parts of men’s fashion for the past decade now. It’s just part of the natural progression to see the pendulum swing the other way — away from a more relaxed look.”

How does that manifest at the office? Berlinger says the “preppy, collegiate vibe” is back in a big way: Think tweed, Oxfords, and chinos. We got the scoop on how the most stylish men are dressing for work (and which brands are best for an ultra-current wardrobe refresh).

Next Generation

Despite everything we’ve just said about the shift toward more traditional workwear, it’s also increasingly common to spot a crop top in the cafeteria — and to overhear a debate about whether that’s OK.?

From “quiet quitting” to sudden job-hopping, Gen Z is building a professional world all its own, and that includes pushing increasingly casual office get-ups into the mainstream. We spoke to experts about what we can all learn from our youngest colleagues’ wardrobes (and what to do if one of your mentees takes their lax looks a step too far).

One More Thing

Speaking of shifting perspectives… The evolving etiquette around what’s “work appropriate” goes beyond our clothes — and it even applies to the art underneath them.

Tattoos are much more common among younger workers, but they aren’t soliciting eyerolls from the people who matter. We’ll leave you with this fascinating finding that business strategist Erica Keswin shares in her new book, The Retention Revolution : “A 2022 study in the Journal of Organizational Behavior found that while people do hold some negative stereotypes about people with tattoos, customers ‘did not display more negative attitudes or behaviors toward tattooed employees,’ and in some cases, particularly in ‘white-collar jobs that involve artistic skills,’ tattooed employees were viewed more favorably.”

So if you do have ink you’ve been hiding at work, maybe now’s the time to let it show — or at least give it a soft launch with the coworker you trust with all your office gossip.

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