Tracing the history of office workwear, it’s clear there has been a general trend towards wearing more casual clothing to work. This perhaps reached its zenith during the pandemic – when one-third of people swapped their usual work clothes for pyjamas.
Despite the post-pandemic return to the office, formal workwear is no longer required at most organisations. There has been an 80% decline in formal dress codes, according to the HR insights provider Brightmine, with only 4.3% of employers still enforcing strict requirements.
Bar Huberman, HR strategy and practice lead at Brightmine, says the change is part of a wider societal shift, which was accelerated by the pandemic. She adds: “People who are working from home are now used to dressing a bit more casually and companies have realised that allowing people to feel comfortable can help them to perform at their best.”
This change to the way we work has helped to normalise more casual dress standards. “Seeing senior individuals and clients wearing hoodies on Teams and Zoom calls in their homes certainly played a part in this transformation, making casual clothes more acceptable in what are otherwise professional settings,” says Gearalt Fahy, partner at Womble Bond Dickinson, a law firm. “In that sense, the genie was out of the bottle and it seems there was no going back for many.”
The trend also has benefits for inclusion, according to Huberman, and companies are recognising that people who are going through the menopause, for instance, may be more comfortable in certain types of clothing. “Clothing may seem like a small aspect of DEI but what you choose to wear is a big part of who you are,” Huberman adds.
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But despite many companies repealing their office dress codes, what we choose to wear still carries a lot of meaning. “That symbolism is intuitive,” says Richard Thompson Ford, author of Dress Codes: How the Laws of Fashion Made History. “It’s immediately conveyed through our clothing. That matters a lot when you’re meeting a client or trying to impress someone at an interview.”
In some sectors, this has led to the emergence of “dress-for-your-day” policies, according to Fahy. “This is a flexible dress code that allows employees to choose what they wear based on their work activities and who they’re meeting that day,” Ford explains. This means that, while it might now be acceptable to wear a T-shirt and jeans in the office, there’s an expectation individuals will wear a smarter outfit if meeting a client.
It’s almost like the old business suit because they’re all wearing exactly the same thing and it’s developed into an informal unwritten rule
These “informal” dress codes, as Ford describes them, can still influence what people wear to work. “People are always searching for a way to dress appropriately. No one wants to be caught out wearing the wrong thing, whether it’s too formal and then you look ridiculous and uptight or it’s too casual, then you look sloppy or as if you don’t care. So people are trying to find that sweet spot and often end up copying each other,” he says.
This is exemplified by the so-called Midtown uniform, popularised by workers in the financial services industry in Midtown Manhattan. Although US banks have relaxed their office dress codes, many male employees have adopted a similar outfit of shirt, trousers and fleece vest. Ford says: “It’s almost like the old business suit because they’re all wearing exactly the same thing and it’s developed into an informal unwritten rule.”
In some industries, these tendencies create similar expectations around what should and shouldn’t be worn as a formal dress code. “That’s a type of hierarchy,” Ford continues, “because people from different social classes may not know what’s considered appropriate and that becomes an informal sorting mechanism.”
Hierarchy can also be established through “subtle variations in the same costume”, Ford adds. For example, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg often wears a grey T-shirt to work and, although most people can afford such a top, his are reportedly custom-made by Italian designer Brunello Cucinelli and cost between $300 (£220) and $400 (£300). “You can still have a hierarchy in T-shirts,” Ford says. “That has not gone away at all, it’s just become transformed.”
The return of formal workwear?
With some companies now encouraging a full-time return to the office, formal workplace attire could become more popular once again, according to Ford. However, any return to the suit and tie or blouse and jacket is likely to be short-lived.
“I think we’re going to have a slight pendulum swing back to the formal but I’m not convinced that this will be a permanent swing,” he says. “I suspect that the general historical trend toward more casual will continue.”
We’ve come a long way in terms of corporate dress becoming less important. Ultimately, does it matter the way you look if you do a good job?
Lucy Newton, professor in business history at Henley Business School, also agrees that the shift to hybrid ways of working mean it’s unlikely we’ll return to pre-pandemic office dress codes. She says: “Banks are closing down their offices in Canary Wharf and in the City of London. You don’t need as much corporate wear if you’re not going into the office.”
In her view, this change is positive. Newton adds: “We’ve come a long way in terms of corporate dress becoming less important. Ultimately, does it matter the way you look if you do a good job?”
With the world of work becoming more informal, the inverse is now true in our social lives, according to Ford. “To some extent, the more dressed-up clothing is now reserved not for work but for leisure time,” he notes. “Rather than dressing down when you leave the office, people dress up to go out.”
While workplaces and HR departments are seemingly less concerned with what employees wear, social norms will continue to have an influence, whether we’re in the office or out of it.
Tracing the history of office workwear, it’s clear there has been a general trend towards wearing more casual clothing to work. This perhaps reached its zenith during the pandemic – when one-third of people swapped their usual work clothes for pyjamas.
Despite the post-pandemic return to the office, formal workwear is no longer required at most organisations. There has been an 80% decline in formal dress codes, according to the HR insights provider Brightmine, with only 4.3% of employers still enforcing strict requirements.
Bar Huberman, HR strategy and practice lead at Brightmine, says the change is part of a wider societal shift, which was accelerated by the pandemic. She adds: “People who are working from home are now used to dressing a bit more casually and companies have realised that allowing people to feel comfortable can help them to perform at their best.”
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