Clean sneakers with a flat bottom are acceptable office wear these days. Photo / Getty Images
Clean sneakers with a flat bottom are acceptable office wear these days. Photo / Getty Images
Sweatpants? No. But elastic waistbands? Absolutely.
The phrase “business casual” is an opportunity and a curse. On the plus side: You have so many options! On the negative side: You have so many options! And so many ways to screw up. Business attire demands a suit, regardless of gender. Butbusiness casual – well, is that khakis and a polo? Jeans and a T-shirt with a blazer? A dress and sneakers?
We’ve been filing reports in our sweatpants on the regular since 2020. We’re wearing tennis shoes out to the club. The work-from-home years – coupled with the arrival of Gen Z as a dominant force in fashion trends – have scrambled our long-held ideas about what to wear where.
“The more options we have, the harder it is for us to hit the mark that our employer is really looking for when they use that language,” says Lizzie Post, a spokeswoman for the Emily Post Institute (her great-great-grandmother), and co-author of the book Emily Post’s Business Etiquette, published last month.
Whether you’re a new graduate working in an office for the first time with a business casual dress code or your company is forcing you back in the office five days a week, we’ve got you covered (in properly tailored natural fabrics). Here are the rules for office fashion – and the right ways to break them.
If you’re going to sit at a desk all day, you might as well be comfortable. Pants with an elastic waist, if made from any work-appropriate fabric – cotton, linen, ponte, you get the idea – are great, as long as they still look like slacks. We’ll even give nice leggings a pass, as long as your butt is covered.
A cropped top is okay. A crop top is not
Wear your crop-tops – the kind that show off your midsection – literally anywhere else. Except maybe church.
If you have the kind of workplace where shorts are okay, you already know it
If you aren’t sure, then you don’t – even those cool formal shorts-suits. As for skorts: they’re appropriate if fully encircled by a skirt. And if they aren’t literally for tennis.
Same goes for Crocs and athletic slides. (If you would wear it to a pool party, don’t wear it to the office.) Colleagues shouldn’t have to see your entire foot – and they shouldn’t have to hear you thwack thwack thwack all the way to the break room, so make sure you give your mules a listen before you wear them to the office.
But it’s fine to show a little toe
As long as your toenails are neat and tidy. And as long as the shoe-to-foot visibility ratio remains tipped in the balance of shoe. “Anything that starts to really have the majority of your foot exposed, I think, starts to become questionable,” says Post.
Don’t get all knotted up about ties
If you work at a fancier office, you might need to build a tie collection. Don’t sleep on thrift stores, which can carry vintage luxury brands with fun and/or timeless patterns. It is fine (even cool) to make your tie pattern clash with your shirt pattern, but keep one of them understated. Also: fat double knots don’t look as elegant as you think (unless you’re Steve Harvey).
The width of your pants doesn’t matter as much as the rise
The higher the rise, the safer for work; we all have to bend over now and again. Big, trendy, high-waisted slacks are a great choice (just don’t wear them so long that you trip while sprinting to catch the bus).
But there is such a thing as too-tight pants
If your calves (or anything else) are bulging out, your pants are too tight.
If your shirt has a curved hem, tuck it in
“If your shirt has a straight hem line, then it can be worn untucked,” says Post. You can break this rule if the rest of your outfit is formal enough to compensate: Gen Z has been experimenting with untucked shirts in interesting ways. But even if a shirt’s marketing boasts of its untuckability, resist it.
Iron your clothes. We know it’s annoying. Just do it
“A lot of people don’t spend time ironing these days,” says Post. “If you’re not buying wrinkle-free fabrics, then the iron is really a must.” You can do it while you watch TV or listen to podcasts. A handheld steamer works, too.
Jeans are no longer just for Fridays
They’re okay any day of the week if your office dress code is business casual. A straight-leg, non-ripped, not-too-tight and not-too-baggy pair can look smart and put-together.
If it boasts moisture-wicking or UPF technology, leave it for the great outdoors
A quarter-zip sweater, knit from actual wool from a sheep? Great. An office-wear classic. A quarter-zip sweatshirt, less so. As a rule, if you’re looking for ways to incorporate trendy outdoorsy gear into your work wardrobe, think natural fibres, not performance fabrics.
Your choice of socks (or lack thereof) is more important than you might realise
They can bring a whole outfit together – or ruin one, if you wear the wrong pair. It’s okay to show your socks. It’s okay to wear quirky socks. It is not okay to wear the same socks you wear to the gym. And once your socks get droopy, ditch ’em.
Backpacks are the new briefcases
Save your shoulders. But if you can buy it at the back-to-school section of a big box store, it’s probably not professional – no matter what Josh Lyman might insist.
Two bags, maximum
You can carry a work bag and a gym or tote bag. Any more bags would be too many bags.
If you can run more than a mile in your sneakers, do that in them instead
Clean athletic shoes with a flat bottom – think Sambas, Onitsuka Tigers, Air Force 1s – are acceptable office wear. Post, a self-proclaimed sneakerhead, says she looks for sneakers “made of nice materials,” such as suede, with interesting colours and patterns, but that “don’t have a lot of logo and branding on them”.
Give yourself permission to give up on heels forever, if you hate them
Luxe loafers! Fancy flats! You can find an option for any outfit. Do not resign yourself to bunions and plantar fasciitis.
If you love them, heels over four inches are better for a party than an office
Save them for the club.
You’re allowed to wear a T-shirt to the office, but there are conditions
Reach for a slightly thicker or softer fabric than your standard-issue Hanes or Gildan. “It shouldn’t look worn,” says Post. “It should look fresh and crisp and clean.” Tread carefully with logos, words, and any nonabstract images. (A Uniqlo tee with a Matisse painting? Fine. A Uniqlo tee with a cartoon character? Probably not.) Tuck it in. Put a blazer over it for some extra reassurance.
Asking your manager about the dress code is fine
Being new to a job, being new to the workforce, returning to the office or participating in a work event are all acceptable occasions to ask for some guidelines. Kimberly Carney, the founder and CEO of the shopping app FashWire, appreciates knowing that employees are thinking about how to present themselves: before a recent off-site event, a new team member “texted me and said, ‘Hey, is there a dress code? What should I wear? What’s appropriate?’” Carney says. “I thought that was great.”
Having a “uniform” is good
Make sure it’s a reflection of you or communicates your ambitions. If a uniform is too mundane but you don’t want to have to think too hard about getting dressed, then go with a formula – ie, jeans, T-shirt and blazers of different colours, or long dresses in different patterns. Find what works for you, and buy it in multiple fabrics or colours.
If the word “too” comes to mind when evaluating an outfit, choose again
“We have this slide in our business etiquette seminars that’s like, nothing too short, too long, too tight, too baggy, too sheer, too wrinkled,” says Post. The “not toos” are “very useful in terms of keeping you in line while still being able to express yourself”.
No showing any bra, unless you work somewhere exceedingly cool
The thickness of straps on your dress or top will be dictated by the creativity of your industry. As for cleavage: Post knows that, for some women, it’s unavoidable unless they wear something up to their neck – and she doesn’t want women to feel like they have to hide.
“But I think we try not to make that, like, ample cleavage,” she says. “Once you’ve been an adult for a number of years, you see the reactions to how you dress ... I’m trying to be delicate here.”
Hygiene and grooming are more important than style
Start by making sure you’re showered, deodorised and smelling neutral (take it easy on the perfume and cologne). Make sure your clothes are laundered and tidy. Then start thinking about your outfit.
A waistcoat requires a shirt underneath
Little vests are so hot right now. Especially worn as sleeveless tops! But wearing them “model off duty” style is a riskier bet than the trusty ol’ Bilbo Baggins.
Do a flowy dress
A sack of a dress that covers you from collarbone to toe is comfortable, modest and easily accessorised. You don’t need to stick to those sheath dresses that make everyone look like a TV anchor. But any shape of dress that makes you feel confident is probably fine. You can likely even wear a cocktail dress to work if you wear it with masculine, flat shoes.
Hats are okay, but ditch them for a meeting
Anything that would win a prize at the Kentucky Derby should be left at home.
Jumpsuits are permitted ... but consider the restroom logistics
Think ahead about how you’ll feel taking the whole thing off to go to the bathroom. This goes for people of all genders and bathroom usages. And make sure you can zip it up without assistance.
Swap shoes discreetly
Pop those comfortable commuter shoes off in the bathroom, under your desk, or while in the elevator alone. Again: we don’t want to see your whole foot.
Your lunch bag does not need to be stylish
Just be proud you actually packed your lunch.
Think about your outfit-shoe combo
Sometimes pairing a blazer with dress shoes might be too buttoned-up. Or wearing a T-shirt with your Sambas would be too casual. Remember the humble leather boot: not too serious, but not too vulgar. A quiet pair of all-black Chelseas – with comfortable soles – might be right for those in-between days.
Suit up if you please
You can wear a suit every day if you want. Photo / 123rf
You can absolutely wear a suit every day, especially if you are in a rush. It’s a shocking shortcut: you barely have to think about it, and yet you look totally pulled together.
Get an office shawl
In overly air-conditioned offices, it’s more elegant than a cardigan or a hoodie. Use it as a blanket if your legs are cold, or throw it over your shoulders if you’re sleeveless.
Keep a stash of emergency supplies in your desk
Coffee spills and wardrobe malfunctions come for us all, usually right before an important meeting. Stash a supply kit in your desk. That includes gear for bad hair days: a claw clip, a few elastics, some bobby pins and a fun barrette should do it. Bonus points for a small hairbrush (but don’t use it at your desk).
Don’t be the office ‘protest slob’
You know – the person who insists on wearing the same clothes they would at home because they’re doing the same job they could do at home. Dress for the job you want, even if the job you want has a work-from-home option.
Thrift from the 1900s
If you thrift from eras when office dress codes were more closely defined, your office attire will always be appropriate. A vintage skirt suit from the ’90s or a prim dress from the ’60s gives you a cool story to tell when someone gives you a compliment. And you likely won’t have to worry about them being too short, too tight, too anything.
Dress with your colleagues in mind, not your TikTok following
Don’t be surprised when your “office siren” or “mob wife” look gets blank stares from your less-online co-workers. “If you need a hashtag to explain it, you might not want to wear it to your quarterly review,” says Carney. (And film your #OOTD before you commute in.)
Break these rules. But only one at a time
“Not two or three rules. And be careful about which rule you break,” says Post. “I think rules around colour and style are easier to break than rules around length and sheerness, things like that – anything that would expose the body more.” Cleanliness, too, is an unbreakable rule. But with intentionality, all of the other ones are up for grabs. Play with pattern. Be quirky.
Boring is better than late
That’s the rule to repeat when you woke up a little late, are staring into your closet, hate your clothes, and have reached an impasse: crisp white shirt (you can never own too many), literally any pants, one fun piece of jewellery or a bright shoe. Now, run to the Metro!
