34 Time December 6/December 13, 2021
An importAnt exception to the move
toward casual office dressing is people of color.
A Slack Future Forum survey found 81% of
Black respondents in the U.S. say they prefer a
fully remote or hybrid workplace, which offers
some relief from the micro aggressions and
extra scrutiny that come with in-person work—
and the biases built into the norms defined as
“professional” appearance.
“People of color still have to prove themselves
more, and it’s still present in what you wear,” says
Fears, who is Black. “White skin already gets you
authority ... [White people] can get away with
being more relaxed.”
Women too are slower to embrace less formal-
ity. Klarna’s survey found that women are more
likely to dress up than men.
Three more trends strike Gomez as shifts
in the way we now style ourselves. The first
is prioritizing effortlessness over adherence
to rules—looking like you tried, but not too
hard. The second is a desire to buy local and
the third is increasing emphasis on a brand’s
values. Notably, a garment’s backstory might
be as important as its look. Is it something
you feel good about wearing, both physically
and ethically?
It’s a good lesson for the trend that stylists
hope to see in the pandemic workplace, whether
at home or in the office: to focus less on how oth-
ers see you and more on how you see yourself.Kalita is a co-founder and CEO of URL Media,
publisher of Epicenter-NYC, and columnist for
Charter, in partnership with TIMEWe are all experiencing “mirror anxieTy.”
That’s the term Stanford researchers give the neg-
ative emotions surfaced by watching ourselves all
day long on video conference calls.
Like so much of pandemic life and work, the
way we see ourselves has changed. For workers
returning in person with a new sense of beauty,
style and self, it can feel daunting to relearn how
to navigate the norms of workplace dressing.
But those have completely changed too—and
workers now have more power than before to
shape dress codes. For example, nearly half of U.S.
consumers surveyed by Klarna Bank AB plan to
wear more comfortable clothes when they go back
to working in the office.
“People will remain uncompromising when it
comes to their comfort, and companies will have
to adjust to this transition,” says Jennifer Gomez,
co-founder and CMO of oneKIN, an online mar-
ketplace for retailers and entrepreneurs of color.
So that blazer thrown over a T-shirt, once per-
fect for video conference, is now appropriate for
an in-person meeting at headquarters. Casual-
to-dressy transformations like chunky earrings
and bright lipstick, applied just before a meeting
starts, are also here to stay, Gomez predicts.
Even before the pandemic, work attire was
trending toward “athleisure,” a hybrid style
that feels appropriate for these hybrid times.
Los Angeles–based stylist Quentin Fears says it’s
a go-to among his clients, who now turn to him to
help them get through big life events—like new
jobs —and changes, like weight fluctuations. He
connects the current period of transition with a
desire for comfort and coziness.
Case in point: pants. The COVID-era world di-
vides pants into two categories, soft and hard. The
latter is losing. The parent company of Joe’s Jeans
recently filed for bankruptcy. True Religion, once
known for its pricey denim, now has more of its
business focused on hoodies, joggers and T-shirts.
Clients are still opting for softer khakis with
elastic waistbands and other loose-fitting, comfy
clothing, says Fears, even as offices reopen.
“Before, there was a stuffy sort of, ‘We all need
to dress this one way,’ as a part of what it means
to be a professional,” he says. “You would assume
someone wearing a suit has a lot of money. Now,
that’s been flipped on its head. The guy in the
hoodie makes just as much, or maybe more.”
The new, more
relaxed rules for
office dressing
BY S. MITRA KALITA
THE VIEW THE FUTURE OF WORK
Workers
now have
more
power
to shape
dress
codes△
Many workers
are starting
to return to
offices