What's in a dress code

I wrote the following piece in 2021 as we were emerging from what we thought was the worst of COVID to the first steps of the ‘new normal’. We had all been living in activewear of some sort or another for 18 months or so. We were all trying to work out how to re-navigate life and understand what parts of our lives were forever gone and what parts would return now or in time.

This article was never published, it was just a musing. However, five years later, in a totally unexpected zag in my life and career, I am a Certified Personal Stylist because I realised how much what you wear matters to what you feel. This article touches on that. What started as a piece on dress codes ended up a discussion of what dress codes mean in terms of identifying your ‘tribe’ – in a good way, and that’s kind of where I have now landed.

I have spent the last year or so on a ‘style journey’ as the post-COVID, post-corporate, post-grief and menopause me emerged. The likes of Trinny Woodhall helped me bring the inside and the outside together in a way that I truly think was the last brick in the wall to build the thriving person I am in 2025.

Words have always been fundamental to the way I expressed myself, and what I did to support other people and companies to express themselves and share who they are. Clothes have that same power, rightly or wrongly. I am now going to help people use the power of both these things to communicate their messages.

I am interested in what others think of my views below:

'They said CBD offices were done. They said corporate dressing was relegated to history. Every Instagram post and every autumn/winter fashion collection on the planet is filled to the brim with ‘loungewear’ and ‘soft layers’. My cat has contributed to many a meeting and is part of the day-to-day discussion of who did what last night or this weekend. But the increasing commute time and coffee queues in the CBD would suggest those suppositions are not true. We are moving back to the office at least three days a week, and for most of us that is fully embraced. No one signed up to spend 24 hours a day with their SO – seriously, admit it. But, have the dress rules changed? Do we accept the previously unacceptable in the office fashion-wise?

Let’s set aside the fact that we all have wardrobes full of clothes we basically haven’t worn for a year, plus a whole load of stuff we bought online. The question is will we iterate back to the old ways dressing wise or has there been a pandemic inspired ‘series break’? Maybe.

I would suggest though that it’s a cultural change, not a rule change. What happened in that year, apart from we all wore elastic waist bands 24/7? We learnt more about what we really need and value as individuals. Some leaders maybe learnt that teams don’t need to be right there in the office to do their work, and that not knowing what they were wearing from the waist down meant people and work had to be taken on its own merits without any environmental context as a guide to ‘credibility’. So what?

Perhaps the consequence of the combination of those things is that we are all trying to be just a little bit more authentic to ourselves and a little bit more accepting of others, because we accept that all being the same is not necessary for a successful corporate culture and that homogeneity of unnecessary things actually impedes productivity and creativity. That would be good right?

There is though, a potential other consequence which might be the sleeping giant about to wake, alongside the jobs market. ‘We’ realise that the corporate dress code or behaviour standard is a key flag to the corporate culture underneath. And, that means that those people that discovered one or both of those doesn’t suit them might, instead of trying to change it, move on to somewhere that does suit them sartorially, and therefore more deeply.

Humans are tribal. Rock chicks in ripped jeans and band t shirts aren’t rebelling they are joining a different tribe. This is not news. Nor is the idea that investment bankers all dress alike. Once upon a time you could spot them in a bar a mile away because of their floppy hair and chalk striped suit and tie. Now, and I admit to struggling with this combo, its all about the blindingly white shirt, mid blue suit and….. tan shoes (seriously – if you are not Italian you can’t pull this off not matter the size of your pay check, and RM Williams do not fit under suit pants, sorry, accept it and buy some lace ups (dark brown if you must) – it’ll cost you time in the morning but save your trouser hems). No tie anymore of course, but the floppy hair stays!

Is this a quite cultural revolution that will stir up the jobs market initially and then slowly but surely right what are seen as the corporate cultural wrongs that exist globally? It might be. Or it might just mean that cultures don’t change but are even more deeply embedded, because the people in them really do sign up to what the firm stands for, instead of just pretending in order to stay employed.

Now, don’t get me wrong, there are definitely things that are wrong in many corporate worlds now and that need to change – people should feel safe and be free from harassment. People should be recruited, promoted and supported entirely on the basis of their knowledge, skill and potential. And firms should be held to account if they aren’t. However, aside from that, either of these outcomes would be good. Those of us who really can’t cope with funky t-shirts and vans and having meetings on bean bags never have to fear a slow glide in that direction. We won’t have to apologise for loving our ‘don’t “f#@k” with me suit and heels’ and loving the change of world each day and the after-work drinks. And vice versa. But along the way, maybe just maybe we might be able to retain being just that little bit more understanding and accepting of those of us that are different, and all of us will live in a better, nicer and more productive world as a consequence. Let’s hope.