Just Because Beyoncé’s Getting Casual Doesn’t Mean Your Boss Wants You to Follow Suit
Mark Zuckerberg (Getty Images)
In the ’90s, worker bees breathed a sigh of relief when business casual first poked its mock turtleneck into conference rooms. In many ways, it was an understandable and welcome reaction following decades of sartorial revolution that seemed to involve more rules instead of less. Dress codes increasingly stifled personal expression and creativity, in addition to reinforcing more and more outdated differences concerning gender and hierarchy in places where it seemed gratuitous to do so. Yet years after this shift to more casual clothes, it seems that diminishing rules in workplace attire have left many of us office drones confused. What is business casual? It seems there are as many definitions as there are colors of pique polo shirts.
Style expert Megan Collins, who advises men on style and fashion via StyleGirlfriend.com, agrees that the state of attire is in a turbulent time. “By and large, the workplace has become more casual. But it’s also making things confusing,” she tells Yahoo Style. “The line between weekend wardrobe and work wardrobe is definitely blurring, and everyone’s left with this idea that we should know what to do.” But apparently, we don’t.
Recent stories in the news underline this frustrating ambiguity for working people. There’s the boss who wrote to New York magazine’s The Cut seeking advice about an employee who adheres to the dress code but is nevertheless sloppy at it. And then there’s the group of interns who protested an “overly strict” dress code and were subsequently fired en masse. Even as we have come to embrace the idea of a casual dress code, people can still fret about its implications and get fired for not dressing the part.
Seeking guidance from the runway doesn’t seem to help either. The fashion world’s embrace of athleisure only blurs the lines further. If you’re not familiar with that term, look at all the very expensive designer athletic wear that Instagram celebrities and athletes strut around in. Because of this trend’s popularity, designers are pushing envelopes and product lines around the movement with a frenzy.
As a recent report from CBS News points out: “With or without a body like Beyoncé’s, in or out of the gym, Americans (American women especially) have made ‘athleisure’ the hottest thing in the apparel industry.”
With growing sales of yoga pants and leggings for women and jogger pants for men, the gender-neutral category is flourishing, and fashion experts vehemently proclaim that athleisure is no trend. “My real gut on this is that this is something that is here to stay,” says Macy’s Vice President of Men’s and Kid’s Fashion Durand Guion.
So does that mean the business world is far behind? Or better yet, should it stay behind?
“What you wear matters and is a reflection on your boss or company. That’s still their purview,” observes Collins. “If you look sloppy, that’s going to inform people’s impressions of you. Sloppy is objectively a bad thing.”
Whatever fashion may be toying with in its affair with athleisure, that industry is arguably more art than business — or at the very least a business that’s guided by art. And in art, anything goes. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the opposite situation in most workplaces (and life). In a majority of offices, your job is not your job (see at-will employment) and your workplace is not yours either. And no matter what, you shouldn’t ever really treat your workplace like your home. If it’s not home, don’t dress like it is.
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