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Outfits Ensembles Trends Advice

Everyone in the office is wearing...

rachylou

Veteran

Melinda, on Angie's blog post this morning about wearing trends second time round, commented:

The (mostly) unspoken fact is that trends are almost by definition worn or started by young people, for young people. (Do people in their 40s or 50s have their own trends? I’m not seeing it in the media or among my contemporaries!)

That got me to thinking, yeah... one kid starts wearing madras boxers as shorts, then every kid is wearing madras boxers. And woe! to anyone without a pair. I mean, whatcha gonna do on "Twins Day"?

But stuff does not spread like wildfire around the office like that.

Or does it?

I'm trying to think. There aren't that many women in my department. Things might be different in HR or Marketing. I can't say I've seen anyone wearing anything but skinnies by the elevators in a long time...

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Caro in Oz

Veteran

I think there is a difference between fast fashion that's over within a few months & trends. Trends are directions - like baggy or form fitting or wide pants or skinnies. The thing about trends is there are many ways of interpreting them.

Liz A.

Veteran

Office clothes are just inherently less trendy... although if the ladies in your office are wearing skinnies, my comment may go out the window. At least in the government, people don't seem to make much effort with what they wear, so I guess you could say frump is the trend.

Thistle

Veteran

So, I work with Accountants, Engineers and manufacturing folks. Most are men, and well, men's fashion isn't as fluid as women's IMHO.

As for the few women, I would say you see trends but not a lot of fads. Again, the office is not the place for it.

Deborah

Veteran

I wear blinkers when in at our head office! The general lack of interest in personal presentation kills me

rachylou

Veteran

Oh you guys have me thinking now...

Lol, Deborah - What are they wearing at the head office?

Thistle - I'm in engineering and manufacturing too. It's what you call a hotbed of anti-fashion, hehe. I will say IT, tho, which I half-include with engineering - those guys suffer from trends. You have the square-toed pixie loafer / button-down shirt guys and the converse / layered tee guys. The two styles are starting to merge, maybe... the button downs and converse going away...

Liz - That's funny about government, because I think it may be true. Although I wonder a little bit about funky glasses.

Caro - That is such a good point about trends v. fast fashion/fads. I think I've been using trend and fad interchangeably.

Another related question: Do the iPhone and iPad count as fashion fads?

rachylou

Veteran

Ok. I'm back. I have decided something: Hi-tech equipment manufacturing is pretty salt-of-the-earth. Biotech, however, is slap-happy-trendy. Oh, the biotech people try to hide it, but they are just dreaming.

The current office trends: skinnies, heels (including sandals), dresses (wrap dresses in particular), fruit salad/saturated colour

Not being worn: skirts, pencil skirts

This is in comparison to college-age fashion: Flatter-than-flat shoes, drab/faded colours, Cosby jumpers, thin boyfriend cardigans, extra long tanks, skinnies

Anonymous

This title made me think. I work in a pretty stiff industry but let's see, I currently have four clients, let's see if I can summarize the trends I spotted, per location":

My NYC "super corporate" assignment: Cropped pants, pointy toe shoes, Matching color of a cardi or blazer with a necklace, opaque tights ( fading as the weather gets warmer), bootcut or wideleg trousers, wrap dresses.

My NJ super corporate client: Tapered trousers, midi skirts with booties, colored blazers, cardigans as toppers with the buttons worn front to back, platform shoes still going strong. Lots of sheath dresses.

The creative NYC client: Anything goes here. The accounting department is more conservative. Everyone wears flats there though.

My home office: There is no dress code, I even have a coworker who wears matching velour tracksuits. Why? LOL.

Jules

Veteran

I think there are local casual trends, maybe not so much at the office because you get people with different ages, lifestyles and backgrounds working together. But MOTGs at the park? Definite trends. Kamik rain boots a few years back. My friend swears all the moms in her wealthy hood wear Blundstones, which I can't quite wrap my head around because I don't notice them around.

kkards

Veteran

hmm. not sure about office "trends", but have if you work for a large organization, you can often tell what department someone works in by the way they dress. in my office, the finance team is the most conservative; but if you work in Acounts Payable, its the office verison of mom jeans everyday. the IT folks are the only ones who actually wear their badges everyday. the only guys who wear skinny pants are on the marketing team, and they think converse sneakers are a fashion shoe, and therefore not a sneaker, and wear them despite the no sneakers rule.

Jules

Veteran

Yeah it's funny I went to a lunchtime session with some sales guys, who I normally never interact with. I could tell right away from the clothes and hair these guys were different from the casual, not image-conscious norm at my company, so different my curiosity was piqued. When they introduced themselves as Sales it all made sense.

rachylou

Veteran

Fascinating, Zap, the differences between NYC and NJ. I can't imagine midi skirts and boots in an office, lol. You are so funny, tho - you have a home-office co-worker in velour? That is so Meet the Tannenbaums.

Jules - now you have me thinking about my hipster neighborhood and the farmer's market. Esp. on rainy days and everyone in their slickers and Hunters with welly socks. Ok. Yes. I'm guilty! I'm thinking to stop wearing my Hunters and just wear my old rubber riding boots, up my cool factor. Lol.

kkards - what?! Y'all don't wear your badges? Scandalous, hehe. Am I not infamous for having my badge in all my WIW photos?

Marketing freaks everybody out, that's been my experience.

Anonymous

Office trends? I cannot compute. We're pretty conservative across the board. Experimenting with color and even pattern is fine; new pant silhouettes would freak people out. Those ankle-length crops that are so popular in office wear right now? I have yet to actually see anyone in my office wear those, and I'm not about to be the first one! Objectively, they're attractive and modern but IMO, less formal than a full-length pair of pants. That's the sticking point for most of us.

Not many women wear dresses and skirts. Those who do wear A-line and pencils, for the most part. A few women with boho style wear fuller/looser skirts occasionally.

My office is a strange blend of a) business formal for the people at the top; b) something between smart business casual and business formal for most; c) sloppy casual for the rest, although it seems to be limited to one department in particular. (And, that type of dress is not received very well by the office as a whole, so I can't figure out why the supervisor -- herself a sharp dresser -- hasn't said something.)

rachylou

Veteran

Fascinating, Stacey! What type of business is your company in?

I was looking around the cafeteria this morning and not one pair of "regular cut" trousers - straight up and down, breaking just on the foot and too short by fashionable standards. Not even one pair of PPL trousers.

People at my company even wear open-toe, heeled sandals. I'm never sure how I feel about that. I'm a little more proper than that, to be honest.

I was also thinking about the difference between "fashionable" people and "normal" people. Normal at my company is straight leg jeans - as in play-mud-foot-ball 501s - and a black North Face jacket.

T-Rex

Veteran

I work in a hospital, and I've noticed that the fashion tends to vary by department here as well. The male admins always wear suits. The female admins are often in suits, too, but when they aren't they are still very dressed up and polished. The ladies in Patient Access look great, and are always up to date with the trends. They seem to be the only female employees who wear high heels on a regular basis. I like working with them, partly because I enjoy seeing what they wearing. The woman who keeps our chargemaster file updated has a sense of style that I envy. She always looks pulled together, and often has a retro vibe to her clothing.

With only a few exceptions, the women (and men) in IT tend to be conservative and comfortable dressers. The sharpest dresser in IT (in my opinion) happens to be a transfer from Patient Access, so there you go. There is another co-worker in my department who often mirrors my own fashion sense, so of course I think she always looks good. I don't think there are many fashion plates in the other departments. Comfort and fitting in seem to be the guiding principles most of the time.

Of course, the clinical folks who do direct patient care always wear scrubs or lab coats. And even some employees who don't need to wear scrubs sometimes do, because they find them comfortable *and* they don't have to think about what they are going to wear to work.

I think for the most part, the people who work here take their fashion cues from the people around them.

Anonymous

Rachylou, we're in a strange business: higher ed administration. The normal standards (or stereotypes) of academic wear don't apply in our world. It's much more business-like and proper than academia as a whole. With the exception of that one small group, my office is always more dressed up than the faculty. Like I said, it's strange.

When I look at the most fashionable women in my office, the common qualities I notice are:
- They pay attention to fit, which keeps conservative cuts from looking too frumpy.
- They're well-groomed overall. Some don't wear makeup (that I can tell), but they still get regular haircuts, keep their clothing and shoes in very good condition, and wear modern-looking glasses.
- They tend to stick to basic neutrals and add personality through colorful tops or interesting jewelry.

Nothing terribly groundbreaking, but you know what? They look great and project authority, and I think that's a pretty reasonable standard for office wear.