The New Trend in Office Wear:
Comfort

As the line blurs between our professional and personal lives, so have the clothes we wear

By CHRISTINA BINKLEY
Sept. 18, 2016 10:10 p.m. ET

Debra Bar is head of marketing at Bank Leumi in New York, but her
office wear these days doesn’t scream “bank executive.” She has
purged her closet of business suits, replacing them with colorful
dresses that she enjoys wearing more. Her heels are gathering dust in
a desk drawer while she dons flat shoes, and even sneakers, since
injuring her knee.

“No one really notices that I’m not wearing heels every day,” she says.
“As long as you look nice, no one cares anymore. There’s no dress
code.”

So what are you wearing
today? Chances are, you are
feeling more relaxed in your
clothing than you were just
five years ago. Sneakers are
chic and are being worn
under everything from
pinstriped suits to bridal
gowns. Women’s evening-
wear labels such as Sachin &
Babi are revamping their
collections to include
separates, slacks and flat
shoes. Remember the button-down news anchor? NBC’s Matt Lauer didn’t even bother
wearing socks on set to interview Ryan Lochte in August.

Styles and fabrics have taken so sharp a turn toward comfort that fashions may never entirely turn back again.

“People expect comfort,” says Caroline Belhumeur, creative director
for the apparel label Club Monaco. “It’s not like in the ’80s when
people were stuffing themselves into blazers and stilettos and
hobbling around.”

Blurred lines

Athleisure seemed to be just a fad when athletically styled fashions
were introduced as daywear a few years ago. It quickly zoomed from
wearing Lululemon to the supermarket to wearing a Gucci sweatshirt
to the office. The styles began eating into the denim market, formerly
the bastion of casual. Milan and Paris runways in recent seasons have
featured pajamas as evening wear, track pants made of fine silk and
Adidas-style athletic slides with fur.

When move your arm, you want your blazer to move with you,” says Ms.
Belhumeur.

All this highlights fundamental changes in our culture. People who arenever disconnected from work thanks to modern technology are
melding their professional and personal lives in many ways—and what
they wear is a reflection of that. It is impacting how people dress for
places and events where dressy, uncomfortable apparel was once the
norm—like the office. Or the opera.

There’s less
separation
between
weekday
and
weekend
clothing
these days,
says Roopal
Patel,
fashion
director of
Saks Fifth
Avenue.

“We’ve started to see a shift in how our customers are getting dressed
every single day.”

Clothes with stretch

These changes wouldn’t be happening without vast improvements in
polyester, a fabric whose name was once synonymous with “ick.”
Improvements in textile manufacturing have turned poly into a
luxury fabric, useful in everything from haute-couture dresses to
breathable, moisture-wicking running clothes.

People in their 20s and 30s are particularly adamant about
comfortable clothing. Eunice Cho, 31 years old, founded Los Angeles-
based Aella after attending UCLA’s business school and interviewing
for jobs.

“All the business options out there were really uncomfortable and so
expensive,” Ms. Cho says. “I was like, why wouldn’t people want to
wear comfortable clothes when they’re at work?”

Aella makes suiting and other office-ready looks from fabrics that feel
like yoga wear but look more polished. Ms. Cho avoids styles that look
“frumpy” because many of her customers—women in their mid-20s
and older—want to wear their work clothes out to evening events.
Launched in 2014, the label is carried at stores including
Bloomingdales and sold online.

Ministry—which recently changed its name from Ministry of Supply
and launched a womenswear line—was created five years ago by three