FASHION Magazine

Working it

Posted on November 13, 2008

Honestly, I don’t know how anyone can get dressed in the morning. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that many companies are looking potential employees to dress in a way that expresses their soul. That’s a lot of pressure.

More confusing still is that today’s New York Times is heralding the return of the interview suit, a look that those interviewed for the WSJ piece would regard as “corporate,” going as far as debating the relative merits and demerits of the pant or skirt suit. Skirt suit?

Admittedly, I’m not exactly reporting from skirt-suit kind of workplace. There’s definitely no shortage of cute dresses, bow blouses and great shoes around here, but on any given day, most of us at FASHION are wearing jeans—often with a sharp jacket or shirt, but jeans all the same. If one of us came in wearing a suit, she would be subjected, surely, to a barrage of questions regarding possible mortgage appointments or court dates.

But even if our own office environment tends toward the casual, we have a full-on love affair with getting dressed up for work. Bottega Veneta’s perfectly-cut wool sheaths and Michael Kors’s pencil skirts and tweeds did have us daydreaming about chucking it all for an office-tower job. (Okay, not really.)

Obviously, it’s all about context. Back in September, I had the opportunity to interview different women in the fashion business about their work style and how they mixed the needs of their job with their personal sartorial desires. You can watch the results here and here.

What do you wear to work? Do you get creative with the corporate uniform or have to fight the urge to wear sweatpants in an anything-goes office? Let me know in the comments.

Shown: Bottega Veneta Fall 2008. Photography by Peter Stigter

EARLIER: How FASHION has looked at work, My Work Style: Marlo Szellos, My Work Style: Pam Cook

Categories: Fashion File