Office dress codes are more confusing than ever—etiquette experts and stylish dressers offer their best advice

CNBC

2 days ago

The question of "what do I wear to work?" has never been this hard to answer.
The pandemic made it normal to wear pajamas and sweats while working from home, and casual dress followed workers as they returned to offices over the years.
Naturally, corners of the internet have since lit up in debate over the appropriateness of crop tops, shorts and office sirens in the workplace.
Social media, the internet and everyone you talk to will have a different idea of what appropriate workwear is. Your personal work style will also depend on the type of job you have, the company you work for, your general industry and what city you live in.
To give some general rules of thumb, CNBC Make It spoke with etiquette experts and stylish office workers for their best advice on how to figure out what to wear to the office right now:
If you're new to a workplace and not sure what to wear, observe how your colleagues dress, or straight out ask them for advice on what to wear, says Carla Shellis, 55, an etiquette expert in Dallas.
Ask if there are exceptions to certain standards, like whether it's OK to wear athleisure on casual Fridays, or when to opt for a suit when clients are in for meetings.
You might also have to tailor your wardrobe based on the actual temperature of the office. Dominique Bird, 31, works a sales job in Austin and documents her "corporate goth" outfits on social media. (She credits LA-based content creator Mars Chasolen, known as yung.planet online, as inspiration.)
Bird says it's important to wear light layers to get through the Texas heat. She sticks to classic silhouettes of dress shirts, long skirts and trousers but swaps out heavier fabrics for cotton and linen for summer.
Then, in the air-conditioned office, she always has a sweater, blazer or blanket handy.
See dressing for work as "an opportunity, not an obligation," says Daniel Post Senning, 47, etiquette expert of the Emily Post Institute.
Putting just a little bit of work to look put together can help you stand out and make people trust and respect you, he says: "People can see your effort and attention."
It's OK, and sometimes more fun, to be overdressed.
That's the case for Bird, who says many of her colleagues show up to work in cargo pants and flip flops, and joke that she's overdressed for the occasion.
"When you show up as yourself, you show up stronger," Bird says. "That's going to help you combat things like imposter syndrome, stand out for the right reasons, and for me personally, take up space in a male-dominated industry."
Of course, there are limits to wearing what you want at work: "That self-expression should never come at the expense of your ability to support yourself," Bird says.
In other words, don't let your clothes threaten your job security.
She doesn't agree with dress codes that focus on prohibiting "distracting" clothes at the office, which tend to police women's bodies more than men's, Bird says. "I think telling women that certain things that they wear is distracting is rooted in sexism," she says.
Instead, she prefers think about "appropriateness for the job," she says.
For example, if you work in IT and have to crawl under tables to wire equipment, pants might be a better idea than trying to move around in a skirt, Bird says.
Ultimately, "there is a way to express yourself without breaking the quote-unquote 'rules,'" she says.
Dressing sharply doesn't have to be expensive, says Post Senning, as long as your attire fits your office environment and your body.
Regardless of your wardrobe budget or office formality, make an effort to look tidy, whether you're wearing a suit or jeans and sneakers, Shellis says. That means ironing your garments, making sure there aren't any holes or frayed threads, and keeping your shoes clean.
"I'm a huge believer that you can have a $2,000 outfit on, but if you have bad shoes, you've just ruined the whole look," Shellis says.
If you wouldn't wear something to a family function with grandma and grandpa, don't wear it to the office, says Meghna Bhalla, 26, who works in strategy at a tech company in Toronto and talks about work culture on social media.
Another guideline is to consider if you'd feel appropriately dressed if you were suddenly called into a meeting with your manager, she adds.
It's better to err on the side of caution and dress more conservatively, at least as you're starting in a new office and still getting a lay of the land. "I hate to say it, but people are going to talk about your outfits if you don't dress the way you should," Bhalla says.
Overall, ask yourself about the brand you want to portray in the workplace, Bhalla says. It's not just about how well you do the job, she says, but also how you dress, how you present yourself, how you speak to others and what time you show up to the office.
"Do really well," she says, "and let your work speak for you, not your outfit."
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