For the first time ever, our workforce is made up of six different generations of workers, from boomers to zoomers. The average lifespan is going up and so is the cost of living, which means more workers are delaying retirement — just as Generation Alpha gears up to start their first jobs. This has presented some interesting challenges when it comes to intergenerational collaboration and interpersonal relationships in the workplace.
Today, in our weeklong spotlight on the workforce, we’re going to talk about a big one: Clothes — and what we wear when we go to work.
It used to be that men wore full suits at the office, and women wore nylons and heels. But, we’re a long way from "Mad Men" today. Especially post-pandemic, workwear has become increasingly casual, spearheaded by Gen Z and their take on what to wear to the office.
Danielle Testa, associate professor Arizona State University's fashion school, joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: If we're looking at kind of post-pandemic America, where do you think we stand in terms of workplace attire? Like what at this moment in time is acceptable to where to work?
DANIELLE TESTA: I think the answer to that is just incredibly broad because we have so many different interpretations of what is acceptable workwear right now. And even if you go from different companies, they're struggling to figure out what is acceptable workwear because we definitely have some organizations and some individuals that they got back in office, they're ready to go professional, they're ready to bring back out their blazers and their professional trousers.
But then you also have a different cohort and especially individuals entering the workforce after COVID who are to just show up in whatever they were wearing that day. It might be jeans and a T-shirt, it could be whatever they're interested in from a fashion standpoint. So it really varies.
GILGER: Yeah, it really varies. But it really feels like, as someone who's been in the professional world for 10 or 15 years, maybe more now that it's changed. Like, I think, especially here in Arizona, maybe it's gotten more casual, right?
TESTA: Very much so. So, even if you think about organizations that used to have, you know, their guidelines of dress in the workforce were business professional, so you're thinking, you know, suits, button-ups, ties for men, that kind of very professional attire.
They've dressed it down. It's now business casual. And even our interpretation of what is professional has changed as we don't expect to need to be at that highest level of a full suit, matching jacket and trousers, right. We don't see that as often anymore. It's just not necessary.
GILGER: Yeah. We really don't. Is it the death of the suit? Is the suit pretty much done for at this point?
TESTA: I don't think the suit will ever fully die. It changes, but I don't, I think it's the death of the suit. One thing we do see, especially if you look at client service organizations, so consulting firms, research agencies, lawyers, like areas like that. They're still going to be wearing a suit when they're having client engagement.
So it's changed even in a lot of those organizations that if you're going to the office to just do some computer work that day, research, whatever it could be, you don't need to wear your suit and tie. But if you're doing client interfacing, chances are you're still dressing up a bit more than you are in those office days.
GILGER: Even in Arizona, when it's 115 out. [LAUGHTER]
TESTA: There might be a little bit of flexibility in Arizona. You might not put the tie on, might give yourself a little breathing room as you go outside. But it's definitely still dressing it up a bit more than on the day to day.
GILGER: Yeah, because weather I think has got to be a part of this and culture like of regions, Arizona has always been a casual place, like more casual than where I grew up in New Orleans. And I remember my mom wearing like, you know, heels and nylons to work every single day. Like that's not necessary and probably has never really been necessary in this part of the country, right?
TESTA: Oh, very much so. Yeah, it is. And you know, with any trend, any type of dress, it very much varies depending on where you're at. But for us especially, weather is a huge indicator.
You're going to see, blouses for women are going to be the big way of showing your professionalism. But you're still going to look to lighter layers. We're huge on chiffon, your breathable lightweight, right, fabrics. We really see it in colors as well. So for instance, summer blacks is something we talk about a lot in fashion.
GILGER: OK. So what is the summer black first?
TESTA: Yeah, it really is just what it sounds like, just wearing a lot of black in the summer. So a full black dress with black shoes, your black purse. So just this really making a statement to stand out in a season when light colors, florals are so popular, you get this trend. That's, yeah, the opposite. I'm going to wear all black. Well, in the desert we're not as big on wearing all black when it's 110 degrees outside.
GILGER: It adds a little extra layer of heat. Yes, let's talk about the differences between generations. Now, we have Gen Z entering the workforce and having a very different point of view on what they should wear to work, what's acceptable to wear to work. Are they challenging a lot of those traditional standards?
TESTA: Very much so. So when we think about how different generations dress for work, I like to step back and just think about it from an economic standpoint of what do they own. What do they want to spend money on?
For a lot of people, apparel isn't their first choice to spend money on. That might not be me who, I love fashion, but for a lot of people, it's not the first choice. If we look at our older generations, your boomers, your Gen X, your older millennials who have been in the workforce for a long time. COVID hit, OK, We were home for a while, but when we went back to the workforce, most of us still had that work wardrobe. We still have that professionalism and also we have this indoctrinated idea of we should dress like at the office.
But then you have this generation primarily of Gen Z who they enter the workforce during COVID. So they don't have this pre-existing professional wardrobe, and a lot of them don't want to spend the money to buy it and see that, you know, I have this clothing. I like, I know what fits me. I know what I want to wear. Why should I buy a whole second wardrobe to wear to an office building?
GILGER: So, since we're on the topic of the pandemic there, how much did that change things? I think athleisure was already on its way up before the pandemic hit. Is it on its way out now?
TESTA: You know, I love that you bring that up because that's something we love to talk about in trends. Because as you said, athleisure was already trending and we were already seeing a lot of the trends that just grew exorbitantly during COVID, like the whole wearing a blazer over active wear, that became a huge trend during COVID. Well, it started before COVID.
We tend to see these cycles in fashion and I think this will make sense to most people, right? You wear, say leisure clothes for so often, all of a sudden you're just in the mood to dress up a bit, you just want to throw on something fancy. And that tends to kind of be how the trend cycle works as we go from leisure to formal and kind of up and down this cycle.
GILGER: So, are we in a more professional wave of this right now? Is that what is coming next?
TESTA: Yes. The short answer is yes. We're definitely building in professional. When we look at runways, things like that, we see a lot of classic professional looks. You see the trench coat, you see like early 2000 styles work wear blouses with clean cut bottoms. A lot of … the knee length wide leg pants and capris, very professional even from a shorts, for instance, perspective. So definitely entering that professional phase.
GILGER: So there are professional ways to do shorts. OK.
TESTA: Yep. There are professional ways to do shorts, believe it or not. How does all of this affect, you think, the official standard, the code of conduct, do those exist anymore?
GILGER: Oh, they do. But it definitely has a big impact on what businesses expect. And companies are still figuring out how to approach it because of course they want to maintain professionalism in the workforce and don't want to be sidetracked by what someone's wearing. And that's one reason for dress codes or guidelines, codes of conduct. But they also don't want it to be a sore point for their employees, right? Where they're having to overemphasize what they wear.
GILGER: Yeah, you want to make people comfortable. That must become a more contentious topic when you talk about younger people coming into the workplace, right, and really kind of challenging those. There's also a layer to this, I wonder if you've thought about this, of gender and sexuality kind of norms changing. Like it's no longer going to be all women have to wear heels in the workplace. You're not going to see that rule most places anymore.
TESTA: Very much so. And that is definitely another factor that really is pushing change in the workforce and what we wear.
GILGER: Last question, I want to ask you, Danielle, is just, I want to ask you if you think it really matters. And I think that this is interesting for someone in fashion, right, who clearly believes that what we wear says something and is important to a certain extent, right? Does it matter what we wear in the workplace? Does it matter in how we're perceived or how we want to be perceived?
TESTA: It very much does, there is definitely an element of perception. So, you know, it is the old saying of dress for the role you want, not the role you have. We perceive people based on our first impressions. So we might instantly say, oh, that person seems really professional or we might say, oh, that person looks like they just rolled out of bed, right?
And those give us different expectations for how that person's going to do the job that no way is accurate, right? It doesn't mean I do my job better if I do it in my pajamas than if I do it in a ball gown. But there is a perception there.
What's challenging about how what we wear matters today is that we're trying to find this balance between the professional nature that used to exist, the more casual nature that we've become comfortable with and what that means for, like you said, codes of conduct for what is acceptable work apparel and maintains that professional appeal.
Theme music for this series was composed by Seth Villaescusa.
