Work and weekend closets: do we need limits?

Boundaries are important for children, friendships, and work. Before the pandemic they were also vital to my wardrobe.

Back then, my clothes were meant for the office (a smart dress, a pencil skirt), for hanging out at home (jeans), or for Saturday drinks (a silk top, maybe). Wearing the same floral blouse to a midweek and weekend get-together felt wrong, as if I was tarnishing my professional personality or tainting my free time with work. Then the lockouts happened and I succumbed to The Great Slobification.

When the world opened up again, I thought wardrobe divisions would be back, maybe even strengthened. For some, they have. Polly McMaster, CEO and co-founder of women’s workwear brand The Fold, says many of her clients in professional services buy elegant suits and dresses: “We’ve seen a sharp increase in tailoring and bold colors [as well as] tight-fitting clothes. The clothes reinforce their professional identities: “It’s part of their presentation,” she says. Other employees tell me of their delight in returning from the workplace, shrugging off their pantsuits and changing into relaxing jogging bottoms.

Yet for me, the blurriness continued. I earmark a smart jacket or pant for formal events, interviews or meetings, but my weekend clothes are increasingly interchangeable with workwear. I wear white Nike high tops for the office and a stylish BA&SH floral blouse for coffee with friends. This was helped by the relative informality of the FT office. No one expects high standards of tailoring from a journalist (apologies to chic colleagues I may have slandered).

No one expects high standards of tailoring from a journalist

The broader casualization of office attire also plays a role. “Since the 1970s, there has been a constant movement to allow for more personal expression in clothing,” says Richard Ford, a professor at Stanford Law School and author of Dress codes: how the laws of fashion made history. “Initially, this was countercultural, but now it’s an established part of the company ethos. The growing influence of technology has caused others to follow its dress code.”

Yet this blurring of dress codes annoys me, the latest sign that the distinction between the two worlds – business and private – has collapsed. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg saw this more than a decade ago when he argued for “one identity”: “The days when you had a different image to your friends or co-workers and other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly,” he told David Kirkpatrick in a 2010 interview for Kirkpatrick’s book, The Facebook effect. Had it come to this? The founder of Meta had become my style guru. Surely I needed to resurrect some wardrobe boundaries?

Some industry insiders aren’t convinced by my nostalgic nostalgia for a forked wardrobe. Amy Smilovic, founder and creative director of Tibi, is horrified. “She encourages overspending, overcrowding and overpacking,” she tells me on Zoom. “This concept of having different cabinets for different needs is a made up marketing need. Much of this is [about] get people to spend.”

Most clothing is adaptable, she argues: A blazer can be worn with running tights to the gym; no need for a special hoodie. Shirts should be worn both on the weekend and at work, but styled in different ways.

Lee Woodruff, author and presentation consultant, agrees: “I can join a private equity firm [in] black trousers and jacket; He’ll wear Nikes but I’ll show off the jewels.

Versatility is more important than ever, according to John Lewis who has observed the growing demand for dresses, including trench coats and Mary Jane flats, that can be worn at the weekend and to the office. “Things are blending more,” says Queralt Ferrer, the department store’s fashion director. “People wear jeans with a blazer to the office.”

My latent desire to share clothes is a setback, says Lynda Gratton, professor of management practice at London Business School and author of Reengineering Work: How to transform your organization and make hybrid work for everyone. “We have more selves. Everyone could have their own suit,” he says. “The main differential is not the home versus the office, but customer-facing versus non-customer-facing,” he says. As he points out, the office is just one element of work.

This perspective is championed by personal stylist Henry Wilfrid. When he meets with his clients, who work predominantly in professional services, he asks them to compile a pie chart to determine what percentage of their day is spent at desks, presentations and meetings. Typically just a small amount requires a “killer look,” which might boil down to styling with jewelry, a smart jacket, or pristine hair. “Polish is not so much the clothes, but the care and the care,” he says.

One aspect his customers are reluctant to give up is comfort. “We’ve gotten used to not wearing a narrow-toed shoe or a piece of tailoring that cuts into your waist when you sit down,” she says.

Reflecting on my previous home-work wardrobe split, I realize it was a waste to segment and left behind so many unworn clothes. If I could learn to disconnect from work on the weekend – difficult with a smartphone always at hand – then perhaps I could overcome my rigidity about the division of my clothes. Just don’t let Zuckerberg know that he was always right.