Aug. 3, 2025 You probably could chart workforce attire history with a brief trip through my closet.
Or, OK, my closets — plural. I’ve lived through the days of business suits on TV news, to the era of tall boots and sweater dresses, to the athleisure movement when suddenly joggers were OK at work and now the more recent two-piece set and jumpsuit stage.
So it probably wasn’t surprising that a recent LinkedIn post called “What to wear to work in 2025” grabbed my attention.
“Would you wear it to dinner with grandma? If not, she says, skip it at the office as well,” one person quoted suggested.
That’s one litmus test. The truth is ask 100 people what “business casual” means and you’ll likely get 100 different answers.
The Washington Post recently weighed in, compiling a list of 39 rules to guide your wardrobe selections courtesy of Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of America’s iconic manners expert and co-author of “Emily Post’s Business Etiquette.”
Among the highlights: Jeans are acceptable any day of the week, as long as they’re not ripped and not too baggy. And leave the tight pants out of the workplace.
No flip-flops. As she simplified: If you’d wear it to a pool, don’t wear it to work.
T-shirts are OK, too, as long as they “look fresh and crisp.” And when in doubt, ask others to get a better understanding of what “works” in your workplace.
Around the same time, The Wall Street Journal published an article about “CEO Pink” — a muted shade of dusty pale pink dubbed the new “power neutral” that female executives are adopting.
“It’s as if the quiet-luxury beiges of recent seasons have been washed in rosé,” the story said.
I mean, that does paint an appealing picture.
Nishi Somaiya, the global head of private banking, lending and deposits at Goldman Sachs, was quoted in the piece.
“It makes me feel confident in an understated way. In dusty pink, I can totally own a situation,” she said.
And, in the interest of gender equity, the BBC weighed in on men’s shorts at work.
It cited a 2022 poll in which 66 percent of Britons said it was acceptable for men to wear shorts in the office, up from 37 percent in 2016. It quoted the CEO of a social media marketing agency whose team members wear shorts to the office, including to a London meeting at a bank’s headquarters.
“We did get really strange looks,” the CEO said. “Everybody there was in suits, and it was boiling hot. But we’re a creative agency, and we went as we would go to our regular meetings.”
If a company has a problem with the staff’s attire,” they probably aren’t the right fit to work together,” the story said.
Post captures it simply: “If you have the kind of workplace where shorts are OK, you already know it.”
Bottom line: It’s hard to draw any kind of conclusion about what the new rules of office attire look like, other than to acknowledge they can vary widely by industry, geography and company culture. And they’re continually evolving.
To that point, ladies, if it’s time to clean out your closet, I encourage you to consider supporting the EmBe Dress for Success program, which will hold its next Refresh Your Closet sale Aug. 14-16.
I stopped by the last one to help promote it in the spring, and it was a great reminder to ensure your new or gently used office attire potentially finds a new home. If you’re looking for a wardrobe update yourself, you could find one here too.
The work that Dress for Success does to help women gain job skills and career confidence — along with work apparel — can make the difference in charting a new career path.
I also enjoy donating my more casual clothes to the “boutique” created for women and children at Children’s Home Shelter for Family Safety and to area thrift stores that support important missions in our community.
I think my favorite piece of advice on workplace apparel was from this blog, Corporette.com, which offered guidance for Gen Zs entering the workplace and trying to dress appropriately.
Among the more amusing questions it suggested asking — for example, “Does any part of the outfit make noise in the hallway?” — was this more pointed one:
“Does the outfit represent the Me I want to be seen as in business?”
That’s the right note of self-reflection. It is called “work” for a reason — you’re not necessarily supposed to be as comfortable as you would be on your couch or put together in the same way you’d be for a night out. I do find dressing specifically for work puts me in the best mindset to work more effectively — even if I’m not leaving the office much that day. As for what exactly that looks like in 2025, well, when you’re your own boss, as I am, you’re left to figure out evolving style on your own. I suspect that means I’ll have plenty of donations ahead too.