Get your coat This season’s five most flattering styles
Forget everything you thought you knew about ‘office-appropriate’. Caroline Leaper charts the swing towards personality-led style and Isabel Spearman hits refresh on the wardrobes of four business leaders
Power dressing now is all about showing some personality and even the stuffiest workplaces have loosened their ties – at least a little – in the last few years, allowing us to express ourselves more at the office.
As an image consultant and style adviser to professionals working at the very top of some of the UK’S largest companies, Isabel Spearman,
The Daily Telegraph’s columnist, has watched the workwear revolution unfolding in front of her. You could say she’s helped propel it. “It’s all about confidence,” Spearman says. “If someone feels great and looks polished, then they’re able to do their job better.”
Curious to see this in action, we asked Spearman to demonstrate her approach on four different female business leaders, introducing them to smart-but-stylish labels they weren’t familiar with already, new work-ready silhouettes, and fresh ways of thinking about what they can throw together at the crack of dawn, with eyes still closed as they start running out the door to catch that commuter train.
1 Clarissa Coleman, litigation partner at K&L Gates
“The dress code has changed since I started in 1998,” Clarissa Coleman considers. “It was always navy or black with a white blouse, and trouser suits, so quite masculine. Now, though, we wear a lot of dresses, and more colour. That said, I’m a lawyer, so I still have to look the way a client wants their lawyer to look.”
As a partner in the Complex Commercial Litigation and Disputes group at K&L Gates’s London office, Coleman finds that LK Bennett, The Fold and Karen Millen offer her the most suitable yet stylish options. “I’ve got suits from 2000 that I still wear, but I like to mix in new pieces from places like Zara and H&M to bring them back up to date,” she says. “I play with the fabrics too, so if I’m in a black jacket and skirt, the skirt might be leather.”
Spearman suggested adding Max Mara and Libby London to Coleman’s repertoire. “Of everyone here, Clarissa probably has to think the most about what is or isn’t an appropriate look for her job,” she explains. “Also feeling comfortable is very important to her.” Rather than taking her out of her comfort zone, Spearman worked to elevate what Coleman wears day to day. “I copied her own style but tweaked it,” she explains. “She said she wouldn’t have worn camel usually, but it’s a really good neutral colour to break up navy and cream. Also the proportions of a longer jacket with the skirt feel different from a standard suit.”
2 Claire Trehearne, director at UBS and founder of CT Talent
As a director at financial services company UBS for more than a decade, Claire Trehearne has long been committed to traditional suiting. “I’ve just made quite a big turn though,” she says. “Previously, I would have been in the boring pencil skirt, but now I’ll go into the office in a looser pair of smart trousers, a shirt and trainers. I love it.” The prompt for the change has been a boost in self-esteem after founding her own consultancy firm teaching companies about the new era of flexible working. “I have two hats,” she explains, “one is working with tech and business people at the top of the house at UBS, and the other is running my new company, helping organisations to keep their employees, before, during and after an absence.
“You’re not just trying to conform,” Trehearne says of the effect she sees when she wears something more exciting than anonymous pinstripes to work. “It brings extra confidence in meetings. Instead of keeping up with the Joneses and not being yourself, you’re more relaxed when you’re talking to people and they take in what you’re saying. You’re more engaging.”
To meet Trehearne’s brief, Spearman introduced her to Cefinn’s stretch wool suiting – sharp enough to cut a bold silhouette in the boardroom and, because of the stretch, soft enough to feel as though you’re padding around in something more casual. “She can wear it with her trainers and look cool and smart, or switch into her heels if she wants to impress for a meeting,” Spearman notes. “That suit comes in navy or poppy, but because of Claire’s personality and her blonde hair, I loved the red on her.”
“This is a bolder version of my normal new look,” Trehearne says. “You can scan different departments [throughout big companies] and see different tribes – people in tech dress one way, people who are front of house dress another, but there are very few who are individual. People buy standard office suits without really thinking about it, and that’s all down to confidence. Since I’ve started turning up to work wearing more interesting things, everyone keeps stopping me to ask ‘where did you get that?’ It feels really good.”
3 June Angelides, founder of Mums in Technology
“I started my business two months into my second maternity leave, just as any crazy person would do,” laughs June Angelides, who founded her business Mums in Technology back in 2015. “When I went back to work after my first child I had suffered a real dip in confidence and I didn’t want that to happen with the second. I hoped to feel like I’d gained some skills and used my brain, but when I Googled ‘courses for mums on maternity leave’ the only thing that came up was yoga.”
Angelides now delivers coding classes for new mothers, infiltrating businesses like Microsoft and M&S, whilst offering childcare on site. Her working wardrobe has two demands; more casual pieces for when she’s teaching, and formal for when she’s pitching to get new blue chip companies on board. “Typically for a session I would wear a smart pair of jeans, a fun top and nice boots,” she says. “I like to feel comfortable and a bit glamorous. But for meetings it is dress to impress. Something in a memorable colour, nothing dull, and always with heels.”
Whatever the occasion may be, a priority for Angelides is finding nofuss sartorial solutions that require minimum effort to pull together. “With two small children [and a third
on the way] time is definitely of the essence,” she says.
Spearman’s solution? Easy dresses that can be dialled up or down, plus heeled ankle boots to offer a break from the traditional court shoes.
“Burgundy looks great on June,” she says. “I’ve introduced her to Goat, a label that she hasn’t worn before. It has so many dresses in different, brilliant colours and fabrics which will last for years and don’t date as they’re bold colours, but style-led rather than trend-led.
“Fashion can be very fast, but if you’re growing and developing a work wardrobe you want pieces you can rely on and come back to.”
4 Caroline Graham, change management director at Barclays
“Caroline wasn’t used to wearing prints at work, so I was determined to find her something that would introduce her to that idea,” says Spearman. She landed on the Haslemere dress from The Fold for Graham, who has worked at Barclays for 10 years. “She’s very corporate at work and usually wears quite formal dresses, but she’s very feminine as well, so it was great to show her pieces from this brand as it specialises in dresses that tick both of those boxes.”
As a programme director within the Barclays International Structural
Reform Programme, Graham needs to look the part when routinely meeting senior stakeholders and proposing improvements to the business. She also needs to look approachable as she supports her own team, plus leads the firm’s Win London women’s career development network.
“People really care about what they wear to work here,” she says. “There has been such a movement towards lovely dresses and shoes, especially with the millennial women who are being really quirky with their style now. You see far fewer suits and a lot more comfort. I love looking at what people are wearing.”
Graham admits that she often shops for workwear with blinkers on, returning to the same old stores on her lunch break. “I hadn’t heard of The Fold before, so I’m immediately going to sign up to get their newsletter,” she says. She’s a stickler for good shoes. “I never wear trainers unless I’m in the gym,” she laughs. “I like to wear smart flats on the commute, but I have about 15 pairs of heels in the office. My favourite designer is Lucy Choi; she does a flat, mid or high heel, and I always go for the high.”