REMOTE WORK WARDROBE MAY BE HERE TO STAY
Women’s ideas of office wear have changed, shaking up companies that outfit them
“Once we are back in the off ice, which I do think will happen, it just seems like a pretty extreme jump to go back to wearing a blazer and pencil skirt and heels again.”
Rebecca Rittenberg
Google Ad Sales
In the Before Times, said Rebecca Rittenberg, a 28-year-old who works in advertising sales for Google in New York, one of her favorite parts about going to the office was “showing up in a funky, cool professional outfit.”
A smart pair of pants, colorful or patterned blouses, blazers, skirts, dresses, heeled boots and designer sneakers were all part of her wardrobe, which she used to express her personality and keep up with her stylish ad world colleagues.
Now, after eight months of working from home, and with Google saying workers won’t have to return in person until next summer at the earliest, a big swath of that apparel has been donated and replaced. Rittenberg ’s new definition of “work clothes” includes cashmere cardigans and joggers, headbands and other cozy garments that fall somewhere in the
“healthy in-between” of pajamas and blazers.
“I looked at my stuff I used to wear to the office all the time and thought, ‘When am I ever going to touch this again?’ ” she said. “Our mindsets have shifted a bit with this pandemic and the fact that we’ve all been working from home for so long. Once we are back in the office, which I do think will happen, it just seems like a pretty extreme jump to go back to wearing a blazer and pencil skirt and heels again.”
As many professional women have found themselves in an extended period of remote work, their notions of work wear have transformed, shaking up businesses that have sought to outfit them for the office. American office attire was already facing the effects of “casualization” — even Goldman Sachs loosened its dress code last year — but as the pandemic drags on, the shift is accelerating and may stick around for good.
Bloomingdale’s has watched customers increasingly seek out cashmere, f lat shoes, pants with elastic waistbands and other comfy apparel, while brands like Theory have rushed to add more casual clothing to their lines, said Denise Magid, an executive vice president at Bloomingdale’s who oversees ready-to-wear apparel.
“Regardless of when people go back to the office, I think people have grown comfortable with what they’re wearing,” Magid said. “I just can’t see people giving away the feeling of comfort.”
The retail landscape is changing with the new needs of the remote worker. Bankruptcies this year included Brooks Brothers and the owner of Ann Taylor and Loft. Rent the Runway closed all of its stores and removed its unlimited subscription option. In Gap Inc.’s latest quarter, net sales soared 15 percent at Old Navy and 35 percent at Athleta while plummeting 34 percent at Banana Republic.
Gap named a new head of Banana Repub
lic last week and said on an earnings call that the brand had been “working hard to update its product assortment” for an era of remote work, favoring more casual clothes over tailored garments and suiting.
Professional women have long been a lucrative market. Retailers see them as customers who tend to have money to spend and are willing to pay for apparel that will help them feel confident in the workplace, fit into busy lifestyles or offer up the right look for a “desk to dinner” sort of day. The attire is often dry-clean only, stiffer and more structured than weekend clothes, and modest in neckline and hemline. Many of those products — and how they are marketed — have now changed.
Last fall, Banana Republic’s site and social media featured colorful heels and models wearing “quintessential Banana Republic with a modern twist — think cozy cable knits and Italian corduroy, double-breasted plaid blazers and moleskin jackets.” This season, its site includes looks for virtual interviews and a “work leisure” section, with soft ponte leggings, turtleneck sweater dresses, cheetahprint socks and “coatigans.”
M.M.LaFleur, a seller of stylish women’s workplace apparel that was founded in 2011, has worked to recover from the hit it has taken this year. The brand has cut back on suiting for the spring and leaned more heavily into the “power casual” category, which it introduced several years ago.
“It was actually inspired by our San Francisco tech customers, who were saying, ‘I can’t wear dresses or a suit to work because then people think I’m interviewing, but I’m also not going to wear a hoodie and sweatpants like the engineers because that is so not me,’ ” said Sarah LaFleur, the brand’s founder and chief executive. “That style has become more mainstream now, so a lot of what we have been doing is really designing to that woman.”
It includes cashmere sweaters, a “jardigan” jacket and “better than jean” pants. LaFleur said that while sales of Zoom-friendly tops had initially outpaced bottoms during the pandemic, there was a sudden uptick in pants in June. She could relate. “After 100 days of being in sweatpants, I needed to feel like I was getting out of bed,” she said, adding that customers have gravitated to pants that look tailored but feel as comfortable as sweatpants.
Kathryn Minshew, the 35-year-old founder of the Muse, a site for job seekers in their 20s and 30s, said she had become far less tolerant of portions of her wardrobe that she once wore to the office, including trousers and certain dresses.
“I didn’t have very much clothing that was incredibly uncomfortable, but I had a lot of clothing that was normal work wear uncomfortable,” she said. “It was a little bit structured, a little bit tight, it pulls a little bit when you move in certain ways. A lot of work dresses and work tops for women that are fitted, they’re fine, but they’re not the most comfortable things.”
She anticipated that “many women will keep a part of their closet for powerhouse outfits and special occasions.” But, she added, “I do believe it will get smaller over time the longer that the pandemic goes on and therefore the more that we collectively get used to this type of living and working.”