JOANNE
Watkinson the ties that bind
Prior to the pandemic, from Monday to Friday, the City of London would have been swarming with men and women in sharp suits moving very quickly about their business and looking rather important.
For the past 13 months or so, the majority of those people will have been working from home, wearing nothing more restrictive than loungewear.
I imagine the prospect of returning to the office and to starched collars and restrictive clothing fills them with dread, so much so, that many of the City’s big firms are being lobbied to drop their formal dress codes in favour of a more casual approach.
Aside from the negative impact this could have on the brands that rely heavily on city workers’ custom (TM Lewin, Reiss and Thomas Pink to name a few), why do City workers need to wear a suit anyway?
If they aren’t in customer-facing roles, who are they dressing up for?
Do they need to be in shiny shoes and sharp tailoring to take one another seriously?
While, admittedly, I am not quite sure what it is City workers do, I believe it involves large sums of money, so perhaps wearing formal clothes keeps them sharp, on the ball? But does that suggest that dressing for comfort makes your brain work more slowly, less effectively?
If so, how on earth have they got through the last year working at home without making catastrophic errors of judgment?
I’m a big fan of American legal dramas and, I confess, a large portion of the appeal lies in the wardrobe department.
The men are in impeccable tailoring, while the women get to wear an array of incredible blouses, skirts and elegantly cut dresses (think Victoria Beckham before she went all casual on us). UK legal dramas aren’t nearly as glamorous.
I know I wouldn’t fancy having to wear a suit every day. For women it’s even more difficult as it inevitably involves wearing a heel.
Perhaps the City of London will come to a compromise on its strict dress codes, a tie and jogging bottoms, or hoodies and lace-up shoes, perhaps?