We spend a lot of our days chatting with each other about things we see online, trying to make sense of it all. As everyone confronts the new coronavirus crisis, many of us are facing drastic changes, including illness, job loss and abandoning the office to work entirely from home.
This week in the Styles newsletter, Wait …, Sapna Maheshwari, a business reporter, and Vanessa Friedman, our fashion director and chief fashion critic, look at one of the quirkier sides of this new reality: What does “dressing for work” mean now?
Vanessa: How’s working from home going?
Sapna: Working from home has been OK — as long as my fiancé and I aren’t making calls in the same room. I miss the conveniences of our office, including my large monitor and the coffee machine.
Vanessa: Some people have suggested that a silver lining in all of us being barred from the office is the opportunity to renounce office dressing, and do that thing so associated with freelance life: work in your comfort wear or fleece pajamas. I’m not so sure. What do you think? Dare I ask … what you are wearing now?
Sapna: I have totally embraced the dress code in Chez Maheshwari. I’m currently donned in standard athleisure garb: Lululemon leggings, an exercise top, a zip-up and socks. It is supremely cozy! What about you?
Vanessa: I worked from home as a freelancer for four years back in the day, so I have some hard-won thoughts on this. Where I got to pretty fast was: Dress like you are going to work. Personally, I need all sorts of maybe-silly signals to my brain that it is now in work mode instead of home mode. One way that is achieved is by walking out the door. The other is by creating rituals that have the same effect. I find if I just move from bed to computer (or computer on bed), I don’t think as crisply. It’s better if I brush my hair, tuck in my shirt and put on shoes, rather than slippers. Plus, what about videoconferencing? Do you do the professional-on-the-top, party-on-the-bottom thing?
Sapna: I’ve definitely continued to straighten my hair and put on some mascara and lip gloss for videoconferencing, along with a slightly nicer top. But I can’t justify putting on jeans right now or even *gasp* a dress and tights. Also: Why wrinkle clothing that no one will really see? I’m actually about to put my Rent the Runway Unlimited subscription on hold. I had subscribed because of a few important work meetings and baby showers, which have since been canceled or postponed.
Vanessa: I asked subscribers to the fashion newsletter, Open Thread, what they thought and there were some interesting divisions. One group suggested investing in a kind of working-from-home athleisure, that might be slightly more upscale than the ratty pajamas I love, or what you wear to the gym, so you get the psychological cues of change but also the comfort.
Another school of thought: Jeans and other more formal wear (you know something major has changed in the office dress code when jeans are considered acceptable work attire!) were necessary as a physical cue to eat well and sit up straight and do jumping jacks — or whatever home workout you are adopting.
And a third group was all for the blow dry and nice dress. I wonder if this is really about a generational divide between those who started working when it was casual-everyday, and those for whom casual Fridays alone were a big leap?
Sapna: After all, Mark Zuckerberg, the C.E.O. of one of the world’s biggest companies, is famous for his hoodies. The casualization of the American workplace is a very real trend — it’s come up with Madewell’s I.P.O., which like so many other things is apparently on hold right now, and Boston Consulting Group did a bunch of research on it not long ago — and I’ve definitely observed that in my own wardrobe. At my first real job back in 2009, my closet was full of J. Crew cardigans, silk blouses and pencil skirts. I had this one blue dress from Banana Republic that I loved. But that’s such a far cry from my current work closet.
Vanessa: I know! I think I had a black suit dress from DKNY that I thought was so chic and now makes me cringe. And I probably still get more dressed up for work than many.
This will either be very good for online shopping because we will get bored of our wardrobes very soon, or very bad because everyone is afraid of what is happening with the economy, and no one really needs a new outfit for a virtual party.
Sapna: Ha! Part of my delight with wearing athleisure right now is that I’m convinced I will work out at some point today. The gyms in New York City have closed, but the parks are open. Or I could check with the other worker in my “office” to see if he’s OK with me streaming a class on our television.
Online shopping will be interesting to watch, especially as temporary store closures rack up after Apple’s announcement on Friday. Are we going to see major retailers pivot their home pages to cozy sweaters and stretchy pants? Or perhaps they should encourage shoppers to dress up, like you’re saying!
Vanessa: I wonder whether at the end of this there is a big swing of the pendulum away from athleisure because MY LORD, WE WILL BE SO SICK OF LEGGINGS — will we have our own version of the New Look? — or whether sleepwear as workwear will become the new normal? What’s your bet?
Sapna: I’ll go all in on athleisure. Maybe this is the turning point we need for people to move past jeans and wear athleisure to the office. We might return to a totally transformed office, one that mirrors the world inside our apartments right now!
Vanessa: I’m not sure I’m ready for that.
(This conversation has been edited).