Offices, Zoom, Home-Schooling: How to Dress for Our New Reality

Offices, Zoom, Home-Schooling: How to Dress for Our New Reality - The Wall Street Journal

Posted: 04 Sep 2020 12:00 AM PDT

IN A FREQUENTLY referenced scene from 1988's "Working Girl," Melanie Griffith's character Tess McGill rushes into her office scrambling to grab a ringing phone while yanking off her Reeboks and tube socks to slide on a pair of heels. Although workwear has evolved dramatically since the commuter-sneaker era—with athletic shoes even infiltrating boardrooms—many of us still observed a distinction between work clothes and home clothes until the pandemic hit. Then came the advent of WFH outfits that, while hardly "professional," took us from household chores to Zoom meetings to workouts to child-wrangling.

As our work calendars begin to fill again with actual, if socially distanced, professional interactions, round-the-clock loungewear no longer fits the bill. For women who are teachers or bankers or museum curators, wobbling between home and office life, this fall will be a curious exercise in dressing for uncertainty.

A transitional workplace environment calls for a new kind of hybrid dressing. Carine Vinett, 41, an advertising executive in New York and founder of accessory startup the Best Friend, has started seeing clients face-to-face, relying on feminine dresses by LoveShackFancy, sufficiently presentable yet notable for their ease. Real-estate agent Orrie King, also 41, has been hosting in-person showings in a wraparound dress with a nipped waist by Dôen that has a similar best-of-both-worlds appeal. Bethany McDaniel, 31-year-old founder of the natural skin care startup Primally Pure, works from her Southern California office full-time and is rarely without a Janessa Leoné hat—a foil for unwashed hair and built-in sun protection for all the outdoor meetings. And while her initial consultations are still conducted virtually, San Francisco plastic surgeon Dr. Carolyn Chang, 53, is back in the operating room, to which she wears a pair of elegant but slipper-like Bottega Veneta closed-toe mules.

Even women whose work remains strictly and indefinitely WFH are souring on sweats. "I'm teaching entirely from home, but I'm still planning to dress the way I did in the physical classroom," said 40-year-old Sari Edelstein, a professor of English at University of Massachusetts Boston. "Clothes allow me to shift into different roles and I don't want to give that up just because I'm at home." New York writer and editor Charlotte Rudge, 43, has no plans to return to the office, but she's shopping as if she is, with some modifications. "I always get excited for fall style…but now it's much more about finding nice things that are also really comfortable," she explained.

Though ready to get dressed again, women aren't necessarily ready to sacrifice the ease that came with dressing down. "[Customers] want easy…but they want to feel good," said Marcia Patmos of the brand and boutique M.Patmos, who reports that customers at her Brooklyn shop have been buying versatile pieces with a forgiving fit, like the square-necked cotton "Georgia" blouse from her line. Both Ms. McDaniel and Ms. Vinett are gravitating to utilitarian jumpsuits—"They're an easy way to look chic and pulled together," said Ms. Vinett. Dr. Deepika Chopra, 37, who holds a doctorate in clinical health psychology and calls herself an "optimism doctor," has her own formula: "[I've] been really into items that are soft and cozy, but structured, like linen blazers and casual suit sets."

France: Female students urged to dress 'provocatively' to protest sexist dress code - Euronews

Posted: 14 Sep 2020 06:53 AM PDT

Girls in French high schools were on Monday invited to dress "provocatively" to denounce sexism.

The #Lundi14Septembre (#Monday14September) hashtag was launched on social platforms after several female pupils complained they were refused entry to their high schools over the past few days because their clothes were judged to be "indecent", according to French media.

Messages posted online called for female pupils to dare to wear "crop tops, skirts, and makeup" to "protest inappropriate remarks and dress codes in schools that largely concern girls".

The movement was backed by the Mouvement National Lyceen — a union representing high school students — as well as feminist NGOs and charities against violence towards women.

"Our outfits are not the problem. The problem is harassment, assaults and rapes. Support for all those who refuse to make women feel guilty," Nous Toutes, an NGO combatting sexism and sexist behaviours wrote on Twitter.

Another, "Osez le féminisme" (Give feminism a try!), said that principals and school advisers "should focus on sanctioning boys when they harass girls, rather than scantily-clad girls."

"Shame must change sides! Educate boys and let girls choose their outfits," it added.

Marlene Schiappa, the former minister for gender equality, now minister for citizenship, also offered her support.

"Today #Monday14September, young girls spontaneously decided all over France to wear skirts, low-cut or crop tops and makeup to assert their freedom in the face of sexist judgements and acts. As a mother, I support them with sorority and admiration," she posted on Twitter.

According to the latest annual report from the High Council for Equality released in March, 99 per cent of French women affirm having been the victims of a sexist act or comment in 2019.

The report also found that younger generations are less tolerant of sexism and "more combative" with 92 per cent of young people considering sexism to be a societal problem.

Last week, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, which is visited by an average annual of 3.4 million people, issued a public apology after a woman wrote an open letter to the museum in which she explained she was refused entry by security agents because of her low-cut dress.

"I wonder if the agents who wanted to ban me from entering know how much they sexualised me; obey sexist dynamics, and if in the evening when they come home they feel that they have been within their rights not to respect mine," she wrote.

"I question the consistency with which the representatives of a national museum can prohibit access to knowledge and culture on the basis of an arbitrary judgment which determines whether the appearance of others is decent."