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In a post-COVID working environment, employees aren’t sure how to dress for work anymore.
That became clear this summer when a TikTok video went viral of a job-seeker getting reprimanded for wearing shorts to a job interview. She said that when she arrived at the meeting, the recruiter asked her to reschedule and come back again in more suitable attire. The cadidate refused, and seemed confused as to why she was sent home in what she deemed an appropriate outfit—black shorts, a white shirt and a cardigan.
The video, which has racked up 6.2 million views and 144,000 likes so far, opened the floodgates of opinions on what clothes are suitable for the office. But it made one thing very clear: Workers are confused about what to wear to the office in 2024.
Fortune spoke with professional etiquette experts and fashion professors to get to the bottom of the new dress code for white-collar workers. They say that we're in a new era of a more casual dress code, and Gen Z employees in particular are on the vanguard of this trend.
Some traditional clothing items—like women’s high heels and men’s neckties—have fallen out of fashion, and are often no longer required even in formal workplaces. But there are still some no-nos when it comes to office style.
“The rules have relaxed, but now they're just ambiguous enough to get people into trouble,” Allison Shapira, CEO of Global Public Speaking LLC, a professional skills company, tells Fortune.
You can read more on what to wear to the office—and what to avoid—here.
Emma Burleigh
emma.burleigh@fortune.com
