It is October and autumn has inevitably begun! The warm summer weather in September has not changed our dressing habits yet, we did not have to select new sets of outfits. Our days started with the usual summer routine.
Basically, we enjoyed summer since April and it is not easy to accommodate with the sudden change in weather.
Writing about the rules of business dress code is an ungrateful task, as there are a lot of details from shoes to scarf and accessories that can never be described with the utmost depth.
This is not my intention.
Just an observation: How and why I simplified it.
The different aspects of new trends originating from operation of the business world in recent years, left more and more permanent traces in style and in the selection of the individual pieces of clothing.
One of the biggest impacts is multifunctionality. Our days are varied: Sometimes it starts with a meeting, followed by writing an offer, continues with another meeting. Then we must be present at the Mother’s Day celebration in the kindergarten, and finally we end up at a gala dinner of a professional association at the other end of the city. Perhaps you went to the gym in the morning. Perhaps you read about a significant cool off in the temperature on the Internet yesterday? There are many aspects to consider when choosing our morning outfit.
The most important of these is to make the selected outfit as comfortable as possible. Would you be able to go through a day in twelve-centimeter high-heels, in tight skirts, or be careful not to make your sophisticated blouse creased by the afternoon? However, comfortable dressing is understood differently in the business world and does not equal to sporty type of clothing, so fortunately, the clever line of elegant pieces can help us getting through the whole day without the feeling of being under- or overdressed. A dark grey basic, straight dress, that ends under the knees, can easily be made into an evening dress with a so-called statement necklace, which harmonizes well with the simplicity, the shape and the color of the outfit.
We know more and more about the human body, anatomy, joints and muscles – health has become a fashionable aspect of dressing. We already know that a few years of wearing high-heels has an impact on the spine, the neck, the posture, the whole body. Fortunately, there are shoes and boots designed for this complex need. Fashionably but consciously – even the size, shape, width of a bag, the length of the strap has different piece of information when one feels that in a few years there is a slight, but obvious asymmetry between the two shoulders. This asymmetry develops even faster, if a laptop is also included in the bag …
The selection of our outfit for the day becomes even more complex when we have a morning meeting with a German and an afternoon meeting with an Italian business partner. The more aware we are of the intercultural differences – for example, the meaning of cultural signals – we must try to find more “average” outfits, in order that none of our business partners finds our morning outfit too much or the afternoon outfit too dull.
It may also happen that a Hungarian manager of a big IT company appears in a hoody and short trousers at a meeting – his generation does not want to get bothered by wearing a suit, they have other things to care about.
There is a great need for “well fitting”, matching and easily variable pieces of clothes, because fewer people have enough time to think about what to wear each day. Some people already have so-called capsules in their wardrobes, so the matching pieces on a hanger make it easier to start the day. Not to mention that – after obtaining the necessary routine – a composition can be both regular and aesthetic and can be compiled in a few minutes.
The business is more and more lean as well as the attitude to it. The loss is an uncomfortable or unhealthy piece of clothes, and the concept of casual wear gets new meaning because today’s working days are much more “tailored” and transformed than just a few years ago.
If someone’s attention is distracted when reading a contract, because of an uncomfortable dress or tight pants, or because the length of the skirt allows only a limited foot rest, it can have a negative effect on the quarter’s performance figures.
The concept of time management refers to an increasing part of life – dressing and fashion are not exempted from this. There is no time to go around the city for a single piece of clothes, there is no time for the latest trends in every season and no one believes that clothes really matter so much. The appearance is primarily optics. Everyone has a different shape, a different shade of hair, skin and needs to find the materials, colours, and lines that make the most attractive appearance.
In other words, it is not the attractive, elegant appearance that went out of fashion – but health, comfort, and practicality became trendy. Lifelike dressing as one of the possibilities of people in the twenty-first century.
