As we return to, or begin work this summer, we’re often confronted with shifts and changes to how we operate in our day-to-day lives. How we schedule our day, what we prioritize, how we manage our time and, rather controversially, how we dress and present ourselves may change.
The office siren aesthetic is a pop culture lightning rod causing recent scrutiny toward young women in the workplace. An edgy, feminine and sometimes sultry take on corporate dress, the aesthetic has been popular with digital natives and fashion influencers alike in the past couple of years.
The aesthetic is based upon femme fatales, incorporating bold, often dark makeup looks that make features pop, and can attract attention in ways that may be antithetical to the mode of dress it imitates.
It’s more of a cosplay of an office worker than an actual work-appropriate office uniform, as many have pointed out. This quality is played up to varying degrees. Some claim their takes on the office siren are work-friendly, while others parade around in their almost costume-esque reimagining of romanticized corporate America.
As the content surrounding it is made mostly by influencers who may very well have or will never step foot in an office, it has a certain quality that cannot be ignored. It has the same energy as putting on a grown-up outfit for the first time as a young girl, playing with your mom’s makeup or wobbling around in heels for the first time. A more mature and sleek adaptation of a corporate Barbie outfit.
It’s refreshingly hollow, not preachy or self-defining. It’s a new way to aesthetically present as a woman in the workforce without being overly referential or proving one’s right or worthiness to be there.
The office siren aesthetic doesn’t infantilize the wearer, but breathes new life into a style of dress that’s often associated with stiff or uptight qualities.
The office siren does not show up early or late, she just looks a certain way. It’s as simple as opening a catalog. It’s not moralistic in either direction. The clothes and makeup pointedly do not interfere with or express anything about the quality of work done while in them.
It has faced backlash, unsurprisingly, for its impracticality in a more professional setting, with varying degrees of criticism, mainly for its more risque dress elements. Whether it be more skin shown, more edgy looks or more form-fitting attire, it does toe the line, creating ambiguity behind its actual degree of wearability.
The more avant-garde and editorial, as well as the more scandalous iterations, have also faced backlash, in that they are somehow misappropriating office wear, or giving young women the wrong idea of what’s appropriate to wear to the workplace.
But there is no real evidence to justify the large backlash.
Ruby Nancy, associate professor of business communication at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, said she teaches dress code in her classes from a nuanced and multifaceted perspective, acknowledging students’ reality and the consequences for not adhering may entail.
“I think that it’s a lot less important than it used to be, but there are still some spaces where it’s just as important as it always has been,” Nancy said.
For as long as women have been in corporate spaces, their bodies have been a point of contention.
Nancy said that at the beginning of her career in the ‘80s, she experienced dress codes that placed almost Victorian-esque scrutiny on women.
“There was an expectation that, no matter the heat and whether or not a building was air conditioned, that women professionals wore pantyhose so that the bare skin of their legs and feet was not visible,” Nancy said. “Because, for some reason, that was considered not appropriate for the workplace.
Nancy said at the beginning of her career in the ‘80s, she experienced dress codes that placed almost Victorian-esque scrutiny on women.
“There was an expectation that, no matter the heat and whether or not a building was air conditioned, that women professionals wore pantyhose so that the bare skin of their legs and feet was not visible,” Nancy said. “Because, for some reason, that was considered not appropriate for the workplace.”
The cases of young women getting fired for taking inspiration from office siren lookbooks online are all almost entirely speculative, or expressed in comment sections with no real factual backing. According to Her Campus, dedicated time and effort were spent identifying mystery employees who faced termination as a result of their siren-esque indiscretions, with no findings.
It’s just not happening in the epidemic proportions that we’ve been led to believe. The content critiquing these lookbooks seems to far outnumber the amount of actual content documenting this style, turning it into yet another opportunity to completely divert from the actual point in workplace etiquette and guidelines, which should be productivity.
If someone’s behind a cubicle, who cares if their skirt is an inch too short, or if their calf might be exposed? Beyond basic norms of decency, it doesn’t make sense to get so wrapped up in something that’s ultimately inconsequential and so determined by arbitrary lines in the sand. The main factor in dress that influences productivity is the degree of comfort and self-assurance that someone’s outfit provides them.
Young women, who are surpassing men in college attendance and graduation, and joining the workforce in rapidly increasing numbers, are intelligent enough to know the difference between playing dress-up and going to work.
Most women aren’t trying to turn heads anyway, and it’s a rather niche style category. Those who are trying to emulate an office siren aesthetic have the wits to keep it at a minimum.
People are getting worked up over nothing in the preservation of norms that have little or no bearing on productivity or work itself. Common sense isn’t extinct after all, and our generation seems to be keeping up. We can recognize the difference between clubwear and work attire.
