DRESSED FOR SUCCESS

Clothes maketh a woman? Not really, but here’s how you can wear confidence on your sleeves

- SMITA TRIPATHI

THE SUBTLE ART OF conveying authority and competence through clothing and accessories, also known as power dressing, was amongst the casualties of Covid-19, with tailored jackets and dresses getting jettisoned for tracksuits and athleisure, at least waist down. But with workplaces reopening, women are now ready to ditch the loungewear and dress the part again.

Of course, power dressing was under assault even before the pandemic, with Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck and jeans, and Mark Zuckerberg’s T-shirt and jeans leading the charge. As millennials and Gen-Z populated new economy, companies saw no need for them to dress up. The big surprise, however, was JPMorgan Chase permitting a more casual dress code and Goldman Sachs making suit and tie optional in 2019.

In India, women traditionally wore only saris to work, but over the decades, it evolved to Indo-western and western wear. In sectors such as banking, saris still seem to be the norm, but that’s not the case in most other industries.

A look back