As remote and hybrid business models have made workwear vague and amorphous, the lines between casual and corporate style are increasingly blurred. The latest looks to be indoctrinated into the laundry list of niche style aesthetics? Corporate sleaze—an offshoot of indie sleaze—and office siren.
Gen Z is turning to the past for style inspiration. If Rachel Green wore it to her job at Ralph Lauren in Friends season 5, it’s good to go. Think skinny glasses, loafers with knee-high sheer socks, and elevated basics in a palette of grays and browns.
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Fall-winter Fashion Week 2024 saw the influence of the office siren in various collections, with shows like Prada, Retrofête, and Tory Burch sending models down the runway in business casual with an undoubtedly sexy edge.
In New York, cult-favorite designers Luar and Sandy Liang celebrated the power of pleats and a structured silhouette. Across the pond in London, SRVC showed a collection aptly called Human Resource. The show was an ode to the corporate commute, as models walked a bus turned runway in asymmetrical blazers and deconstructed button-ups.
Millennials—or anyone who went out in the late aughts to early 2010s—may be having fashion flashbacks. While Miu Miu darling Bella Hadid is the latest muse for corporate sleaze—often seen putting a feminine, sultry twist on office basics—the look stems from a time when business casual was the norm, all hours of the day or night.
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In the era of indie sleaze (c. 2008–2014), party girls both real (Alexa Chung and Chloë Sevingy) and faux (Jenny Humphrey on Gossip Girl) alike were wearing business casual to the club.
At Paris Fashion Week, Jennifer Lawrence brought corporate sleaze back in a three-piece suit, contrasting the structured silhouette with a sexy, plunging neckline—putting a feminine edge on what can be a stuffy office staple.
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