Gen Z workwear marries self expression and restraint. Picture: Supplied Gen Z is nothing like any of the generations ahead of them. They speak a different language, hold different priorities and dress differently.
It’s a generation whose work ethic was shaped in the pandemic and so too, their approach to corporate culture. Gen Z workwear gives corporate conservatism the middle finger without sucker punching the value of serious. It’s a wardrobe step-up from the crass frills and shoulder pads of the eighties and the anywhere but nowhere look of the nineties.
Fashion expert Tanya Nel ofRaggle Taggle Gypsysaid the gear change is simple. “Gen Z have grown up in an environment where self-expression is easier and far more encouraged than it ever was for previous generations,” she said. “The world they’ve known has been a very liberating one.” It’s almost like a sense of permission, but not permissiveness.
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Nel said Gen Zs don’t see clothing as something that must obey hierarchy. “They’re used to fewer rules and that filters into how they dress. They don’t have the same traditional notions of hierarchy or respect for elders because they’ve grown up seeing themselves on the same level as everyone else.
That creates a mindset where they feel they should be allowed to wear whatever they want, wherever they want.” “A decade or so ago we had to wait for a magazine to line up trends once a week,” Nel said. “Gen Z now have trends updated in real time on their phones. So naturally, they express themselves more boldly.” “No matter how expressive fashion becomes, there will always need to be a line in business.
You cannot wear anything you like. The workplace needs rules that create a respectable environment for everyone and that includes not showing too much of your body.”
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