What is this hybrid workleisure trend and would you wear it to the office?

Style & Dazzler

What is this hybrid workleisure trend and would you wear it to the office?

The pandemic may take changed workwear equally we know it forever. Enter workleisure, a hybrid of athleisure and office attire that's all about comfort. Is it for you?

11 January 2022 07:11AM (Updated: 11 Jan 2022 01:19PM)

Emily Tan, a relationship manager with a local bank, used to vesture fitted dresses with heels along with a nice bag and a full face of brand-up to work. Then the pandemic and months of working from dwelling house happened, and when she returns to the role (like how some of us accept slowly started to do this twelvemonth), her dressing won't quite be the same as earlier.

"I think I'll wear looser-fitting dresses with flats, possibly fifty-fifty sneakers, and will probably carry a tote bag and just employ light make-up," she told CNA Lifestyle.

"When I was last in the role earlier (in 2021), there were no formal meetings, and many of the meetings were virtual. And with masks on, nobody actually knows who y'all are, and there's less point in dressing upward. For a contempo client meeting, I wore my previous OL (Office Lady) attire, but my boss just wore a polo tee. I recall it's definitely acceptable to wearing apparel more casually these days."

Workleisure is part athleisure and part traditional work attire.

The mode powers that be have bestowed a new style term upon this new way of dressing for piece of work – it'southward chosen workleisure.

It's office athleisure (itself a portmanteau of "able-bodied" and "leisure"; something you can habiliment both to the gym and to go out) and part traditional work attire. A sporty component with some kind of stretchy textile is usually involved – call back sporty leggings, a yoga top, a sports jacket or a hoodie.

Another cardinal feature is comfort. Afterwards a couple of years working from dwelling for many, and rolling up to Zoom meetings in T-shirts and loungewear, it's become adequate to run across your colleagues and bosses in more coincidental attire. It'due south also hard to go back to strong shirts, ties, pressed pants and pencil skirts, when you know you can exist and then much more than comfy in looser dresses, stretch pants and polo tees.

Lai Han Sam, a life motorcoach and founder of Lifework Coaching, said: "WFH has exposed us to the possibility of condolement while working, and fabricated us push the boundaries of beingness comfortable yet professional. I do observe the relaxing of the typical corporate formal attire to a slightly more casual way of dressing. Folks are dropping the ties and clothes pants and opting for different materials and a more than relaxed way. The boundaries of dressing more than casually really depends on the culture of your organisation, your industry, the role you are holding and the image you want to projection."

She added: "For a commencement, it may be amend to follow the guidelines for workplace attire, and adjust that over time. 1 must take into account the appropriateness and credence in your specific workplace. I know some clients who prefer to dress formally as information technology is a mode to cue their brains to shift into piece of work mode. A few questions to ask yourself to help you make up one's mind are: Volition it touch your professional brand adversely? Is in that location a framework of attire in your specific workplace and office? How will dressing differently bear upon your working style or productivity?"

For Serene Lim, a communications professional person, the workleisure trend is a welcome change. "I'yard lucky to have been in the media and communications industry for my career, where we get more than flexibility and creativity around what nosotros wearable," she said.

"Every bit long as you expect presentable and carry yourself professionally, at that place is no harm in conveying a gym bag or wearing tailored-looking sweat pants instead of a power suit. I can't speak for every industry, merely even in my previous MNC, at that place were men wearing casual and sporty shirts to work," she said.

"I think most outfits are skilful, every bit long as you don't look sloppy or like yous've just rolled out of bed. I could wear a Lululemon tank summit, a nice cardi, joggers and sneakers to work. And some pajamas tin look really chichi as separates. Shorts are probably still a no-no at almost offices, though," she added.

" The influence of tech companies has already made it acceptable to dress downwardly, or wear a hoodie to piece of work, even if you lot're a CEO. The pandemic and WFH mandate accelerated this trend. Moreover, attitudes around the function and the role it plays in our lives have shifted. Many companies are adopting a hybrid model, then there is besides less expectation to clothes up to the nines on the day you do get back to the office."

It seems that workleisure doesn't simply brand more sense in our new normal and is more than comfy, it's already been trending. Neo Lirong, fashion stylist and founder of White Trousseau, a manner and lifestyle make, said that celebrities like Hailey Beiber and Kendall Jenner and their extremely stylish takes on athleisure and workleisure have pushed the trend to new heights.

"People are influenced past Hailey Beiber'due south style of wearing sweatpants with blazers, and Kendall Jenner'south sporty chichi vibe," she said.

"Workleisure can be a very cute trend – a cropped superlative with track pants and a blazer is chichi, but you tin can withal look office-appropriate and professional. A sweat shirt with more formal pants is likewise a good hybrid await. At the same time, yous will exist then comfortable at work. Wearing yoga pants out can also be stylish – pair them with an oversized shirt, which is on trend right now. The look can still exist quite formal equally it has a collar. T-shirts with a blazer or a button-up shirt tin can await quite okay for the office as well."

Neo added: "Even if you piece of work in a banking concern, loftier-waisted wide-leg pants would be appropriate, and more comfortable than the onetime pencil skirts or tight-fit dresses. If you lot want to wear dresses when you go dorsum to piece of work, people are choosing looser and more casual dresses, compared to effigy-hugging frocks. Materials that are soft and loungey like silk or satin are in as well.

"As for shoes, people are living in sneakers. With no events and fewer formal gatherings, heels are expressionless. Even if you want to go for more formal shoes, y'all can choose leather loafers, which are still advisable for work. Bigger bags are on trend as well, for all our pandemic essentials like masks and manus sanitisers. These are the looks that are trending. If you lot wear your sometime stuff back to work, it might wait similar you did not update your wardrobe and didn't get with the pandemic program."

WFH has exposed the states to the possibility of condolement while working, and fabricated u.s.a. push the boundaries of being comfortable however professional.

The folks who work over at local fast fashion characterization Dear, Bonito fully understand the trendiness and benefits of beingness utterly comfortable at work, and are embracing this peradventure irreversible modify in work civilization. Terminal twelvemonth, they had an Hour initiative where Wednesdays are 'Article of clothing-Lounge-to-Work Day', with their 153 employees in Singapore encouraged to take a midweek-break and let it all hang loose.

A loungewear look from Dearest, Bonito. (Photo: Dearest, Bonito)

Co-ordinate to Liu Tingzhi, Head of Pattern at Honey, Bonito, "Workleisure is a newfound expression of workwear that pairs both condolement and style. It is the perfect balance that allows one to become from calls to couch. Materials that brand up workleisure apparel tend to lean towards cotton and rayon equally people are on the lookout for more breathable, easy-to-throw-on materials."

She added: "The trend brings about the sensibility of comfort dressing to suit the occasion, with an unspoken rule of looking presentable. Nosotros are definitely not expecting someone to rock up to the function looking similar they just got out of bed. Likewise much is when i looks unkempt, sloppy and generally ungroomed. I would suggest building your workleisure wardrobe with quality pieces that are versatile enough to be paired with jeans, pants, skirts, and yeah, you guessed information technology, loungewear."

What is this hybrid workleisure trend and would you wear it to the office?

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