Casual Friday: Sporty Trousers
This shoot didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted. Don’t get me wrong, I think it looks lovely (thanks to great work by Laura Nestor), but due to a couple of coincidences, the look is sportier than originally intended. That in itself would not be a problem either, if I wasn’t trying to illustrate that sporty trousers are OK for work. For many of you, this is probably way too athleisurely to wear to the office, but let’s try to make some relevant points anyway.
I like a good track-pant inspired trouser (Can I use ‘pants’ and ‘trousers’ in the same sentence? Well, I just did.) and there are a couple of tricks when it comes to wearing them more formally. First of all, the trousers themselves have to be good quality and not look like they are actually meant for running. The other thing that makes relaxed trousers more office-appropriate is paring them with at least one classic element – a blazer or pumps, for example.
This is exactly what my look fails to do: the top was supposed to be more structured and polished to balance the sportier bottom half, but it didn’t work out and I had to find a last-minute replacement. One option would be to go for a silk vest and a double-breasted jacket in neutral tones and keep the rest as is. Or the other way around: keep the clothes, but add a kitten heel or good quality pointy flats plus a fancy bag.
As I say, there is nothing wrong with the outfit per se – I love the colours and the freshness of it and I have, in fact, worn it to work exactly like this. If your office is relatively relaxed (or if you just don’t give a damn), you could do the same. And you can of course make it even more casual with a slogan tee and a slouchy denim jacket when you work in a cooler place than I do.
Let me know what you think. Would you consider wearing trousers like this to the office? Or anywhere?
Trousers by Essentiel Antwerp, sneakers by Nike, images Laura Nestor, MUAH Grete Madisson.
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this looks like most of my outfits 90% of the time, office or not 🙂
Hah, excellent decision(s) 🙂
This look is so refreshing, for office or for running errands. I’m curious how these pants would look with pumps!
Thanks! They look nice with pointy-toe shoes, unfortunately they are too short for my proper pumps – they should cover most of the shoes to look right.
You asked, right? 😉
I have to start with mentioning that you look great, the outfit goes well on you. Now to the office-wear. In my opinion, it is completely inappropriate to any customer-facing jobs (unless you’re a PT specialist) or places that have any type of dress code, not necessarily a strict one. But for any other occasion – offices that can care less if you’re in shorts or your PJs, shopping or relaxing on a weekend, I’ll take this look over jeans that look as if you were the youngest one in a very poor family every day (and twice on Sunday 🙂 ).
As to the comfortable office appropriate pants, my recent find and love are “dress pant yoga pants” (https://www.betabrand.com/womens/pants/dress-pant-yoga-pants-collection).
Hahahahaa, I certainly did ask 🙂 And it’s not surprising that some people cannot or wouldn’t want to wear this kind of outfit to the office. Personally, I think any dress code beyond “reasonably clean, not uncomfortably sexual” is completely unnecessary. That will of course not change the fact that dress codes exist and I do try to keep that in mind, whether in the office or writing the blog. That said, I’ve never checked what the European Commission dress code says exactly, so that kind of shows how much I care.
But even taking a more conservative approach, I don’t think any universal rules are possible. I know many customer-facing jobs in many countries where I think this look would absolutely not be a problem. I also know a couple of founders who I believe would gladly wear something similar to a day full of meetings without any negative feedback. And then there are all the advertising or design agencies where this look WOULD be suspicious, but not because it’s too casual – because it’s not cool enough. A similar idea with a darker palette, more interesting cuts (potentially the poor family jeans) and Balenciaga sneakers would totally work in that environment, though. The customers there value the understanding of the Zeitgeist much more than they value any corporate dress code.