FASHION

What to wear to work: the new rules

Forget suited and booted, the office aesthetic has relaxed. Here’s how to update your look. By Anna Murphy

Dress, £295, Rixo; blouse, £165, waistcoat, £145 and trousers, £155, Yolke; dress, £375, The Fold London
Dress, £295, Rixo; blouse, £165, waistcoat, £145 and trousers, £155, Yolke; dress, £375, The Fold London
The Times

So the office is back, if not five days a week for all of us, for three or four. Which means officewear is back too. Except, is it? To dress exactly as you did two years ago is to look a bit, well, two years ago.

Just as it’s important to know what suits you, and to ignore pressure to abandon it in favour of fly-by-night trends, it’s salutary to check in with bigger shifts, shifts that tend to be about more than just fashion, and to tweak and/or recalibrate how you dress accordingly. This is especially the case as you get older. Keeping your eye in is a way to keep looking and, just as importantly, feeling current.

To present as too suited and