Many people traded in slacks for sweatpants during the worst of the pandemic and are now figuring out what to wear back to the office. Here's what that looks like, from Wall Street to Capitol Hill.

Back in 1999, luxury clothing designer Tom Ford made a prediction about how technology might influence the way people dress in the not-so-near future.

"Life is changing. And we're working more and more at home, more and more from our computer screen, which in the future — I mean, there are several ways this could go," he said in an interview with Charlie Rose. "A lot of people think fashion might just die because we're just at home. You can be working in your underwear and a T-shirt. Who cares? Who's going to see you?"

Did his prediction become your reality during the COVID-19 pandemic? If so, you're not alone.

As many people worked from home during the pandemic lockdown, companies' formal dress codes dissolved and office employees no longer needed to dress up. Slacks were replaced by sweats. People ditched heels. And T-shirts started to dominate.

Now that many of those workers are returning to the office, we seem to be entering a new era of work wear. This has sparked the question: What should I wear to work?

As part of NPR's Work Life series, NPR's Morning Edition spoke with people who are navigating that question. They include 27-year-old Jeremy Gonzalez, who started working on Capitol Hill last November.

"When I first started coming in, even on recess days, I would be wearing a suit and a tie or even my three-piece suit," he said. But after waves of pandemic variants and a fluctuating hybrid schedule, he's now more inclined to wear jeans and a button-down or a polo shirt.

Some others in politics are noticeably dressing down, too.

When the leaders of the Group of Seven nations took their group photo in Germany last month, something peculiar happened: They all ditched their ties. It was believed to have been the first time in 40 years that a G-7 portrait was taken without ties and could be seen as yet another signal that formal dress codes are becoming more relaxed.

Looser dress codes have found their way into another notoriously formal work culture — Wall Street — where for men, suits have traditionally been the only option.

Now, "the operative word is confusion," says Ken Giddon, whose family runs Rothman's, a men's store in Manhattan. "People really don't know what to do."

With offices opening back up, he has noticed folks are less certain about what to wear.

"Do you wear dress slacks to work? Do you wear khakis? Can you wear jeans?" he said. "Nobody really has drawn the line, and nobody really knows what the right answer is."

His advice is to start with a dress trouser and blazer, assess the vibe of the office and go from there.

Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan agrees — err on the dressier side.

"What I've noticed is that there's really a return to sort of fashion with a capital F," she said. "I think people who loved it before, continue to love it. And there's something about creating boundaries again. You have the clothes that you wear out into the world and then you have the clothes that are your playtime clothes, your downtime clothes."

Still, Givhan sees one area where comfort will continue to be a priority.

"I am not seeing a return to the serious dressy heels or constricting footwear," Givhan said. "I'm seeing a lot more flats both in offices and on runways."

Of course, not everyone likes dressing up in formal clothes. And, as Givhan puts it, not everyone wants the same sort of breakdown between their personal and professional selves.

"I think for some people it is really invigorating to be able to bring the entirety of their personality with them wherever they go," she said. "And I think there are other people who were frustrated by the fact that their workday never really seemed to end, that it just sort of blurred into one giant mush of constantly being online."

Just as Tom Ford predicted.

Jeevika Verma produced the radio version of this story and Rachel Treisman edited and produced the web version. Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This week, we're looking at how our work lives have changed since the pandemic, and today we are thinking about what we wear.

DAVID BOWIE: (Singing) Fashion. Turn to the left. Fashion. Turn to the right.

MARTIN: OK, fashion may seem small, but it says something larger about how the pandemic has changed all of us. Now, if you work in certain industries that were aesthetically relaxed before, that probably hasn't changed, but the pandemic has given some people a chance to loosen up. Our producer, Milton Guevara, went to Capitol Hill and found Jeremy Gonzalez, who has worked there since November.

JEREMY GONZALEZ: Yeah, I would say definitely. Like, when I first started coming in, even on recess days, I would be wearing a suit and a tie or even, like, my three-piece suit that I have that I think is, like - you know, I feel good in that outfit. Now, unless it's, like, a voting day, I usually am not wearing a suit. Otherwise, I would just be wearing jeans and, like, you know, maybe a button-down or a polo.

MARTIN: OK, jeans and a polo is not exactly fashion forward, but it is pretty casual for the Hill. We wondered if looser dress codes had found their way into another notoriously formal work culture - Wall Street, where for men suits are really the only option and even then, not a huge range of improvisation.

DAVID GURA, BYLINE: You know, in terms of color palette and all that, I mean, it's blue and black, and the shirts are white or blue.

MARTIN: This is David Gura. He covers Wall Street for NPR. And he did a little digging for us on if and how dress codes have changed in the epicenter of American finance. He called up a source David calls his suits guy. He's named Ken Giddon. His family has run the storied men's store in Manhattan since the 1920s called Rothman's.

GURA: I called him up, and I asked him sort of what's changed now that offices are reopened? And this is what he said.

KEN GIDDON: In terms of dress code, the one thing that I would say certainly for the Wall Street crowd is the operative word is confusion.

GURA: So people are coming back, and they feel like, OK, I can't wear the sweats that I was wearing. You know, I should be wearing something more formal. But they don't really know what that is. And I thought what was so fascinating, as I heard Ken talk about this, is, like, it's across the board. So it's interns who are saying they're confused. Kind of first-years right out of college are saying the same thing.

GURA: But he says executives are coming in, and they have the same complaint. They just don't know what this dress code's supposed to be like in this new world.

MARTIN: That's so interesting. They definitely perceive that something has shifted, though. Everything's just not going back to the way it was.

GURA: And I think that, like, before the pandemic, they had a good handle on what the dress code was at banks and law firms...

GURA: ...And across corporate America. And now he's learning as well. So, like, he's advising people on what to wear, and then I think he's kind of counting on them to come back and tell him what they're seeing because, obviously, yeah, his job is, like, to be an adviser in some respect, to make sure that people are outfitted the way that they want to be or should be for jobs.

MARTIN: Young people in particular, for whom they may be walking into their first jobs - and, you know, they just spent two years at home. Maybe they were, you know, at home taking college classes. And they don't have a clue.

GURA: Yeah, he's done this for years. Like, they'll come in, and he says they'll maybe start with a suit, figuring they need one of those. They'll pick out a sport coat.

GIDDON: But then they're not sure where to go. Do you wear dress slacks to work? Do you wear khakis? Can you wear jeans? And nobody really has drawn the line, and nobody really knows what the right answer is.

GURA: So the advice that he's giving them is just wear dress trousers and a blazer, collared shirt, and very quickly you'll get a sense if that's the vibe of the office. And he said, worst case, you just hang that blazer on your coat hook or doorknob, and you don't wear it the next day.

BOWIE: (Singing) Fa-fa-fa-fa fashion, la-la-la-la-la.

MARTIN: You heard the man - err on the dressier side and then figure it out from there. Robin Givhan thinks this is good advice, too. And believe me, you want to listen to Robin because writing about what our outward appearance means was her full-time gig at The Washington Post for most of her career.

So, I mean, you used to write exclusively about fashion. Now you write about all kinds of things. But, I mean, I'm looking at you online, all these photos of you, Robin. You're a very well-heeled woman. You always look totally put together.

ROBIN GIVHAN: You're very kind.

MARTIN: So - I mean, it's just truth. So when you were on lockdown, like the rest of us, I'm assuming that you didn't dress to the nines? What was your situation?

GIVHAN: (Laughter) Well, I certainly had my days when, you know, I worked out in the morning and just sort of stuck with sweatpants or something for the rest of the day. But, honestly, you know, I missed the clothes in my closet, and so I would put them on.

GIVHAN: And as I joked to one of my colleagues - you know, I said, a steady diet of yoga pants and sweatpants will lie to you. A pair of jeans will be very honest about what your eating habits have wrought.

MARTIN: I feel that in a very real way.

MARTIN: So now here we are. A lot of people have gone back to their offices, to their pre-COVID work routines. What have you noticed in terms of changes since people have returned? Are they keeping some of that caszh (ph) vibe or what?

GIVHAN: One of the things that I found to be striking just within the fashion industry is that there was a lot of conversation of trying to create collections that were much more sort of comfort first. But what I've noticed is that there's really a return to sort of fashion with a capital F because I think people who loved it before continue to love it. And there's something about creating boundaries again - right? - where you have the clothes that you wear out into the world, and then you have the clothes that are sort of your playtime clothes, your downtime clothes.

MARTIN: Although, you know, I spoke to one person who talked to me about breaking down that boundary and how that felt liberating to them to not have to bifurcate yourself that way, that there was a certain uniform, a definition of what it meant to be a professional that they didn't feel was really authentic to them anymore. And now they're wearing overalls and big flamboyant colors and erasing that boundary.

GIVHAN: Yeah. I mean, I think that's sort of the big existential question, at least (laughter) in the fashion realm, as people return to the office, which is, you know, how much of a breakdown do you want between sort of the personal self and the professional self? And I think for some people, it is really invigorating to be able to bring the entirety of their personality with them wherever they go. And I think there are other people who were frustrated by the fact that their workday never really seemed to end, that everything blurred into one giant mush of constantly being online, constantly being on call. And they sort of longed for more of a delineation between the two. I think that, ultimately, we'll come to some sort of happy medium. But I will say that one area where the role of comfort seems to have, like, stuck is in footwear.

MARTIN: Footwear - did Robin Givhan just give me an excuse to play Run-D.M.C.? I think she did.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY ADIDAS")

RUN-DMC: (Rapping) I wore my sneakers, but I'm not a sneak. My Adidas touch the sand of a foreign land. With mic in hand, I cold took command. My Adidas...

GIVHAN: I am not seeing a return to the serious dressy heels or constricting footwear.

GIVHAN: I'm seeing a lot more flats, both in offices, on runways, in look-books, in magazines (laughter).

MARTIN: Yeah. I mean, how did we ever do that? I look at these heels - I have to admit, I was never really a heel person. But right before the lockdowns, I just - I decided I needed some. And now I look at them, and I'm like, there's just no way. I'm never, ever putting those on.

GIVHAN: Yeah. But there had already been a lot of collaborations between high-end fashion brands like Birkenstock and Converse and Adidas, and, you know, there had been sort of sneaker technology put into dress shoes.

GIVHAN: And this idea that you could still look very professional and polished and dressed-up wearing a pair of flats.

MARTIN: But remember how that was so stigmatized back in the day? Like, you know, not to diss on Naturalizer or any of those other older brands, but...

GIVHAN: Oh, go ahead. Diss on them.

MARTIN: Poor Naturalizer. But that - it was, like, an old-lady shoe, right? If you were looking for, like, a comfortable shoe, that was totally not the hip and cool thing to do. And now I see cool sneakers everywhere.

GIVHAN: Yeah. I mean, I freely own up to the fact that one of the earliest stories I wrote when I came to Washington was about all of these women emerging from the Metro and, you know, looking like they were headed into, you know, some law office from the ankles up, but they were wearing the equivalent of, you know, workout sneakers on their feet.

MARTIN: Right. Like "Working Girl," like Melanie Griffith (laughter).

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET THE RIVER RUN")

CARLY SIMON: (Singing) Let the river run. Let all the dreamers wake the nation.

GIVHAN: And I thought, oh, my God, this column is going to be the one that, like, leads my obituary or something because people were so outraged.

MARTIN: (Laughter) So in your best guidance then - so I'm still working at home. Like, we should - I should just admit this. And I am having a real mental block about going back to work and not wearing my athleisure wear. Your suggestion to me is just try it and see what happens? Maybe it's not so scary?

GIVHAN: (Laughter) I would say ease into it. I mean, I don't think you have to go...

MARTIN: (Laughter) Right. Like a nice pair of yoga pants.

GIVHAN: (Laughter) Yoga pants to, you know, the full three-piece suit ensemble.

MARTIN: That's never happening. Right.

GIVHAN: But I think you could go from yoga pants to maybe a pair of, you know, up-style track pants...

GIVHAN: ...And maybe a simple pullover...

GIVHAN: ...And a pair of high-style Birkenstocks. I think that's, like, a very gentle shift.

MARTIN: We don't even know each other that well, and you just nailed my look. That was perfect.

GIVHAN: I think the key word is pulled-together.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET THE RIVER RUN")

SIMON: (Singing) We're coming to the edge, running on the water, coming through the fog, your sons and daughters.

MARTIN: (Laughter) Robin Givhan of The Washington Post. She writes about fashion but so much more. We are pleased she talked with us. Thank you so much, Robin.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LET THE RIVER RUN")

SIMON: (Singing) ...Desire through the darkening dawn. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Let the Houston Public Media newsroom help you start your day.

Get highlights, trending news, and behind-the-scenes insights from Houston Public Media delivered to your inbox each week.

Houston Public Media is supported with your gifts to the Houston Public Media Foundation and is licensed to the University of Houston