EDIT: Workwear staples that aren't boring!

We've clocked the internet to bring you the best office-appropriate pieces that don't compromise on personal style.

Here’s a sexy thought for your Tuesday morning: the “corporate” dress code has got to be the most boring, rule-ridden dress code of them all. Ask AI to give you an image of workers in an office environment and you’ll see men with soulless smiles in drab check shirts and passive-looking women in ill-fitting navy skirt suits. As if we needed any more motivation to WFH.

A lot can go wrong when we become lemmings in the corporate ‘style’ system. Remember when Romy & Michelle ditched their personal style and tried to cosplay as “business women” only to wind up getting dragged for pretending they were self-made stationary millionaires? A cautionary tale for the ages!

The thing about the office dress code is that it seems designed to silently communicate to your colleagues, clients, customers, investors and shareholders that you’re all business, no fun. All profit, no play. All ‘company player’, no you.

For those who have to dress from the ‘corporate style’ rulebook, it’s often frustrating to feel like fashion-ey people don’t understand what “office-appropriate” really means. So, this week Soph has done her very best to curate a collection of workwear pieces that adhere to the rules of a corporate dress code enough to be acceptable, but not so acceptable that they’re the fashion equivalent of some sort of people-pleasing doormat.

Because even though we’d much prefer a world in which we all felt a little less inhibited with our personal style, the reality is that oftentimes the best we can hope for is to bend the rules, even if ever so slightly, in our direction.

In this week’s edit, you’ll find:

• Six excellent blazers and two work-ready cardigans

• Five collared shirts, including four that could double as a chic weekend throwover

• Eight bra-friendly tops that would work under a blazer or on their own

• Seven dresses to ease you through a board-room-to-private-dining-room transition

• Six pairs of seriously good trousers, including at least one with a stretchy waistband

• Eight skirts with personality

• Seven pairs of shorts to see you through the summer

• Six bags to ferry from meeting-to-meeting

• Five belts that’ll help you get more mileage out of what you already own

• TEN pairs of shoes…because we simply cannot help ourselves

Next week we will show you how to wear them all. But for now, find modern workwear inspiration on our Pinterest.