If you’ve scrolled through some of Instagram’s most popular “it girls” lately, you’ve probably seen some repeated styles, namely the Office Siren. Kendall Jenner sent the internet into a frenzy as she debuted her new blonde hairdo, pairing her locks with eyeglasses and a leather blazer.
“The hair, the style, the glasses. She’s so sexy,” one of the top comments read on a Vogue magazine post about her style.
Other celebrities have also embraced this look. Matilda Djerf, founder of the highly in-demand and notably trendy Djerf Avenue clothing brand known for consistently cultivating a “clean-girl” aesthetic that inspires many women, consistently posts in corporate-esc attire, snapping selfies in reading glasses, sweaters, and blazers.
Hailey Bieber, another well-known fashionista who has paved the way for numerous makeup, nails, and clothes trends, posts many images with a similar look.
The corporate fashion look has even seeped into the runways, with Bella Hadid recently taking part in a YSL campaign featuring its female models adorned with suits and glasses. The response to the campaign was wildly positive, with fans loving the professional look.
These posts come amid a growing surge of posts from creators and users embracing the so-called “Office Siren” aesthetic, where women dress in work-inspired outfits that make them feel empowered, successful, and beautiful. These looks – now cultivated and promoted as everyday fashion, include many staples of clothing traditionally deemed wearable only in the workplace, such as blazers, eyeglasses, loafers, and work pants.
As a result, these clothing items have permeated throughout major fashion giants and celebrity looks, with brands like Zara, Aritzia, and more flaunting displays of blazers, vests, and other clothing items of this nature for sale. Work pants and blouses fly off the shelves. Women dressing for a coffee date pair their dresses with loafers and eyeglasses. The Office Siren is in full effect, and people are eagerly embracing it.
This perception of a professionally dressed woman is a relatively new and exceedingly positive phenomenon. Traditionally, clothing items of this nature were adorned in popular culture by female characters deemed undesirable, unlikeable, and antisocial. Common tropes in movies that dominated our screens included the “makeover” of these girls – take off their glasses, put them in a tight-fitting dress, and all of a sudden they find the love of their lives and live happily ever after. These narratives consistently told girls that to be loved and admired by those around them, they needed to hide their talent, intelligence, and ambition.
But with the rise of these work-wear-inspired trends, this perception is changing. They send a message to the world: the professionally successful, working female is something to aspire to, admire, and embrace. It is desirable to have drive, to be smart, and to be ambitious. And to dress as such is beautiful and empowering.
It’s sexy to be smart!
So put on those glasses, throw on that blazer, and feel confident and gorgeous as you look.