“Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life.” When it comes to the core basis of fashion and how it evolves, truer words than these of renowned fashion photographer Bill Cunningham might never have been spoken. Frivolity, escapism, surrealism and dream-like qualities have long been regarded as the key pillars of high-fashion, and make no mistake that these remain solid foundations of many couture and ready-to-wear houses. But in recent years, a palpable shift has shunted the fashion industry and style as we know it from a realm of unattainability, to one of accessibility.

We’ve seen it in quiet luxury and a return to minimalism, with a push away from dopamine dressing; in the overt wearability of spring/summer 2024 runways and even in the approachable, social media-ification of street style. Could it be the undercurrent effects of a global recession? Or a weariness of embellishment given the dire state of the world? Perhaps. But from the culmination of certain blossoming trends and all the glimpses of it we’ve spotted in recent collections and runways, we might in fact be able to put this phenomena down to a singular event: the return to work.

A slow, subtle yet overwhelmingly important cultural moment, since the pandemic lockdowns ended for good in 2021, the return to work has impacted us in more ways than perhaps we fully realised, finally coming to notable head in 2023. Pragmatism, above all else, has been our goal as we learnt to reintroduce our commutes, balance working from home, and station ourselves back into our corporate cubicles—and in so doing, became an aesthetic in and of itself.

Prada autumn/winter 2023 ready-to-wear.

The sentiment of the work uniform was poignantly vocalised by Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons earlier this year, who spoke collectively on the start of their notable uniform era, the Prada autumn/winter 2023 show. Via a collection they said they wanted to “give importance to real jobs” through, Prada and Simons aimed to create “sartorial representations of the beauty of care, of love, of reality...of responsibility.”

“There is the notion in fashion that only glamour is important—I hate that, I have always fought against it,” Prada said behind the runway, perfectly capturing what would become the dominant spirit of the moment. “What I care about now is to give importance to what is modest, to value modest jobs, simple jobs, and not only extreme beauty or glamour.” And modest we have been.

Miu Miu spring/summer 2024 ready-to-wear.

Shoes are far flatter, and tailoring is as modish as ever. Gone are the tiny purses that didn’t fit anything, having been replaced with roomy, slouchy totes and overflowing bags with our workday essentials unceremoniously spilling out—see Miu Miu’s latest. Even street style modernist Proenza Schouler is ready for the humble office in its own chic way.

Proenza Schouler spring/summer 2024 ready-to-wear.

Balenciaga pre-fall 2024.

Phones glued to ears and takeaway coffee cups sipped at a high-speed strut—à la Balenciaga’s most recent L.A. show, which was firmly grounded in the stylishness of the everyday, grocery bags included—are now ultimate accessories. As are blazer coats, dry cleaning and key cards on lanyards according to Markgong’s spring/summer 2024 show in Shanghai, which was inspired by the perennially mythologised New York working woman.

Need we go on? Reality is in, and it looks cooler and feels more effortless than ever. Fashion is no longer just an armour to bear reality, but a tool to embrace it.

Markgong Shanghai spring/summer 2024 ready-to-wear.

Beyond a belated celebration of the shinier parts of our everyday nine-to-five lives, there comes a fresh feeling of empowerment. Comfort has never been more on-trend and we’ve never been better at coping with the pragmatic elements of our lives, and then, turning them into iconic fashion moments. While our jobs may not be the most important thing in our lives—the most important thing the pandemic taught us was an invaluable lesson on balance—our return to work has felt resoundingly meaningful and stylish. As a direct consequence, even in the weirder, more abstract arrangements, this core essence of dressing has permeated throughout the year’s major designs and trends.

And if you feel like you’ve seen this all before, you have. It pleasantly reeks of Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada and of aughties rom-com fashion journalist heroines—a tad frazzled, busy, practical, yet unfailingly chic. On the go and important, yet humble and homely at the same time, it is this unique equilibrium we have found in our work lives that has bled into the sartorial trends of the moment—ballet flats (with a change of heels handy), stuffy totes or sleek briefcases, and bursting filofax and all.

When our suits were replaced with loungewear and our heeled loafers with Ugg boots during those fateful work from home years, we didn’t complain. But if the return to work effect on fashion has proven anything, it’s that we might have actually missed the chaotic mundanity of our morning commute and desk-to-watercooler lifestyle after all—we’re just doing it differently this time.

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