Even though 9 to 5 doesn’t exist anymore, it’s still the technical name of a wardrobe genre that has devolved to mean wearing jeans and maybe–maybe–button-front shirts if the office worker in question is feeling particularly style-savvy that day.
For as much as work dominates our lives, it no longer seems to take precedence in our closets, where we’ve let the lively colors and art deco patterns of the past (think Joan Holloway, obviously) fall into the ether in favor of beige, white, denim and sometimes even pajama bottoms passing as pants if we’re really letting ourselves go.
The sad state of workplace fashion has made going to the cube even more drab–there’s not even anyone decent to look at to assuage the pain and boredom. Consider this the next time you think about wearing a sweatshirt and sneakers to the office–you’re contributing to the ugliness of it all.