Does PR Have a Dresscode?

work-pants

Back in the day, dressing for a PR job was easy – everyone had to wear suits. Or so I’m told, I’m too young to know šŸ˜›

Nowadays, it can be tricky getting work wear right. It has to be smart, but not too corporate. It has to show some flair, but not be too crazy. Like a lot of people in the modern age, I work in an office. I spend a large portion of my life on a swivel chair, beside a phone, looking at a computer screen.
Iā€™m lucky enough that I have a creative job, but it still takes place in quite a coporate environment, albeit in the voluntary sector which is a little more ā€œau casualeā€ than your average bank. This poses considerable difficulty for me when it comes to choosing what to wear every day. So much so that I almost wish I wore a uniform (almost).

In other quirky, arty workplaces you can get away with being a bit funky and casual. Iā€™ve been in many a web design and advertising office in my time (for my sins) and theyā€™re all sort of aspiring to be like Googleā€™s Head Office. They have colourful pictures on the walls and ā€œchill out zonesā€ with big leather sofas. They have funky coffee machines and everyone has white MACs instead of geriatric PCs where youā€™re lucky to find yourself a clean mouse mat. In this kind of environment, one can afford to come to work in a flouncy pink dress if one wishes.

But if, like me, you work in PR but you work in-house, i.e. you work in amongst a much bigger organisation, you become torn between the creative world and the ā€œrealā€ world and it can be a minefield to fit in.

In the (many) years since graduation, Iā€™ve made my way through this minefield in stages. The first stage was the ā€œsuitā€ stage where I was so excited to join the workforce and so keen to be taken seriously that I spent a clean fortune on suits and crisp, uncomfortable shirts to wear underneath them. I then learned that unless you drive a snazzy car to work with a VIP parking spot right next to the front door, suits are completely impractical. They get wet, they donā€™t keep you warm and the trousers wear out well before the jackets.

Stage two was the anti-feminism stage where I tried ā€“ and failed ā€“ to wear pencil skirts and stilettos in an effort to mark myself apart from the testosterone-fuelled sales environments I was in. I tripped over myself walking from the bus stop one morning, into a puddle, ending up soaked and sore. In front of a large group of workmen. And that was the end of that debacle.

Stage three was more requirement than choice when, upon joining a charity in my first management role, I was advised to dress down so as to not intimidate the clients who may well be feeling very nervous. It was all jeans and lumberjack shirts for a while. We even had Christmas jumper days during the festive season. I really rather liked that phase! But would I blame anyone important that came in for a meeting if they mistook me for the cleaner? Er, no.

In recent years, being older if not wiser, I found a new fail-safe ā€“ the tunic and leggings ensemble. One item, over the head, Bobā€™s your uncle!

But now that I fraternize more with the agency and freelance folk, I have to say I feel a tad inadequate. Theyā€™re all so glamorous! I look in wonder at their high heels and chiffon dresses and am amazed that they manage the same heavy lifting and running-around work that I do without ending up in A&E. However I recognise that they are selling their brand, their organisation, their creativity and business acumen. So, in an effort to make more of an effort, Iā€™m keeping a Pinterest Board to look at what I wear to work and, if I canā€™t face heels all day, I can drive in my fluffy boots and change outside!

So how important is dress code in the Northern Ireland PR Industry? Am I the only one who finds it a minefield? And is there a gender gap; do the men struggle each morning as much as the ladies?!

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