Working from home changed everyone's wardrobes

Have the months of self-isolation, lockdown and work changed what we will wear when we go out again? For a long time, the assumption was yes. Now, as restrictions are relaxed and the opening of offices and travel looms large in the northern hemisphere, that expectation is more of a qualified “maybe”. But last year's experience was not the same in every country, and neither was the clothing that dominated local wardrobes. Before we can predict what is to come, we have to understand what was. Below, eight New York Times correspondents in seven different countries share reports from a year's worth of clothing.

Italy

Trade reports, fashion magazines and personal accounts all agree: when working from home last year, many Italian women comforted themselves with knitwear. Those who could afford it opted for cashmere wool knitwear, the kind Italian Vogue called “a luxe take on the classic two-piece jogging set.”

Fabio Pietrella, president of Confartigianato Moda, the fashion branch of the association for artisans and small businesses, said that while consumer trends indicated a shift from “a business look to a more comfortable one,” there was no “ too much comfort." Italian women, he said, have eschewed clothing in favor of “quality knitwear” that convey freedom of movement but with “a modicum of elegance”.

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A survey conducted among a random sample of working women, mostly in their 40s and 50s, often continued to dress as if they were going to the office, even though they favored comfort over elegance .

One woman said she made it a point to dress up — wearing a knit top and dress pants — and head out to a corner cafe every morning for coffee before sitting down at her desk. Another said that she dressed as in the pre-COVID era to serve as an example to her two teenage children of hers, which she (she joked).

Astrid D’Eredità, cultural consultant and new mother, said she had given up pajamas “even when I was pregnant” and opted for a casual but dressed up style. Simona Capocaccia, a graphic designer who has been working at home since last March, also rejected pajamas and sweatpants. “Dressing for work cheers me up,” she said.

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Milena Gammaitoni, a professor at Roma Tre, one of Rome's leading universities, can spend entire days in front of the computer, between Zoom department meetings and her classes with students (whom she asks not to wear pajamas ), but still dressed as he was in the pre-COVID days, with a colorful jacket over more casual pants.

“Recently, I've even started wearing perfume,” she says with a laugh. "I think I'm totally fried."

Actress and director Francesca Nanni, who worked on a documentary about Italian women during lockdown last year, said a woman kept wearing high heels during Zoom meetings even though no one could see her feet. Another insisted on dressing up for dinner at home, and she chose a different color each night. “But thatdidn't last very long,” he said. "Her husband got fed up."

According to Pietrella, from Confartigianato Moda, a study revealed that Italian women chose to dress well to work at home in order to build a kind of “psychological wall” that separated them from the rest of the the family.

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“Getting dressed sends the signal that mom is home, but she's working,” Pietrella says. "So no 'Mom, help me with my homework. Mom, have you bought the food yet? Mom, I need this or that. Mom works, so she's adopted an appearance that makes it clear to other family members that she's working.”

- ELISABETTA POVOLEDO

Senegal

Not even a pandemic has diminished Dakar's claim to being the most stylish city on the planet.

In the Senegalese capital, at the westernmost tip of Africa, men in yellow pointy-toe sneakers and white booboos—long, flowing tunics—still walk the streets covered in Saharan dust. Young women still sit in cafes drinking baobab juice wearing patterned tunics and jeweled hijabs. Everyone from consultants to greengrocers continue to wear gorgeous prints from head to toe.

Occasionally, they now wear a matching mask.

While much of the world shut down at home, many people in West Africa worked or went to school as normal. The lockdown in Senegal lasted only a few months. Many found it impossible to maintain it. They depend on going out on the streets to earn a living.

And in Dakar, going out means dressing well.

Even if you're going to work on a construction site. The young people who come to them every morning, with sardine baguettes wrapped in newspaper under their arms, haven't changed their appearance from sweatpants — some tight-fitting — with transparent plastic shoes or Adidas low-tops with socks and, sometimes, . one of the black and white wool caps that the poet and revolutionary Amílcar Cabral liked so much.

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Still, many citizens have had to tighten their belts, and the ban on large gatherings for baptisms and weddings means fewer new clothes are needed.

So there's less mending work for the traveling tailors who roam the suburbs, sewing machine slung over their shoulders, jingling a pair of scissors to advertise their services. And the couturiers who have small workshops in converted garages in every neighborhood of Dakar, with their doors wide open to make an emergency suit in an hour or less, have in many cases had to lay off apprentices because there is not enough work.

Like many Senegalese women, Bigue Diallo used to buy a new dress for every event, and if it was a close friend's party, she would buy several. Currently, she she sees no reason to .

“I'm not going to waste my money if I can wear my outfit for just two hours between 10 or 15 people,” says Diallo, a restaurant owner in Dakar. “I would like a lot of people to see it.”

- RUTH MACLEAN and MADY CAMARA

Brazil

Carla Lemos was rarely home in February of last year, before the pandemic hit Brazil. This author and influencer was dressed in black jean shorts, a knit jacket and oxford shoes in frigid airports and meeting rooms or in a cropped V-neck shirt,high-waisted skirt and trendy shoes on summer nights in Rio de Janeiro.

A year later, her wardrobe has changed as much as her lifestyle. “Before, I was attached to things because they were pretty, not because they were comfortable,” she says. “I've realized that clothes have to fit me and make me live better,” she says. That meant loose dresses, kimonos, and flip-flops.

In fact, flip flops are the sartorial success of the pandemic in Brazil. Although clothing sales plunged by 35 percent last year, according to estimates by market research firm IEMI, flip-flop brand Havaianas saw sales grow by 16 percent in 2019.

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New knitted socks, flip-flops with diamonds for Reveillón and others with themes inspired by Brazilian biodiversity and the LGBT community enter the scene.

Lemos battled the gloom with a dopamine-free style of clothing that harks back to the struggles of growing up in suburban Rio.

“The city is colorful, and where I lived we mixed textures and patterns because we reused the clothes of an older sister or a cousin,” she explains. “That is who I am today, and this is a strong part of the Brazilian fashion identity as well”.

- FLAVIA MILHORANCE

India

In the last year, working professionals in their 30s and 40s have embraced comfort over style. Formal suits have been replaced by “athleisure” clothing, shoes by flip-flops (as in many other Asian cultures, most Indians do not wear shoes inside their homes), and shirts Formal wear is often worn on video calls with pajamas, sweatpants, or shorts underneath.

India experienced one of the strictest lockdowns in the world between March 25, 2020 and the end of May of that year; the only purchases allowed were essential medicines. Even online retail has come to a complete halt, except for essential items. As a result, clothing sales fell nearly 30 percent last year, according to a joint report by the Boston Consulting Group and the Retailers Association of India.

Although infections were few during the winter, in recent weeks cases have risen to staggering levels in many parts of the country. Right now, it looks like many people will be working from home for most of 2021 as well.

For Ritu Gorai, who runs a network of mothers in Mumbai, that means she's barely bought clothes, instead using accessories like scarves, jewelry and glasses to add a touch of elegance to her appearance.

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For Sanshe Bhatia, a primary school teacher, it has meant trading her long kurtas or formal pants and blouses for kaftans and tights. To encourage her class of 30 children to get dressed in the morning instead of attending classes in pajamas, she takes care to present herself neat and makes sure that her long hair is well brushed .

And for Ranajit Mukherjee, a politician from the Congress Party (the main opposition party), being at home instead of traveling to different constituencies has meant changing his usual political uniform — the white kurta-pajamas, worn to distinguish members of the corporate workers' party, and a Nehru jacket for more formal events—for casual shirts and trousers. Most of his colleagues, he said, did the same.

- SHALINI VENUGOPAL BHAGAT

France

Nathalie Lucas's hair fell stylishly over a loose-fitting black shirt with large lapels. A thick silver chain necklace encircled her neck, and her bright red lipstick conveyed a hint of color. But below the waist, she was wearing laid-back black sweatpants, “from Frankie Shop,” she said, “just like my shirt and necklace.” In addition, said this general directorate of marketing of the Au Printemps department store, "I am barefoot."

“Working remotely has changed habits a lot,” he said.

However, dressing for Zoom is “something that worries the French,” says Manon Renault, an expert in the sociology of fashion. "Especially to Parisians, who feel they represent elegance." And while a certain laisser-aller recently caused the conservative weekly Le Figaro Madame to worry that home dressing habits would send fashion into a tailspin, interviews with a number of Parisians suggest that some sort of consensus has been reached.

When Xavier Romatet, dean of the French Fashion Institute, France's leading fashion school, returned to work, he was not wearing a suit, but was wearing a white shirt under a navy cashmere sweater and beige chinos, like would do at home And he combined it with Veja sneakers, a French brand that respects the environment.

Similarly, Anne Lhomme, creative director of luxury dinnerware brand Saint Louis, dresses the same from a distance as she does in person. One of her favorite outfits is a camel-colored cashmere poncho “designed by a friend, Laurence Coudurier, for Poncho Gallery” and flowing plum silk pants. Also lipstick, earrings and four Swahili rings that she found in Kenya.

For his part, Thierry Maillet, CEO of Ooshot, a visual asset production platform, developed a work-from-home uniform that, from the waist up, included his old work uniform - “light blue shirts or whites, which I buy at Emile Lafaurie or online at Charles Tyrwhitt, with a crewneck sweatshirt if it's cold” – and, from the waist down, “Uniqlo pants in stretch fabric”.

And Sophie Fontanel, writer and former fashion editor at Elle, said: "I'm often barefoot at home, alone, in a very pretty dress."

- DAPHNÉ ANGLÈS

Japan

Since last spring, when many Japanese began working remotely, fashion magazines and websites have published tips on how to present yourself well in front of the screen. The top priority was not relaxation or comfort, but to look neat and professional.

A woman who works as a sales agent for an Internet directory service attends online meetings a few days a week, each time donning a bright knit top and presenting herself with heavy makeup. She said that she would not appear onscreen in a sweatshirt or a T-shirtor anything that suggests she is taking it easy at home.

A woman who works in the accounting section of a design firm always wears a jacket to online meetings with clients, even though she still wears jeans underneath.

For both, the colours, the texture and the design of the necks and sleeves are key.

Fashion magazines and stylists recommend elaborate puff-sleeved shirts and one-piece dresses because they look striking on screen. Fast-fashion brands like Uniqlo, GU and Fifth, as well as high fashion brands, have focused on shirts of shiny satin, silk and linen with bow ties or stand-up collars, striped prints or shirred sleeves. The fashion for these flashy shirts has sparked a boom in clothing subscription services.

One of these platforms, AirCloset, announced that 450,000 users were subscribed as of October 2020, three times more than the same period in 2019. Users often request only tops (a bottom garment is usually included), and there is a limit of three on any order.

“Clients prefer brighter colors than basic ones, such as navy blue or beige, for online meetings, or prefer asymmetrical tops,” explains Mari Nakano, spokeswoman for AirCloset . About 40 percent of the subscribers are working moms for whom the subscription service saves time because they don't have to bother with laundry. They just have to put the blouses in a bag, return them and wait for the next package to arrive with their new clothes.

- HISAKO UENO

Russia

As is often the case in a country of multiple revolutions, a system-shaking catastrophe often accelerates change already in the making. In terms of clothing, the closed borders meant a more isolated Russia, which meant more focus on local designers.

“We used to travel and see what people were wearing in Paris and Rome,” said Nastya Krasnoshtan, who used the time off during the pandemic to create her own jewelry brand. “Now we can't do it.”

As incomes have shrunk, especially among the middle class in big cities, many Russians also can't afford even the most popular foreign brands. Anna Lebedeva, a marketing specialist from Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city, now buys mostly from local Russian brands.

“People used to hide that they were wearing anything Russian,” Lebedeva said. "It was not fashionable."

The pandemic made Lebedeva a fan of Ushatava, an independent label of sleek, geometric designs in mostly muted natural colors. She was founded in Yekaterinburg, a city in the Ural Mountains that in recent years has become a center of Russian fashion. 12Storeez, another emerging brand from Yekaterinburg, increased its turnover by 35 percent in the last year, despite the fact that the overall market has shrunk by a quarter, said Ivan Khokhlov, one of its founders.

Nastya Gritskova, the director of a public relations agency in Moscow, said the effect of the pandemic was that, for the first time in the Russian capital, people stopped "paying attention to who is wearing what." However, last fall, when the government relaxed coronavirus-related restrictions, things returned to normal.

“There is no pandemic that can make Russian women stop thinking about how to look beautiful,” she said.

- IVAN NECHEPURENKO

(*) By NYTimes @2021, The New York Times (Elisabetta Povoledo, Ruth Maclean, Mady Camara, Flávia Milhorance, Shalini Venugopal Bhagat, Daphné Anglès, Hisako Ueno and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed to this report)