Trouser Suits— Looking The Business

I have a complicated relationship with trouser suits. For decades, they were my work uniform. You see, I worked in banking in the early 1990s when wearing dresses and skirts on a trading floor were a big no no; they invited the wrong kind of attention.

- Lisa Lennkh

 

The powerful androgyny of a trouser suit, however, made me feel less conspicuous as a young blonde woman in a predominantly male industry. It conveniently cloaked those parts of me that are obviously female and made me feel like I could "wear the trousers" literally and figuratively. Twenty years later, I might resent having to do this, but at the time it levelled the playing field as much as it's possible with fashion.

Since then, women have advanced into more positions of power. Wearing skirts and dresses is less of a liability in our current #girlboss era than it was on Wall Street in the 1990s. In addition, Silicon Valley's very casual dress codes have changed how we dress for work. Fashion has pushed the trouser suit to the back of its wardrobe for years.