Investigating the ‘Professionally’ Dressed Bodies of Employees and Office Space: Interview Transcripts, 2020

This dataset consists of 17 transcripts of semi-structured, in-depth interviews with office workers in London, who are required to obey a dress code at work - ranging from ‘smart casual’ to ‘business professional’ attire. Fashion bloggers were also interviewed as they specialised in workwear style and gave the project a deeper understanding of the link between identity and appearance.

The research examines the highly political battleground that is the office space, whereby non-binary individuals, transgender folks, and cisgender women’s identities and bodies are often rejected from the space. The interviews cover employee experiences of office dress code discriminations, motivations surrounding choice of dress for different working days, as well as opinions surrounding the link between professionalism and dress.

The project sought to demonstrate how strict corporate dress codes, moreover ‘business professional’ dress codes, reinforce certain forms of oppression for those that do not identify as cisgender, masculine-presenting men. Whereas a ‘smart casual’ dress code, that allows for more flexibility in employee gender expression, may actually be supportive for individuals occupying historically marginalized identities.

本数据集包含17份半结构化深度访谈的转录文本，受访者为伦敦的办公室职员——他们需遵守职场着装规范，风格跨度从“smart casual”至“business professional”不等。此外，时尚博主亦参与访谈，因其深耕职场着装领域，为项目提供了关于身份与外表关联的更深层洞见。

该研究聚焦办公室空间这一高度政治化的场域：非二元性别个体（non-binary individuals）、跨性别者（transgender folks）和顺性别女性（cisgender women）的身份与身体常被排斥于该空间之外。访谈内容覆盖三方面：员工遭遇的办公室着装规范歧视经历、不同工作日着装选择的动机，以及对专业性与着装关联的看法。

本项目旨在揭示，严格的企业着装规范（尤其是“business professional”类型）如何对非顺性别、非男性气质呈现的群体强化特定形式的压迫；而“smart casual”着装规范因赋予员工性别表达更大灵活性，实则可能对历史边缘化身份群体更为支持。