How to Wear Corpcore Beyond the Boardroom

Corporate offices have never been particularly stylish. Sure, movies and TV love to depict characters, like Mad Men’s Don Draper and Wolf of Wall Street’s Jordan Belfort, as fashion-forward people with a penchant for classic suits. But in the real world, looking like you work in an office with bad lighting and a strict dress code has never actually been fashionable. 

Enter corpcore, the internet-born trend that’s making traditional office wear cool by flipping it on its head. First coined in early 2024, the trend takes inspiration from mid-century tailored suiting and ‘80s working women uniforms to bring us a 2020s version that’s chic for both the office and your everyday life. 

While the Internet went wild with corpcore earlier this year, designers started gravitating towards corporate fashion since 2023. Brands like Schiaparelli and Saint Laurent, for example, showed unique takes on classic office staples, including suiting, pencil skirts, and ties. But these are not your average suit-and-tie combos. Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry featured traditional suits in black and tan tones with a twist: neck ties were replaced by long braids. Saint Laurent's Anthony Vaccarello, on the other hand, bet big on pencil skirts, which he paired with oversized blazers with bold shoulder pads and silk tank tops. The two designers exhibited what this trend is all about: rethinking all the corporate fashion tropes by leaning into them.

That doesn't mean you need to wear a fake braid as a neck tie to get on this trend. There are more wearable and, frankly, basic ways to embrace the corporate fashion agenda without looking like a Wall Street cliché. Ahead, six outfit ideas to embrace corpcore.