Can an employer specific what colour clothes and footwear you wear to work

[redshoes2017]

I work in an office of 4 women and 1 man. There is no official dress code for the company it's just a given that you wear in smart office attire. We are not a customer faced office we speak with customers by phone only - not sure if that makes a difference to my question........ The general manager has said that smart office wear means dark colours only - blue/black/grey/brown...... footwear has to be black or white only....... is this reasonable to specify the colour of clothing and footwear? Not sure if I'm out of touch as it's been a while since I've worked in an office or this is plain weird , I would be interested to hear what others think .

On another note I've seen some people dress very inapropiately for the office. Leggings with short tops. See trough clothing, sandals even vests. Mainly the just out of university people who continued to dress the same as going to class, I guess. Summer usually is a festival of inappropriate dressing. I find a dressing code helpfull if not too restrictive. And stops youwearing your nicer clothes to work.

@Beautiful3

I worked for a company who after a year, said we all had to wear the corporate colours, grey/black with pink!!! Even the men had to. I was not impressed as it meant forking out for a bunch of pink tops.

Ooo! I hate any shade of pink with a passion and only wear black (if I have to) below the waist. I did wear my hair in a ponytail with a pink scrunchie (only once in my lifetime) to honour the mother of a friend at her funeral, all the mourners were asked to wear something in her mum’s favourite colour.

First job in 1972 was for a bank office, not branch. Women could not wear trousers unless they were part of a trousers suit.

@KateLink

No, they can't, unless it is personal protective equipment or official uniform, which in this case it isn't.

There was a case a couple of years ago where an employer tried to insist female employees wore high heels. It didn't fly!

Sorry, but they can.

Specifying a colour isn't discriminatory in the way high heels are.

It is a bit weird for a non-customer facing office job. Most of my jobs have been in hospitality or retail and the general rule has been black clothes. For example a national food retailer I worked for provided us with a fleece and polo shirt but we had to wear smart black trousers and shoes. I also worked in a small independent cafe where we all had to wear black but it was slightly more casual in that we could wear jeans as long as they were black. My current receptionist job has a smart black clothes rule, I've lost count of the amount of black jumpers I now have

This is unusual for a non customer facing office. I have a different problem in my office. Its quite large, about 80 people all together. we used to have office wear Monday to Thursday then dress down Friday, perfect. Then they relaxed it and you can wear whatever the hell you like. Great in theory (I may be showing my age here) but some colleagues come in REALLY scruffy! I preferred it when we were expected to wear reasonably tidy/office suitable attire. That's just me!

In my old job we could only wear smart black things.

It’s old fashioned is what it is..some work places do stipulate things like this but others don’t.

I’m of the opinion if you look smart then that is more than suffice! For example..I wear sandals from April-sept normally but the rest of my wear is “smart” - previous manager mentioned it once and I asked if she thought I wasn’t able to do my job as I had on sandals! She replied “eh no, I guess you’re right” and that was that. 12 in our office and 1 person wears a suit, that’s what she prefers so that’s up to her, The rest of us are in black trousers or jeans and smart top/shirt/blouses

I worked in a place where the rule was bright colours only, and black was expressly forbidden.
However my line manager wore head-to-toe black every day. I guess it’s who you know.

Why is the UK so obsessed with making everyone look the same,by insisting people wear certain clothes colours etc, at work Same with school uniforms boys pulled over for haircuts, girls with skirts an inch shorter than a teacher reckons should be,i didnt wear uniform in school and i worked before retirement for a blue chip communications company where we could wear what we wanted,my friend still works there they still can. As long as people do their jobs properly why the hell does it matter what they wear.OK no ripped jeans i agree but as long as smart casual why is it a problem.

It seems in this country we seem to want to everyone to not be individual,perhaps thats why continentals are often way better dressed than the British,they are allowed to express their fashion sense more.ive noticed on my lockdown walks how drab many people look.A man complemented me on my bright pink scarf other day ,He said it cheered him up.But then ive always been an idividual in fashion as ive never had to wear a uniform.

The issue is not what policies they can make for new employees, the issue is that they are attempting to enforce new rules on existing staff. An employer can't just make up new rules on a whim.

But if you have been employed by the company for less than two years they can sack you anyway.

I’ve had a work place with clean, tidy and no bare shoulders or back (which is understandable) and no high heels as a blanket rule for all staff.
The heels was after one too many workers comp claims after women fell on the stairs between floors while wearing heels.

Trainers, flat boots, closed toe flats and dress shoes only.
I’ve never gone back to heels again.

The only work colours thing is odd.
A touch of branded colour maybe but not only funeral appropriate coloured clothing only.

seems perfectly normal and acceptable to me.
i am surprised if you thought that 20 years ago it would have been any different.
bright colours are not really office wear.
you wouldn't see a man working in an office wearing bright red, purple, apple green or neon pink suit.
unless it was less of an office role, and more artistic, creative.
i would be quite happy with that slight request as to dark colours in the office.

Really?

A bright shirt seems perfectly smart to me. It would only be the very very most conservative environments that would frown upon that IME. I’m thinking some finance and legal companies, but other places people definitely wear bright colours and look very smart! Our head of area wears tailored dresses in bright colours, for example.

The OP is also not allowed to wear light coloured clothes, most men wear light coloured shirts for smart office wear.

I work
I’m in an office, rules were smart office attire, no trainers etc, no rules on colours but just smart. One or two girls were spoken too about short dresses/skirts and few guys pulled aside as their shirts were so tight they might rip. They’ve relaxed this and now we have casual wear unless you need to be smart for meetings etc. But I’ve also worked in a supermarket that did specify shoe and hair colour, sock colour and rules about
Nails and jewellery. But they’ve relaxed these now and I believe it’s due to some unions asking why having purple nails would stop you working etc

White footwear? Unless you are nurses, which you're not, that is so strange.

Black footwear was all you could get ten years ago but that look, BLACK FOOTWEAR, looks a bit dated now even with dark clothes, so he is talking out of his arse!

Unless they've got their genitals showing or something.

Where I work they introduced an official dress code due to one member of staff turning up in the same clothes she went clubbing in. On one occasion, this was a cropped top and a skirt with a split up one seam. Realising that it probably wasn't okay to display huge swathes of midriff at work, she pulled the skirt up to meet the the bottom of the top, but that meant the seam was higher up, so her genitals were on display. Admittedly, they were covered by her pants, but still ...

Now, it's smart casual, and everyone has to cover their crotch.

Yes they can as long as:
Men and women are treated the same.
If they have long term employees (over 2yrs) they need to consult and ideally get their agreement. Would be tricky to force the change given it doesn't seem rly reasonable. If you are a new employee then you have no leg to stand on on that.
The cost of what is effectively a uniform must not bring people's wages before national minimum wage. So if they have staff on national minimum wage / national living wage they need to provide the uniform really. If you are properly above national minimum wage to the extent that a trip tp Primark on any given month to purchase what you need wouldn't take you below national minimum wage that month then again no leg to stand on.

Office dress policies have always been standard where I've worked in the finance sector although there's been a noticeable relaxation in the last 3 or 4 years.

It's common to specify dark colours, light shirts, no short sleeve shirts, and modesty generally (no bare shoulders/midriff, no short skirts, nothing very tight or revealing). As long as the rules have been generic to both sexes I don't have a problem with it. I'm paid to be there to work, not express myself through my clothing.

that look, BLACK FOOTWEAR, looks a bit dated now even with dark clothes, so he is talking out of his arse!

Since when is black footwear "dated". Dh and I both work in busy London offices and senior staff will predominantly be in smart black shoes most of the time.

A bright shirt seems perfectly smart to me. It would only be the very very most conservative environments that would frown upon that IME

Where have you worked? In finance and law it's still basically pretty common for men especially to wear mainly dark suits with white or pale blue shirts, occasionally pale pink shirts or lemon yellow. DH only buys white shirts and owns about 10!

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

that look, BLACK FOOTWEAR, looks a bit dated now even with dark clothes, so he is talking out of his arse!

Since when is black footwear "dated". Dh and I both work in busy London offices and senior staff will predominantly be in smart black shoes most of the time.

Well that's nice. But black shoes are not the go to choice like they once were.

i work in an office, our rules are black uniform with white blouse, hosiery in in summer black shoes, short clean nails clear or pale pink nail varnish only.
Some still try it on with false nails painted silver, no hosiery in summer ect, but cant see the point in making a fuss.

The white shoes is making me think of those white clumpy safety shoes that bakers wear

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

*

A bright shirt seems perfectly smart to me. It would only be the very very most conservative environments that would frown upon that IME

Where have you worked? In finance and law it's still basically pretty common for men especially to wear mainly dark suits with white or pale blue shirts, occasionally pale pink shirts or lemon yellow. DH only buys white shirts and owns about 10!

That’s why I referenced finance and law

The OP wouldn’t be allowed those light shirts though, which I think I said.

That’s very usual isn’t it?