Are leggings acceptable office wear?

[WhatFreshHellIsThis]

Going back to work after mat leave tomorrow, have a fab little dress from Gap in a kind of midnight blue, thinking low ish heels, but are leggings ok for office wear or are they a bit teenage?

depends on so many factors, innit

Like the office, the impression you want to put across, how others dress in teh office, what you look like in the outfit, blahd e blah

No.

just

NO.

Our V stylist head teacher wears leggings under dresses.

what does she wear on her pieds, coke?

Unless you work with under 8s

then it's just about acceptable.

otherise - leggings do not command respect.

primary school - ok

High school - will not get respect

college/sixth form - ARE YOU MAD? YOU SERIOUSLY WANT YOUR LEGGINGED THIGHS IN THE SAME ROOM AS 17 YEAR OLD GIRLS WITH LEGGINGED THIGHS? You must have esteem of steel.

High heels.

high heel shoes with bare feet?

I once went to work in leggings, baggy tunic, smattering boots and a cardie. Thouht I looked trendily smart-casual (it was, at the time). Manager said I looked Grunge and dissaproved, given that senior director and clients were due that day. At lunchtime I quietly went shopping and returned in a smart frock and tights. Manager was very embarrased when she saw me.

Yes and 3/4 lentgh leggings, she always looks smart.

'smattering'? Bl@@dy auto-correct! Meant to be 'smart', of course.

Work was just about bearable! I wore sheer flesh coloured tights in the end and some very cute teal shoes with a tiny heel, and everyone commented on my knees all day.

You can't win

To clarify, I definitely only mean leggings as an alternative to tights under dresses. Never instead of trousers

I can remember wearing cheap leggings in the 80's before Lycra was so ubiquitous, when they used to get baggy knees

Glad your day wasn't too bad...

God, they were awful in the 80s weren't they?!

Dreadful. Half an hour's wear and they went baggy, and they always faded dreadfully, as well, so they were only black for about three washes.

We loved them though!

Blimey - where do some of you work? The 1950s??

I hold a fairly senior position in a public sector organisation, am a qualified professional, am responsible for managing staff, attend meetings with board members and senior representatives of other organisations and regularly wear leggings.

Under smart dresses/tunics and with either flat or heeled knee length boots. Occasionally even 3/4 leggings with ballet pumps! Absolutely not a problem.

The leopard skin print suit that a former senior colleague used to wear regularly caused far more raised eyebrows. but that's probably cos she was tango orange and there was a bit of a colour clash thing going on. She still got an OBE tho!

I worked in a newspaper office and leggings under a little dress was fine and often worn.

But it was the kind of place where, if you turned up in a suit (man or woman), people would ask where your job interview was

Not much help to OP maybe; agree with others, prob OK but not on first day back.

Fine at school btw surely? practical anyway (when I help in school I seem to spend most of the time crawling on the floor to hunt for missing pencils so need to have bottom covered really).

KillerCleavage without wishing to be rude, I'd say that what you can wear in public sector (even if you're interfacing with private sector) is very different from what's acceptable in many parts of private sector... It's even a bit of a joke to those of us who sell to the public sector. Having said that, I work for a big UK company and was horrified by how scruffy they were when I was waiting for my interview at HQ in London. It's ok for techies but not for customer facing/frontline staff... It is old fashioned but, to be honest, I like it. I'd rather keep my work/home wardrobe separate.

As I said earlier, though, when I worked in a less rigid environment I was happy to dress accordingly. There are days when I'd love to go to work in leggings - like today when I fear the "fat suit" may be the only one that fits!

WFHIT, I loved my 80s leggings too... In fact, to be honest, I'm really loving the whole return to 80s fashion stuff as I never really left them Have to be careful though - what looked great at 21 is not so good when approached 45!

approaching - duh!