The lines between what is office appropriate and what isn’t have blurred since the pandemic. But how far can you go when you’re pulled back into the hybrid office?
You need to ask yourself, when people see you, what ideas pop up into their heads? Will they take you seriously if you’re wearing a cap with your favorite team’s logo on the front? You couldn’t have done it pre-pandemic in corporate America. But what about now?
Well it depends on the cap.
What about the baseball style cap worn by Logan Roy in the hit show, Succession. Roy’s hat appears ordinary. It doesn’t even appear to have a logo. (Of course, there is a logo, an almost invisible one.) As some fanatic viewers have pointed out, if you have a high-def television, you might observe the cashmere texture and hint of a logo.
The appeal of the cap is that it is so elite that only savvy One Percenters can even recognize that it’s no ordinary baseball cap. It’s a $625 cap made with luxurious baby cashmere by the elite Italian brand Loro Piana, owned by the luxury brand LVMH.
The cap is an example of quiet branding, a coded signifier of elite status and being in the know.
Al the WSJ points out in its article, “Cool, Casual” (August 12-13, 2023) the rules are different depending on the setting and where you stand in the hierarchy. The juniors “might get handslapped for a cap, though a partner can put one off with impunity. It’s the same with a director on a film can wear one – it’s a power move, but if you’re the intern, it’s not gonna fly.”
What do your sartorial choices say about you?
