I went to law school and, while studying, I worked in a law firm. The lawyers I worked for were upper class white men, and so, very conservative people. When it came to looks, I was always expected to keep a Hillary Clinton/Margaret Thatcher style (discrete and serious, but still traditionally feminine) when in court, office or meetings with clients. I hated every bit of it, from the fact that I was being told what to wear by these people, to the dress code itself, but I needed the job. I tried to comply for a couple of months, but I got tired of it one day. I could not afford to get fired, so I tried to come up with ways of subtly subvert those rules. That was when I started to wear colorful, funky looking ties with boring suits (like theirs, but in my size). None of them could say that ties and suits where informal, and since I am a woman, I was somewhat “allowed” to wear a few more colors than them, but they were definitely confused and gave me the eye about the whole “woman-wearing-a-suit-and-tie” thing. They could not quite put their finger on what exactly was wrong with my attire, so they never said anything. Eventually they got used to it. I don’t work for them anymore, but I still collect ties and wear them with oversized sweaters every now and then. These are my favorite four.
Research Collective for Decoloniality & Fashion 