Four months ago, I accepted a job at Glamour with zero clue of what I’d actually wear for a job at Glamour. A recent college graduate, I presumed “appropriate work attire” was the same across industries: blazers, suiting separates, sheath dresses, sensible pumps… It took all of five minutes on my first day to realize that wasn’t necessarily the case, especially at a full-time fashion gig. (That first day outfit, by the way, has only been seen in my office ID badge photo since.) Without access to a Fairy Fashion Godparent, I didn’t know where to turn for simple, polished staples that still felt modern and, most importantly, were in my budget. A few weeks into my role, my nightly online quest for items that checked the professional, fashionable, and affordable boxes led me to Uniqlo, home of minimalist basics that are within reach for a shopper with student loans. That’s where I found this dress—the one that I wear to work every other week.
A slip dress (or camisole, in Uniqlo parlance) once ranked pretty high on a list of trends I’d never buy into—right up there with colorful faux fur coats and runway-inspired suiting. The polite way to talk about my style would be to call it ‘classic’; the honest way to talk about my style would be to call it ‘Stepford-Wife preppy.’ (Think prim sweaters from J.Crew and other put-together staples that manifest in your closet after enough years living in New England.) But I was searching for something that would read more ‘cool’ than my usual bows and pearls to wear to the office—so I hit ‘Add to Cart’ on the Uniqlo dress and hoped for the best. The version I chose was a burnt orange, mid-calf length, spaghetti-strap dress in a satin-ish material. And, at $19.90, I could make the leap to a less ‘me’ style without sacrificing too much of my assistant-grade paycheck. Girl’s gotta pay rent.
PHOTO: Uniqlo.
Uniqlo Velour camisole dress, $19.90, Uniqlo
I wore what would soon become my capital-F favorite dress in the simplest way possible, so that I could fly under the radar in case my fashion experiment went awry (I’m serious when I say that a slip dress was way out of my comfort zone): over a white T-shirt, under a denim jacket, with black loafers from Zara. For a rather understated outfit centered around a simple, solid-colored garment, I didn’t expect one editor—let alone a few strangers in the company cafeteria—to ask me where I got the dress from. What truly convinced me that this dress was the best work purchase I’d ever made, though? Finding out after my purchase that not one, not two, but three more Glamour team members owned and loved the exact same Uniqlo dress. The key to mastering professional dressing was just a few cubicles away, and I hadn’t noticed until I accidentally joined the club.
Unlike that off-the-shoulder Zara dress that everyone swiped up in 2016, this Uniqlo style doesn’t make us colleagues look like style clones. On the contrary: I didn’t even realize four different people on my floor had the exact same dress because everyone wore it so distinctly—from the editor who donned her black slip over a striped top with sneakers, to the writer who paired her rose velvet one with sleek ankle boots. We all have different body types and lean towards different aesthetics. (Though, two of us cite the Stranger Things kids as our style icons).) This $19.90 dress, though, unites all of our wardrobes.
After comparing notes with how my coworkers wear theirs, I’m one click away from buying it in another color. The rust-version that I wear at least once every two weeks is no longer available, but you can find velvet iterations in black, rose, and cobalt velvet in stores and online now. And if I’m any indication, you’ll wear yours literally all the time too.
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