Odette School of Business professor Dr. Yanhong Li is leading a SSHRC funded study examining how workplace dress norms and office design shape self expression and feelings of belonging. (VICTOR ROMAO/University of Windsor)
By Victor Romao
What do you wear to work?
Is what you wear truly your choice?
Or is it a reflection of how your workplace signals you are expected to look?
What employees wear is often assumed to be a personal decision, but in reality, those choices are often shaped by workplace norms, informal cues and broader power structures.
Clothing can affect how professionalism is judged, how credibility and organizational fit are assigned and how comfortable someone feels simply existing at work.
Odette School of Business professor Dr. Yanhong Li seeks to explore how something as routine as choosing an outfit can reveal much larger issues of conformity, control, legitimacy and self-expression in the workplace.
Li is the recipient of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Partnership Engage Grant for a study examining how dress, appearance and workplace design influence feelings of belonging and self-presentation at work, with particularly relevance for queer and gender-diverse employees.
She will be undertaking the project in collaboration with Dr. Daniel Quintal‑Curcic, a post‑doctoral fellow at the Schulich School of Business, York University.
“Clothing is never just clothing,” said Li. “What we wear can quietly signal who fits, who stands out and who is expected to manage themselves more closely to be taken seriously.”
Her research will bring together two elements that are rarely studied alongside each other: workplace dress norms and the physical design of workspaces.
While many organizations do not have formal dress codes, Li said expectations are often communicated through subtle and informal cues.
“People learn what counts as ‘professional’ by paying attention to who gets praised, promoted or left alone, and whose appearance draws comments or scrutiny,” she said.
“Even when rules aren’t written down, they’re very clearly enforced.”
Those pressures are often intensified for 2SLGBTQIA+ workers, who may feel compelled to adjust their appearance depending on the audience, the setting and how safe the environment feels. Dressing like others can provide a sense of safety, but doing so repeatedly can come at a cost.
“When people have to constantly monitor how they look, second-guess how they will be read by others, or tone down parts of themselves, that effort adds up,” said Li. “Over time, it can undermine well-being, confidence and feelings of dignity at work.”
The study will also place a strong emphasis on space.
Li is examining how office design — including open-concept layouts, glass walls, mirrors, décor and binary washrooms — affects how visible employees feel and how carefully they manage their appearance.
“Workspaces are not neutral backdrops,” she said. “They send powerful messages about who belongs, who is taken seriously and who was imagined as fitting there in the first place.”
The project will involve in-depth interviews with participants from a range of professional backgrounds.
Participants will also be asked to share photographs of spaces, objects or moments that shape how they dress for work and express their identities. Those images will be used as prompts for reflection and storytelling.
To extend the research beyond academia, Li is partnering with DesignTO, a Toronto-based charitable organization known for its annual design festival and its focus on design’s role in social inclusion. Together, they aim to translate the findings into public-facing exhibitions, storytelling features and practical tools for organizations.
“DesignTO is deeply engaged in showing how design affects everyday life,” said Li. “This partnership allows us to turn research insights into conversations people can actually see and engage with.”
Planned activities include community exhibitions, digital storytelling and easy‑to‑use resources for employers and designers, offering practical guidance on how appearance norms and design choices can either exclude people or support authenticity and belonging.
Li hopes the study will encourage organizations to reconsider long-standing assumptions about what professionalism looks like, who is seen as fitting in and whom those expectations serve.
“When organizations talk about inclusion, dress norms and spatial design are often overlooked,” she said. “But these everyday details can either support people in being themselves or quietly signal that only certain kinds of bodies and expressions truly belong.”
Ultimately, Li said the project is less about what people should wear and more about expanding ideas of legitimacy in professional spaces.
“The goal isn’t uniformity,” she said. “It’s creating workplaces where people feel safe, respected and able to show up as themselves, so they can direct their energy toward engaging with their work rather than constantly self-monitoring.”