Sales of work clothing have risen in recent days as more people return to the office.
Big retailers in the U.S. have reported an increase in sales of items such as dress shoes, pants, slacks and blazers.
As more and more U.S. cities reopen, companies are now asking their employees to come back to the office. Those that have been asked to return are exchanging the comfy kit they wore at home for more professional gear.
"Dress shoes, blazers, slacks - it's all going. Some of the men I've been fitting for suits grumble about it, sort of jokingly, 'I don't want to go back to the office, I've gotten so comfortable in a button-down and boxers,' " a worker at the men's floor at Saks Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan said in an interview.
Saks employees said they saw an uptick in sales of women's work clothing - including sandals and blouses. Freeport-based retailer L.L. Bean, Inc. said sales of its pants were now outselling elastic-waistband pants.
"We're seeing an increase in customers wanting to look at blazers and dress shirts, which is consistent with the rise in people going back to work," employees at J-Crew in Rockefeller Center in Manhattan said.
According to analysts, an estimated 80,000 people living in New York are expected to return to their desks this week.
While sales of work clothes are expected to increase in the coming months, analysts said sales of more comfortable clothing will unlikely decline soon. Analysts said consumers' preference in clothing has changed because of the pandemic.
After months of sweatpants, sweatshirts, lounge and athletic wear consumers now prefer comfortable clothing - even when going to the office.
"People are figuring out ways to take their casual clothes out of the house," Macy's chief merchandising officer Nata Dvir said.
Levi Strauss & Co. said it was also seeing an uptick in sales of its more casual jeans. Company's president Jennifer Sey said its looser fits are now quickly becoming its fastest growing segment.
