Female Partner Asks What Revenue Her Leggings Must Generate to Become “Performance Tailoring”

I have a simple question for the Pemberton Rook executive committee: how much revenue must my leggings generate before they become performance tailoring?

Charles has spent the summer wearing a navy quarter-zip, technical trousers and shoes which are either trainers or very ambitious office loafers. People describe Charles as commercially relaxed. His wardrobe demonstrates confidence, agility and an instinctive understanding of the modern client.

I wore black leggings to the office last Thursday. The head of administration asked whether I had come from a class.

“Charles is wearing technical trousers. I am wearing leggings,” I explained. “They are made from the same material, bought from the same shop and manufactured to accommodate the same basic activity: sitting down.”

Charles's trousers are apparently client-led. Mine are a conversation about professional standards.

I therefore submitted a written business case to HR. It included my billings, client-retention history and a comparison of the elastic content of the relevant garments. I offered to take responsibility for any deterioration in my advice attributable to the waistband.

HR thanked me for my constructive approach and referred me to a Women's Network session entitled Bringing Your Whole Self to Work, Within Reason. I was told the conversation would be more powerful if we approached it as an issue of confidence rather than rules.

I am extremely confident. That does not appear to be the problem.

Extract from the correspondence

Me: “Please confirm the financial or seniority threshold at which sportswear becomes leadership attire.”

HR: “Dress is best evaluated in the context of an individual's professional brand.”

Me: “Is Charles's brand a fleece?”

HR: “We would encourage you not to make comparisons with colleagues.”

A senior partner later suggested that the difference was not technical but one of perception. I agreed. He appeared relieved until I asked whose perception counted and why it seemed to have its own dress allowance.

The matter remains under consideration. At our next executive meeting Charles wore a zip-neck top with a golf-club logo. Nobody mentioned it. I wore tailored trousers and a blazer. Charles asked whether I was going somewhere afterwards.

I said I was hoping, eventually, to go somewhere in this firm.