Okay so bear with me because this is going to feel really out of left field but hear me out. I became absolutely fascinated with how teachers approach dresser thanks to a random comment I saw on TikTok. I was posting this video where people were rating different professions’ work outfits and someone commented “do teachers next lol they all dress like they’re still in 2003” and….I was insulted.
I know right? Like as a fellow Asian I cannot stand it when people stereotype us?? But here I was getting defensive over teachers.
Except I’m not a teacher and…I take that back. I am sooo done with that attitude.
Teachers are absolute masters of the work wardrobe.
Here me out. Teachers have to dress professionally enough that parents recognize them as an authority figure. Teachers also have to be able to run around after kids for eight hours, so they need clothes that can handle that kind of abuse.
But they also need to present themselves in a way that doesn’t scare off their students. Like, welcome to the ASDA vs Zara dilemma of balancing comfort with fitting in, except thrown into one powerfully hard package. And they’re doing all of this on teachers’ salaries, which can’t exactly afford to revamp their wardrobe every time Zara drops a new round of comfortable pants.
So of course I decided I had to talk to teachers about their wardrobes. Because newsflash, I will never move on from anything that pisses me off like a normal human being. I have to turn it into content.
So sue me, it’s very on brand for me. I messaged my friend Maya who teaches high school English in London. Maya has always been really stylish (like we both wore watch caps in University so she’s always been legit to me) but I knew she’d have thoughts on this.
She literally LOL’ed when I told her what I was doing. “You have no idea,” she texted back. “Teachers are heroes when it comes to clothes. We have to be so strategic.” Full disclosure, this was THREE months ago and I have been down the teacher style rabbit hole ever since. I’ve talked to primary teachers in small rural schools, city kids teachers and secondaries everywhere, public school teachers, independent school teachers…I’ve lurked in enough teacher Facebook groups reading comments about “work appropriate clothes” and “lab coat inspo” to know that there’s a whole world of teachers thinking a lot more about work style than most of us.Gif by NASA Goddard via Tumblr And I even asked a few teachers if I could follow them around for day to film day in the life content. (With their school’s permission, of course.
I’m not having any teachers fired!!) But holy crap, y’all. Teachers have figured something out that the rest of us are seriously lacking. Lesson 1: Teachers have style archetypes.
Ok so Maya described these teachers as the “New Traditionalists”. They go for the tried-and-true teacher uniform of pants and a button-up, but make it feel modern and actually practical. I talked to Emma, a history teacher, who is a total master of this style.
The basics of her wardrobe are wide-leg trousers ( COS is her go to cause lets be real you’re always moving around in classrooms ), blousey shirts that look expensive but are actually from H&M or thrifted, and boxy blazers that allow for movement. The day I spent with her, she wore a pair of navy trousers, a white collarless shirt, and this camel leather blazer with the sleeves rolled up. Basic, right?
But she paired it with this geometric bead necklace and forest green suede ankle boots. The blingy socks weren’t necessary but boy did they take the outfit to next level. “Kids learn better when you can show off your personality,” she said to me as she confiscated someones AirPod case. “But I can’t wear anything that would ruin my life if they got stained.” Wait, what? Stain-proof??
Everything these teachers wear has to be able to get washed. Teachers LIVE in mystery stains. I watched Emma kneel down to help students, climb onto desks to get supplies, stand on her tiptoes to write on the whiteboard.
Her clothes stretched and bent with her ALL DAY AND THEY NEVER LOOKED BAD. Then there are the teachers I’m calling the “Art Teachers.” As you can probably guess these teachers usually work in art or music, but honestly I’m seeing this trend spread into other departments too. They’ve mastered wearing bright colors and big prints without sacrificing function.
I spent the day with Nadia, who teaches art at a primary school, in her favorite mustard yellow jumpsuit. Bonus points: It has pockets. She paired it with a cardigan that could be washed if there was any paint spills.
Everything about her outfit was so well thought through. White trainers (which she replaces every semester, she told me) brightly colored DMs for messy days, and an old vintage denim dress/ apron hybrid she wore over her jumpsuit when doing art. She’d even customized her school-required lanyard with cute enamel pins from local museums and galleries.
It was basically turning required safety gear into accessories. “Kids love bright colors,” she said as she helped a six-year-old pour glue into a jar. “But when I first started I made the mistake of wearing this cute top that I loved and would have cried if it got ruined. Now I only wear things that I can live without upsetting over.” And that my friends is lesson number 2…. Teachers only buy clothes that they can LIVE WITHOUT UPSETTING OVER.
Which brings me to my last teacher archetype: The “Minimalists.” These teachers are usually younger and have mastered the delicate balance of looking put together without subscribing to the “blazer-and-button up” teacher uniform. David, who teaches media studies, kept it cute with dark jeans or chinos, clean white trainers, and unstructured blazers over plain t-shirts or merino jumpers. It looked casual but every single detail was carefully curated.
His jeans were always a dark wash and never ripped or skinny fitted. His trainers were basic- no Nike swooshes or bright colors. His t-shirts were investment basics from Uniqlo, not graphic or text-y at all. “I teach sixteen-year-olds,” he said. “But I also need them to respect me and my background.
You Might Also Like
If I dress too sharply, they think I don’t understand them. But if I look too casual, they won’t listen to anything I say.” Teachers have worked out the art of being relatable authority figures. We could ALL learn something from that.
But my absolute favorite teachers are, what I’m calling, the “Statement Dressers.” These teachers have chosen one wildcard element that they wear every day to give them some personality at school. Maya is one of these teachers and she culls her entire work wardrobe from vintage 60s and 70s dresses. She wore a different one every day when I was talking to her, but pairs them with simple tights and ankle boots or loafers depending on weather.
She’s also noticed a difference in her kids’ attitudes. Students actually LOVE that she wears the same style of dress every day. They come into class asking her “What dress are you gonna wear today, Miss?” which gives her a point of connection with them.
Hell, at this point she knows exactly how to wear and style everything in her closet so getting dressed takes ZERO thought. I also talked to James who teaches physics in Scotland and wears a different bow tie every day. Seriously, the man has enough bow ties to start his own museum.
I’m not even kidding you guys. Students walk into his classroom wondering what crazy tie he’ve picked out that day AND before he’s even begun teaching they’re learning because THEY’RE ENGAGED. “It was a bit of a joke when I was student teaching,” he said adjusting that day’s tie ( navy with tiny silver polka dots ) “but then I realized that it was helping me reach kids that weren’t interested in science. If they came into my class and saw a tie they liked, they were suddenly more willing to listen to what I had to say.” Moral of the story: Teachers think about how they dress WAY MORE than most people at office jobs.
The rules are basically the same no matter where they work: No crop tops, tanks, or low-cut shirts. Nothing with offensive prints or sayings. Nothing too tight that there’s no way to chase kids around in it.
And definitely nothing that’s so expensive you’d be devastated if it got ruined. But what teachers will obsess over is HOW they work within these guidelines. Teachers have also mastered capsule wardrobes because OH HELL DO THEY KNOW ABOUT BUDGET FRIENDLY FASHION.
I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many clothes I own compared to Maya’s entire teaching wardrobe. She has pieces in neutral colors like navy, burgundy, and white that all mix and match with each other. Literally everything she owns she can wear to work. “I make sure that every piece I buy matches everything else in my wardrobe,” she explained as she showed me pictures of her amazing closet. “If I couldn’t wear that top with three other bottoms I didn’t buy it.
And everything has to LAST. I can’t afford to replace my work clothes every few months.” Teachers plan for the absolute worst when getting dressed. Like, Helen, a reception teacher I talked to keeps a full spare outfit in her classroom cupboard. “It’s not IF something will get spilled on me,” she said. “It’s WHEN.” She showed me the spare tights she keeps in her drawer, along with a stain remover pen, safety pins, and even a pair of backup shoes.
I’ve heard similar stories from so many teachers. They have bags packed at all times because you just never know. Mystery stains, ripped pants, rainstorms, emergency playground duty.
These teachers plan for every eventuality. What I’ll MISS the most about kid’s clothes though is how they’ve evolved over time. A lot of the older teachers I interviewed said they used to have it much worse when they started teaching. “We had to wear these awful suit sets that made us look like bankers,” a high school headteacher told me. “Thankfully our dress code’s relaxed since then so now I can wear actual clothes to work.” It’s not just that clothing in general has changed.
Schools are finally realizing that teachers can wear professional clothing without trying to be little business folks. Kids actually respect their teachers more when they can express their personality through their outfits. Of course it depends 100% on where you teach.
Independent school teachers will almost always dress more formally than state school teachers. Primary school teachers wear WAY brighter colors than secondary teachers. Sixth form college teachers have the coolest uniforms because THEY CAN WEAR JEANS TO SCHOOL.
But at every school I talked to, the teachers who seemed happiest and most confident were the ones that had embraced their teacher style and ran with it. Teachers have cracked it, y’all. They’ve somehow managed to solve the problems we all struggle with when we get dressed.
How to balance dressing for your actual job vs. an idea of what professional clothing should look like. How to look sharp but also be able to move around in your clothes. How to show off your personality within constraints.
I’ve been thinking a lot about my own work wardrobe lately. Am I dressing for the actual job I have to do in retail (being on my feet all day, chatting to customers, lifting stock) or am I just wearing things I think I should wear to work? Teachers don’t have that luxury.
If their clothes don’t let them do their job, they’ll suffer for it.
Teachers clothes have to be able to withstand a day of squatting on the floor, running around the playground, kneeling to help kids with reading, ALL WHILE LOOKING GOOD. Teachers also have to dress as role models for thousands of young kids.
These children look up to them, and teachers show students that just because you’re a working adult doesn’t mean you have to dress boring and vanilla. Teachers show kids that there are so many ways to be an adult, to dress professionally, and to still be YOU. Next time you’re walking around at a school event, LOOK AT THE TEACHERS DRESSING.
Notice the art teacher in the perfect shade of blue paint-friendly cardigan. Notice how the math teacher has so many pockets from chasing kids around with classroom supplies. Notice how your kid’s English teacher matches her accessories to the books they’re reading that week.
Teachers aren’t just wearing clothes, they’re carefully curating outfits that help them do one of the most important jobs in the world. Teachers have spent YEARS perfecting their work style. It’s time we started paying attention.
