What Boots are Acceptable for the Workplace in 2023?

professional woman walks along city street; she is wearing black patent leather knee-high boots and a camel-colored wool overcoat

What boots are applicable for the workplace in 2023? Have the principles modified for conservative places of work — and for enterprise informal places of work? Buckles, cork heels, lug soles, harness straps, and extra… let’s focus on.

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The Previous Rule: Solely Easy, Traditional Boots for the Workplace

The previous rule was once that, for a conservative workplace, the boot must be as near plain leather-based as doable. Easy! Not a dialog level! In years previous we’ve talked about how any of the next gadgets had been greatest to keep away from for a really conservative workplace:

Ornamental buckles and harness-type straps, whether or not on the toes, vamp, or tops of trainers

Ornamental detailing, embroidery, or patchworked items, both in the identical coloration/cloth or completely different coloration/cloth

Footwear with a dip within the entrance, like cowboy boots (typically referred to as a “curved topline”)

Heels which can be a special coloration from the remainder of the boot, akin to a brown wood heel with a black suede boot, a pink rubber heel on a black boot, cork heels, and so on. I feel I even bear in mind some readers not liking a strip alongside the underside of the heel, like this Blondo boot, that attracts consideration to the boot.

Knee-high boots — YES, REALLY!! I nonetheless chuckle to recollect a dialog I had with a pal from regulation evaluate, as we had been taking BarBri lessons — she had a tongue ring, for goodness sake! — whereby she instructed that solely intercourse staff wore knee-high boots. This was really a factor again then — Condoleeza Rice was accused of wanting like a “dominatrix” in 2005 when she wore an all-black outfit with knee-high boots, and as just lately as 2011 reporters questioned if Michelle Obama’s knee-high boots had been applicable for a Veterans’ Day service.

Over-the-knee boots — Right here’s our final dialogue on OTK boots for work… I’m actually curious the place most individuals fall on these for work and different conservative environments in 2023! I wore some tan OTK boots to my youngest son’s First Communion final yr, for what it’s price (worn with a knee-length black gown), but it surely was a really small class.