For more office style intel, check our guide to the ins and outs of business casual attire.
Imagine, for a moment, the ideal work environment: The pantry is always stocked with decent snacks, the conference rooms are always unoccupied, and everybody’s wearing blazers and jeans. The first two perks are pretty self-explanatory. But if you’ve struggled to identify a no-brainer outfit that suits your office’s muddied vibes, ditch your next Zoom, set your Slack status to the exploding-head emoji, and allow us to explain the very real, very replicable benefits of the third.
In theory, as GQ contributor Jake Woolf pointed out last year, a blazer and jeans is one of menswear’s greatest high-low propositions. In execution, though, it can quickly go wrong. Just look at “the cursed combination of skinny-lapel jackets and aggressively stretchy denim beloved by slick-talking realtors and NFL owners,” Woolf notes, “or the Boomer penchant for a one-size-too-big suit jacket with puddled dad jeans.” In other words, a blazer and jeans isn’t just a high-low style hack—it’s a high-risk, high-reward swerve with limitless upside when you stick the landing.
Hold on a second, you’re probably thinking. Haven’t I seen this combination on every other doomed Bachelorette contestant and, like, umpteen Midwestern businessmen visiting the Big Apple for their annual trade conference? You can’t possibly be saying this is what GQ staffers wear to work of their own volition. That’s precisely what I’m saying, pal—and right now, my craggiest-brained colleagues keep saying it, too.
