late 1970s–1980s, modern revivals

Power Dressing

1980s women's executive uniform — sharp tailoring, exaggerated shoulder pads, bold colour and a deliberate visual claim on male-dominated boardrooms.

Palette: fuchsia royal blue scarlet navy cream black
Signature garments: padded-shoulder blazer pencil skirt silk pussy-bow blouse low pumps structured handbag wide-leg trouser suit
Canonical brands: Giorgio Armani Donna Karan Claude Montana Saint Laurent Mugler

About

Power Dressing is the late-1970s and 1980s workplace fashion movement that armed women entering executive and political roles with a sartorial vocabulary of authority. Designers like Giorgio Armani, Donna Karan, Anne Klein and Claude Montana built the look around exaggerated shoulder pads, sharp single- or double-breasted blazers, knee-length pencil skirts or wide trousers, silk blouses with pussy bows, low pumps and an assertive palette of fuchsia, royal blue, sea green and red alongside the boardroom neutrals. Dynasty and Dallas codified the silhouette on television; Margaret Thatcher and the early class of female executives wore it in real life. The look has been periodically revived (Phoebe Philo at Celine in the 2010s, Saint Laurent throughout the 2020s) as shorthand for female ambition.

Not Corpcore — Power Dressing is specifically the 1980s women's-executive movement of bold tailoring and shoulder pads; Corpcore is the 2020s remix of office staples on TikTok.

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