Young workers bring loafers and oxfords back to the office

Young workers are bringing loafers, derbies and oxfords back to the office, a shift that says as much about workplace status as it does about style. As companies have pulled people back to desks, Gen Z employees have been blending office dress codes with current trends and personal taste, and the polished shoe is becoming part of that negotiation.

By 2025, fashion and footwear guides were still drawing clear lines between oxfords, derbies and loafers for business-casual and formal wear. Jack Collins laid out those categories in a Sept. 21, 2022 business-casual shoe guide, and newer style writing pushed the trend further, with a 2026 GQ piece saying dress shoes were no longer reserved only for black-tie or strict dress-code events. Minimal leather sneakers can still work in some business-casual offices if they stay sleek and neutral, but the center of gravity has shifted toward more polished footwear.

The office itself has changed with the shift. A LinkedIn workplace-trends summary described modern dress codes as moving away from rigid, traditional attire toward more inclusive, comfortable and expressive clothing choices. Cynthia Stamer put the counterargument bluntly: “smart young Gen Z’s should know to dress for promotability” and workplace tolerance has tightened. That tension helps explain why a loafer or oxford now reads as both a style choice and a signal that the wearer is reading the room.

The back-and-forth is not new. Reuters noted in 2010 that bare legs with a knee-length skirt were acceptable in 21st-century work attire, a reminder that office dress norms have been loosening for years. But the latest cycle reverses part of that casualization. A 2024 Hustle headline captured the earlier sneaker-heavy mood with the line, “Loafers are out, sneakers are in: Office fashion isn’t going back.” Elle later wrote in fall 2025 that the office remains a site of fascination for designers even as the concept becomes increasingly out of reach for young people.

That mix of aspiration, conformity and self-presentation is what makes the footwear swing matter beyond fashion. The office is still where younger workers decide how much personality to show and how much polish to project, and right now the answer is increasingly leather instead of mesh.