'Gender grooming gap' | UNIQLO sales boom sheds light on pressures of 'looking the part' at work

The global Japanese retailer UNIQLO reported a hike in sales. The surge, it says, was in part caused by companies demanding their staff return-to-office, which is ushering its largely Gen-Z consumer base into stores for new workwear.

The company’s CEO, Alessandro Dudech, said that female Gen-Zers under 29 make up 35% of its consumers, and that the firm had seen a hike in sales thanks to viral TikTok videos – showcasing items such as the famous banana bag and pleated trousers.

But this increase was also caused by staff heading back to the office, Dudech explained, and that young workers were looking to UNIQLO for clothes they could wear “at the office or on a night out”.

Back to the office

For many Gen-Z, going into an office regularly is a novelty, much of this group having entered the working world in the pandemic. UNIQLO’s rise in sales, particularly from a female market, sheds light on the disproportionate pressure on women to ‘look the part’ within the workplace.