What people wear and especially what women wear often acts as a costume to fit into the male gaze. My mother experienced this in the 1970s when she was in a heavily male-dominated industry. She had to look the part and emulate masculinity to be respected by the men around her. When she tells me this, I think about how my experiences are so different, how I don’t face the same expectations but expectations nonetheless. This artwork juxtaposes my mother’s “costume” and my own with masculine styles and feminine colours and fabrics. Office Costume critiques the expectations of womenswear under the patriarchy.