For many fans of Y2K and ’90s fashion or style, the office siren trend is exactly what they’ve been looking for. It creates nostalgia all the while pioneering its own agenda.
The office siren trend is both a makeup and fashion trend that has been growing in popularity recently. To understand the aesthetic and its looks, you must first understand its inspirations.
The look takes inspiration from 2000s films that feature independent, female protagonists working office jobs typical of romcoms of the decade. Take “The Devil Wears Prada,” for example, or even Lucy Liu in “Charlie’s Angels” in her iconic, leather outfit.
Siren Style
The fashion brand Miu Miu has also served as a major inspiration for this trend due to its formal yet expressive and elegant style. Miu Miu fashion blurs the lines between formal wear and artistic expression into two things that can coexist.
An unlikely inspiration you may not have expected is also Bayonetta, the titular character of the game series. She’s a witch who thrives on presentation and attitude, and that’s exactly why she is so beloved. People love her boldness, her charm and her fashion which have made her iconic and unforgettable for years.
Hair and Makeup
The makeup style for the office siren trend altogether is quite simple as it can be summarized as being close to an everyday look. When people post tutorials of their office siren makeup looks, they typically start with their usual base routine of foundation and concealer. Depending on your usual routine, some people utilize contour to create sharper facial features. Blush is used to compliment the cheeks and give a lively and flirtatious complex with thin, fashionable but expressive eyebrows as there is no emulating the ’90s and 2000s without donning thin eyebrows.
Hair is also simple as many people prefer up-dos such as buns, high ponytails or even just using a claw clip for a messy, put-together look. If not an up-do, a neatly trimmed bob is not uncommon. Looks with hair worn down are usually slicked back into neat parts.
The bare bones of the office siren look doesn’t seem that revolutionary, but where the style draws its power are its eye looks. The eye look is where people’s variation and personal style for the office siren begin to take hold; while some people use colorful looks for their eyes, others don’t. Some people keep it simple and use neutral or metallic colors for their eyes while some like to experiment with color and create something that pops.
Something many can agree on, colorful eye looks or not, is winged eyeliner for a dramatic and sharp look. The winged eyeliner is often key in a look for creating an air of unassuming sensuality.
What fully completes the look and creates the air of the office siren is something that can be found in our previous examples of inspiration. Lucy Liu’s iconic “Charlie’s Angels” look and Bayonetta have one thing in common, and that’s their glasses. The glasses are truly what finalize the office siren look as they create an alluring and formidable gaze.
As for the fashion aspect of the office siren aesthetic, it typically features blazers, pencil skirts, loose button-ups, knee-high stockings, heels and anything else you’d associate with office fashion, including pants and vests.
The Idea Behind It
So if the office siren look is so simple, what do people love so much about it? What makes it so unique?
The defining factor of this aesthetic is simply contrast. The typical associations of corporate fashion are usually clothing and style with personality that have to follow strict guidelines. However, the office siren reclaims not only individuality that allows a persona to emerge but also contrasts against our expectations of a corporate worker.
Instead of your usual idea of what an office worker should look like, the office siren plays with this idea and creates an image of a worker with personality, style and autonomy. The trend takes on preconceived notions of what office wear and makeup has to look like in the creative sphere, much like its inspiration Miu Miu.
Anyone who has ever worn glasses can remember well what it was like to feel shame because of your glasses. Yet the office siren, in all her professionalism, wears her glasses proudly and doesn’t shy away from them. Her glasses add to her beauty, not subtract, and are precisely what creates her siren allure as they just turn her gaze into something so piercing you can’t look away from it.
What many people trying out this look seem to appreciate is its inclusion of glasses as something beautiful and attractive—completely contrary to how we’ve been made to feel about wearing glasses.
The office siren is an act of reclamation of both identity and autonomy to present yourself how you please. Regardless of expectations, the office siren hopes to defy them with prowess and individuality.
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