Inspired by extravagant private member’s club in London’s Mayfair
Top divorce lawyer Ayesha Vardag has dropped a dress code update, encouraging staff at her law firm to express themselves with gold leather trousers, scarlet Dr Martens and even pink hair.
In a memo sent to staff, the self-styled ‘Diva of Divorce’ who runs family law firm Vardags said “times change” and her firm must keep moving.
“There was a time for our dress code with double cuffs and cuff links, formal dark suits and jackets — but now business suits are so much the domain of bankers and estate agents that they’re eschewed by some of the funkier London clubs,” said Vardag.
Her firm will adopt a dress code more like Annabel’s, a high-end private member’s club in London’s Mayfair, with the essence being “elegance”.
The update comes over three years after Vardag told staff to dress formal and ditch cardigans in an incredible 1,000-word dress code memo leaked to Legal Cheek. ‘Vardigan-gate’ made national headlines at the time.
Whilst “still formal, still absolutely top-end and appropriate to the luxury market with which we engage”, Vardag told staff they can ditch the ties and dress in a way that will “bring your personality to work”.
“Day to day if you fancy an electric blue sequinned jacket and gold leather trousers, if you want pink hair or scarlet DMs, if you want a purple velvet jacket, that’s all good,” said Vardag in the dress code update, which she described as “non-gender-specific”.
Perhaps reassuringly to some staff, Vardags added: “You can still wear your suits if you like (and probably need to for court, more or less).”
Vardag also added a list of fashion faux pas for staff, which included: “Not scruffy or ungroomed, not hoody-techy (except for the techy people, who I appreciate are hard-wired to wear hoodies), not trashy, always in good taste…”
Despite this, Vardag said she wanted her staff to “be as wildly fabulous as you feel like, and express yourselves to the full”.
Vardag’s original dress code, which was sent in July 2019, encouraged female staff to aim for “a Chanel/Dior/Armani look” and for men, “it’s a Savile Row look we’re espousing”.
