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Many workplaces have relaxed their dress codes in recent years, with men no longer expected to wear a suit and tie nor women required to don skirt suits and high heels.
With the rise of working from home and a focus on comfort, businesses have done away with strict rules on what to wear to work.
But the Bank of England has introduced new guidance which threatens to disrupt decades of tradition in the City.
Under the rules, ‘anyone is welcome to wear a suit with high heels’ regardless of their gender, while ‘trans men may wear large earrings’, ‘cis men may wear eyeshadow’ and ‘trans women may have facial hair’.
The guidance is designed for Bank of England staff to dress in a way that allows them to switch between presenting as male or female ‘within the same outfit’.
A ‘genderfluid person may wear a suit to work some days and a dress to work other days’, the updated rules state.
The new dress code, seen by The Telegraph, forms part of the Bank of England’s Trans Equality and Transitioning at Work Guidance.
A Bank of England spokesperson said: ‘The bank’s mission is to maintain monetary and financial stability. As an employer, we follow the relevant laws.’
The Bank of England says ‘genderfluid’ male staff can wear eyeshadow and high heels to the office in new dress code
Governor Andrew Bailey at the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Report press conference in London earlier this month
The guidance contrasts the City’s longstanding unwritten rules about how to dress, with brown shoes traditionally having been frowned upon.
For decades, it has been accepted that young men should wear navy suits while senior executives don grey.
But the bank’s changes risk throwing out years of tradition.
It comes after guidance was issued to staff on how to be inclusive of transgender colleagues, which includes referring to them by ‘neo-pronouns’ in place of traditional pronouns such as ‘he’, ‘she’ and ‘they’.
Examples provided by the bank included ‘xe/xem/xyr’, ‘ze/hir/hirs’, and ‘ey/em/eir’.
It comes after the Bank of England has come under mounting pressure to cut interest rates next month as growth slows to a crawl.
On Wednesday, ONS figures showed gross domestic product grew by just 0.1 per cent in the final quarter of last year – worse than expected and following 0.1 per cent growth in the third quarter.
Deputy governor Sarah Breeden said it was ‘reasonable to expect there to be a cut over the next couple of meetings’.