POWER PLAY
An exploration of corporate aesthetics, control, and subversion.
Power is as much about optics as it is about influence. A sharply tailored suit, the weight of a briefcase, the staccato rhythm of a high heel against polished marble—these are the aesthetics of control. But control is a performance, and the corporate uniform is its costume.
Businesswear has never been neutral. It is a uniform of power, dictating not only who belongs but under what terms. For women, it has been a paradox: an entry pass, a constraint, a negotiation. The pinstripe suit and pressed lapels were once a symbol of assimilation, but at what cost? Does authority lie in the cut of a blazer, or in the ability to discard it entirely?
The Corporate Illusion
Desks, filing cabinets, discarded contracts—artifacts of a crumbling system where identity dissolves into expectation. The absurdity beneath the facade is laid bare, where the body is shaped by the rigid architecture of executive culture. The performance of power is carefully constructed, masking tension beneath the sleekness of tailored control. Is control ever truly possessed or merely performed?
Corporate aesthetics demand a paradoxical femininity: powerful yet palatable, desirable yet disciplined. The workplace has long required women to navigate a contradictory set of expectations—command authority without intimidating, exude confidence without arrogance, be alluring without being provocative. Sexuality, when wielded on her own terms, disrupts power rather than reinforcing it. Yet, when dictated by external forces, it becomes another mechanism of control.
The briefcase, once a monolith of power, is now an empty relic. The suit, once a badge of legitimacy, reveals itself as a mere disguise. Professionalism has always been a well-tailored illusion—an aesthetic of authority designed to neutralize difference rather than embrace it. Power is both structured and subverted within the same frame, an interplay of discipline and defiance.
Professionalism is just a well-tailored illusion
Systems of Control
The corporate world thrives on repetition and erasure. Blurred figures, interchangeable bodies, a sea of anonymity. Women, in particular, are taught that success demands self-reduction—sharpening edges without appearing threatening, commanding without intimidating. The power suit was never just fabric; it was strategy, camouflage, survival.
But what happens when the uniform is no longer enough? When the veneer cracks and the executive mask slips? Does power reside in conformity, or in its rejection?
THE BREAKING POINT
Rebellion is not always loud. Sometimes, it is refusing to perform.
The silent refusal to shrink. The decision to occupy space unapologetically. When the structure no longer contains the individual, authority begins to fracture.
The suit tightens. The briefcase drags. The high heels falter. Each symbol of power becomes a shackle. The professional ideal collapses under its own weight, revealing an uncomfortable truth: the aesthetics of authority were always just that—aesthetic.
Corporate sexuality functions in the same way—a controlled and commodified version of femininity, repackaged for professional acceptability. But what happens when it is reclaimed—when sensuality is no longer about submission, but defiance? The red lip, the exposed décolletage, the slit in the pencil skirt—once coded as concessions to the male gaze—become reassertions of bodily autonomy. Power is not in withholding desire, but in owning it.
Rewriting the Rules
True power dressing has never been about mere assimilation. It has always been a negotiation, a balancing act between visibility and control. But as the lines between identity and performance blur, power is no longer about blending in—it is about standing apart.
The future of authority is not found in the rigidity of a dress code but in the ability to rewrite the language of professionalism itself. Conformity is a choice, and subversion can exist within the seams of the expected. The codes of power, once rigid, are in flux.
Power is no longer about playing by the rules. It’s about making your own.
Credits
Concept & Direction: Ella Netland
Photography: Walker Netland