Meet Kat From Finance, the New CEO of Workplace Power Dressing

The office—a sartorial arena long dismissed as bland and suffocating—reflects shifting cultural values around self-expression. Long gone are the days when dressing for the 9-to-5 meant starched shirts and restrictive pencil skirts. If icons like Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel broke the mold, then contemporary designers such as Phoebe Philo and The Row have propelled the evolution of corporate power dressing further still. This is fitting, because as legendary street style photographer Bill Cunningham once said, “Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.”

In The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep’s tyrannical Miranda Priestly wore a shimmering, bead-detailed Bill Blass jacket to assert her dominance and command the room. While this example might be at the extreme end, it shows how fashion in professional settings operates as a silent language, constantly communicating intent. Meanwhile, in this year’s Baby Girl, Nicole Kidman’s Romy Mathis presents a less grandiose and more realistic distillation of high-powered corporate dressing, one that befits her CEO status—immaculate coats, pussybow blouses, cashmere gloves—eventually shifting from polished perfection to unraveling elegance as her world is turned upside down.

In reality, the rules of corporate power style continue to shift, spilling beyond the boardroom. Enter @katfromfinance, a key stakeholder in the OFFICE MAXXING movement. Based in London and a real-life businesswoman, Kat puts a daring, experimental twist on traditional office codes, intentionally colliding silhouettes, materials and details for a visually striking statement that’s familiar yet also askew. It’s comfortable, but not afraid to cause a stir. Disruption, it seems, isn’t just for startup companies.

Below, a one-on-one meeting with the professional innovator.