What’s the fun of going to work in your play clothes?
Back in my day, sure, ‘natural’ makeup and low heels, nails and hair tidy, too. High heels were a boss’s show of status as they are today - I don’t have to walk very far, I’m important, as opposed to the file clerk in flats, who was on her feet most of the day. Boss heels were 3 inch at the time. Not like the tippytoe 5inchers of today that still say, I’m important (or think I am). Dresses over separates was also a status sign. Receptionists wore separates, bosses wore dresses, bonus status points if your coat or duster matched. And you had to have more dresses than separates because you couldn’t wear the same dress in the same month. Receptionists had discrete jewelry, bosses could get a little bolder but only just. Lots of silly peer-driven vanity in my day. But the bible was ‘Dress for Success,’ (with your female co-workers) at the time men wore pressed shirts, ties and suits, women were breaking glass ceilings and dominating middle management, and the only man wearing a polo shirt and dockers was the interoffice mail clerk. :)
‘...at the time men wore pressed shirts, ties and suits...’
back in the mid fifties, when my father started his new job with RCA Corp, not only did the shirts have to be pressed, but also white...when this ridiculous dress code loosened to allow for light blue shirts, there were so many guys wearing them he said it was like working in a cop precinct...
Your day apparently has changed if not passed.
It is not the receptionist/assistant/clerk pool that does the heels: not the boss.
I still have that Dress for Success book.