Shake up your office attire with one of these key looks.

What you wear to work depends largely on where you work. In a law firm or an investment bank, you’ll be expected to wear a formal suit, probably with a tie. At a multinational, the dress code will likely be the corporate default of chinos and a button-down shirt. At a creative agency or one of those trendy coworking spaces that seem to be popping up everywhere now that so many people are apparently flexi-time freelancers, you can get away with T-shirt and jeans. Working from your kitchen table? Well, you may not bother getting dressed at all.

Whatever the office dress code, there’s a lot to be said for making an effort. Whether consciously or subconsciously, colleagues will respect it, clients will appreciate it. It also affects personal attitude and self-confidence: psychology studies prove that if you look sharp, you feel sharp and thus perform better. Even workers who have to wear a uniform can customise it. (For example, Dr Mikhail Varshavski – the Instagram medic with two million followers better known as Dr Mike – recently told us he has his standard-issue scrubs subtly monogrammed and tailored for a better fit and soon noticed how some other colleagues began to follow suit.)

After an August of automated OOO email responses, September heralds a Go-Go-Go! back-to-work mentality. To help you smarten up your act, our style editors have assembled five looks for different sorts of office dress codes, which collectively demonstrate some universally useful dressing tips. You won’t notice any outré fashion statements here – the idea is to make subtle improvements to your workday attire that will help you elevate your game without drawing too much attention.