Office wear

[wellinghall]

I know we've touched on this before, but what would you wear to work if the dress code was "smart casual" or "business casual"? Or possibly more to the point (especially if you're a woman!), what do you think I should wear?

Comments

[rosathome.livejournal.com]

Not jeans; possibly cords, probably smart chinos or similar. Proper shirt, possibly a blazer or other non-suit jacket, maybe with jumper underneath if weather-appropriate. Probably a tie.

[eldritchhobbit.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... for men, I'd say something along the lines of pressed khakis, a nice dress shirt, and a blazer, with no tie.

[malaheed.livejournal.com]

I'd recommend dressing up at first then scaling down after a week when you get a better understanding of what other people are wearing

Oh, whatever you wear to Glorious Goodwood.

[wemyss.livejournal.com]

Hard to go very wrong with tweed, or a blazer later in the year.

[king-pellinor.livejournal.com]

The general trend back when I was in such an office was dark trousers and a pale blue shirt in a chequered or striped pattern.

I generally work chinos and a polo shirt, though if I could be bothered with the extra ironing I'd have worn a proper (but short-sleeved) shirt.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Ah - I feel qualified to write on this as a) a man and b) someone who works for a firm with a "business casual" dress code.

Firstly, I would definitely echo malaheed's advice about dressing towards the smarter end at first, and then going more casual rather than the other way around. In a "business casual" environment, on any given day some people will probably be dressed in just "business smart" (usually this means suit, shirt and tie) because of seeing clients.

So what to wear?

At the smarter end of "business casual" - pin-striped, single-breasted suit*, smart shirt, no tie, smart black shoes (or if you value fashion over style, brown shoes, but personally I can't stand the mix of brown shows and navy suit).

At the most casual end - polo shirt, chinos, slightly more casual shoes (but not trainers or even trainer-like shoes).

In between - suit with t-shirt can look smart and stylish (v-necked t-shirts are smarter than round-necke, although bear in mind that once you take off your suit jacket, you're left with just a t-shirt and trousers). Instead of a suit, a blazer or what used to be referred to as a 'sports jacket' with non-matching trousers is not as smart as a suit, but still looks "smart casual". You should be careful to avoid looking like you've just walked off the golf course though. I would avoid blazers with brass buttons, because they just look silly.

Quick sample of what the blokes in my office are wearing today:
I'm in grey cashmere v-neck jumper over a black t-shirt, with smart trousers and smart black shoes.

One manager is in polo-shirt and chinos.

Most common outfit would seem to be smart trousers and open-necked shirt, but I don't know if this is a suit with the jacket taken off, or just shirt and trousers.

Don't forget the all-important Dilbert rule when it comes to summer clothing - only wear a short-sleeved shirt if you aren't going to wear a tie. A combination of short-sleeved shirt and tie means that people will assume you're there to fix the photocopier, not produce an actuarial valuation of a £20billion defined benefit scheme.



Country versus city is an important distinction because it determines how much brown and check you can get away with. Bristol is a little bit like Plymouth, but not quite as much, in that it is a city with noddings towards rural style. This means that you can get away with things like check shirts, brown trousers, tweed jackets etc that you probably wouldn't wear if you worked at Canary Wharf. I notice this a lot when I visit our offices in London (especially Canary Wharf) and compare them to the likes of Plymouth.


* Double-breasted suit without a tie just looks odd I think.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Just to properly check for you - I asked two colleagues from our Bristol office who deal with your new employers and they said that their dress seemed very similar to JOLF's.

[segh.livejournal.com]

"Hey, which of all these is the correct thing to wear?
Hey, whichever I select."

"Smart casual" is the devil of a rubric because nobody knows what it means. I used to think it was invented by managers to upset staff. After some years I realised that it was a clever trick on the part of the management to discover who's disaffected - if they turn up in a suit it means they're going to interviews.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

It's possibly worth adding that the phrase can mean something slightly different in the US than it does here. American business casual seems to be casual but without jeans and trainers whereas British business casual often means suit but no tie.