Suits are out for professionals?

[LondonLuke]

What if you lounge about in a suit?

 

[Godfrey]

It's seldom wrong to be over-dressed, but always wrong to be under-dressed.

Very true! I wear a suit and tie every day. My staff are pretty mixed in what they wear and almost uniformly 'dress down' on Friday. Its interesting that when we do have people on the floor some of the more senior people get overlooked by visitors while the junior guy in a suit and tie gets the respectful attention.

Locally during the early naughty's KPMG in Australia adopted business casual. They ended up going back to a dress code due to a loss of customer perception of the value the company offered to its clients. Interesting huh!

 

[Geesie]

What if you lounge about in a suit?

Then you probably have high dry cleaning bills.

 

[Fletch]

What if you lounge about in a suit?

Honestly? Then you probably ought not own a serious suit. They're clothing for the world. Keep them away from the world and they become costume, no better than a gorilla suit.

At least go downtown and run errands in it, or add some stout brogans and a fedora and take a bracing constitutional. Then lounge around in them all you care to.

 

[LondonLuke]

By lounging around in a suit, I didn't mean lying on the sofa watching the telly all day, I meant general life, reading the paper, nipping to the shops, maybe watching some television. To be honst, I almost never spend a whole day indoors, as I;m normally at work or whaever, or if its a weekend with nothing planned, I always nip out to do something, even if it's just going to the library to read foreign newspapers or walk around the park.

 

[Mid-fogey]

Things used...

...to be so simple. Every man with a clean, professional job wore a suit. Period, dot. You never had to worry about what to wear. A day alone in the office, a customer call, a conference, a trip to the White House -- it didn't matter -- you just wore a suit. I liked it.

Now things are confused. I go to a meeting and see a small number of men in suits, some in sport coats, some in dress slacks and open collar dress shirts, and the infamous khaki and polo combo. "What do I wear, what do I wear?" I hear it every week. It was a question that was never asked just a few years ago...

I suppose it's too much to expect to get back to suits. I just wish we could get the same standard expectations again.

 

[Baron Kern]

...to be so simple. Every man with a clean, professional job wore a suit. Period, dot. You never had to worry about what to wear. A day alone in the office, a customer call, a conference, a trip to the White House -- it didn't matter -- you just wore a suit. I liked it.

Now things are confused. I go to a meeting and see a small number of men in suits, some in sport coats, some in dress slacks and open collar dress shirts, and the infamous khaki and polo combo. "What do I wear, what do I wear?" I hear it every week. It was a question that was never asked just a few years ago...

I suppose it's too much to expect to get back to suits. I just wish we could get the same standard expectations again.

I agree, completely

 

[vintage68]

All things being equal, I'd rather be overdressed than underdressed for a job interview.

 

[ortega76]

...to be so simple. Every man with a clean, professional job wore a suit. Period, dot. You never had to worry about what to wear. A day alone in the office, a customer call, a conference, a trip to the White House -- it didn't matter -- you just wore a suit. I liked it.

Now things are confused. I go to a meeting and see a small number of men in suits, some in sport coats, some in dress slacks and open collar dress shirts, and the infamous khaki and polo combo. "What do I wear, what do I wear?" I hear it every week. It was a question that was never asked just a few years ago...

I suppose it's too much to expect to get back to suits. I just wish we could get the same standard expectations again.

Day to day, I wear a uniform of company tee and khakis or shorts. For meetings, it's business casual. Ties are all but forbidden, no suits but sportcoats are ok. Most guys wear polo shirts and khaki pants. It's confusing and since we are all store managers spread across Illinois, there is always a blizzard of e-mails asking "what are you wearing?" For me, it's slacks with a shirt and jacket. I'm easily the most "formal". I'm pondering changing organizations and a little part is fueled by my casual dress code. I don't feel "professional".

 

[LondonLuke]

I give it one year for these relaxed dress codes to fade away. With the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the buyout of Merill Lynch by Bank of America, and now Morgan Stanley is in trouble, the higher chance of cutbacks and recession means anyone with half a brain will dress more professionally to give the image that they are hard workers. Over here, far more workers are wearing ties now in order to appear professional, instead of going for business casual

 

[Spats McGee]

I think Mid-Fogey said it well. I work for myself, so I don't really have to worry about any dress code, except for that which I set for myself. On the other hand though, I'm an attorney, so jeans & a polo won't work for me, except on the weekends. Monday through Friday, I have to meet clients, who expect their lawyer to look "like a lawyer." And while I never expect a call which requires me to be in court in an hour, I try to be prepared. That means, at the very least, slacks, dress shirt and a blazer. I even keep a spare blazer and ties in my office, just in case.

 

[LondonLuke]

Many of the people here are going to hate this, but apparently this counts as appropriate work attire in New York

http://nymag.com/fashion/lookbook/41274/

 

[Rittmeister]

Perhaps we need to rethink the whole idea of what a professional is or what it means to be a professional. Perhaps being "cool", or at least looking that way, has replaced all other virtues or professional attributes.

 

[Geesie]

Many of the people here are going to hate this, but apparently this counts as appropriate work attire in New York

http://nymag.com/fashion/lookbook/41274/

Oh where to start...
The first "profession" listed is "Flowerpot Designer"
We also have "Art Director."

Then we have this junk which is "It’s kind of like preppy British schoolboy, but with edge. I like the fifties conservative thing, but I also like patent leather."

This is not our kind of lifestyle, I think.

 

[John in Covina]

Perhaps we need to rethink the whole idea of what a professional is or what it means to be a professional. Perhaps being "cool", or at least looking that way, has replaced all other virtues or professional attributes.

*************

There is a theme of "cool" in their looks, it is as if they were dressing like some sort of TV show version of life.

Announcer's voice: "Tonight on a very special episode of 'NYC- Cool'. Magda finds out her new boyfriend is an Alqida operative."

Magda: "I just don't understand him, but he dresses so cool?!"
Naomi: "Perhaps you should try being not so judgemental!"

 

[LondonLuke]

Oh where to start...

We also have "Art Director."

Art director is a job within advertising, the guy (or girl) who comes up with the art, IIRC. And as for patent leather, there is a time and place. Normally when tying up the black bow tie and putting on a dinner jacket

 

[ShoreRoadLady]

A lot of these people are in design or eclectic fields, where "anything goes". Being out of the ordinary means that you're hip and in tune with all the up-and-coming trends. Plus, the magazine needed something unique for their fashion shoot; if it were common, no one would give it a second glance!

Perhaps we need to rethink the whole idea of what a professional is or what it means to be a professional. Perhaps being "cool", or at least looking that way, has replaced all other virtues or professional attributes.

Or this quote (from someone in the article who didn't look bad, but "classic elegance" wasn't what sprung to mind):
"Classic elegance. The most important thing is to look like I’m not trying too hard. That’s why I’m wearing my sneakers."

Apparently, one has to try hard to look like they're not trying too hard. *mindboggle* I guess "trying too hard" means that you're uptight, un-independent, or snobbish.

Did we just go back to the 60s? lol

 

[Feraud]

Many of the people here are going to hate this, but apparently this counts as appropriate work attire in New York

http://nymag.com/fashion/lookbook/41274/

Only in certain fields of work in NYC. As a 9-5'er in midtown Manhattan I can tell you I see people who work in art/advertising oriented fields of business who dress like that. The majority of businesses in NYC are not fashion related and most people do not dress like that.

 

[LondonLuke]

So within standard advertising, that is considered correct clothing? What happened to the Mad Men look?

 

[Feraud]

The Mad Men look was a trend and replaced by other trends.