Business suits - are they worth it?

February 29, 2008 7:00 AM

Is there a good way to make the transition from dressing business casual at work to wearing business suits? Is it a good idea? Women, I'd like to hear your experiences w/wearing suits to work - the good, the bad, the ugly - and how you made the transition.

I'm a woman in my mid-thirties who works at a financial investment firm. The dress code for the company is business casual. Generally, the women who tend to wear business suits are the client-facing people, senior managers, and the just-under senior managers. I'm mid-level in my organization but recently took on a job that is higher profile and more professional than what I've done in the past.

I've been thinking about starting to wear more professional attire when I come back from maternity leave in July. My main reasons are:
- I think it would help my career as I'm switching from a more general knowledge-base into a specific direction where I will have a steep learning curve, and dressing better will help me be taken more seriously. I started out in quite a junior position at this company and would like to shake that image.
- most of the people I'll be working with are more senior than I and dress a little better - even if it's not suits every day, the clothes are smarter than mine (though I'm by no means sloppy or underdressed). My new boss (male) does not wear suits.
- I'm not that into clothes and think wearing business suits may help alleviate the perennial 'what do I wear today' question as you can rotate suits more frequently.

The cons:
- I'm a fairly casual person and never thought I'd 'be a suit'!
- expenses - buying enough suits to get a basic wardrobe will be very expensive, and so is maintenance (dry cleaning). I'm prepared to invest money into myself and my career, but would like to be budget-conscious about it.
- there seems to be an awkwardness about all of a sudden starting to wear suits - I don't want people to think I'm interviewing for another job, for example.

So here are my questions: ladies, what were your experiences when you started to dress up? Was it worth the expense of the clothes? Did you feel comfortable? Is there a graceful way to make the transition?

posted by widdershins to clothing, beauty, & fashion (22 comments total)

They have some great-looking suits on What Not To Wear, and advise when buying a suit, you can always break it up. I'd start off by picking a bit more dressier pants and blouses, and start mixing those into your wardrobe. Then when you buy a few suits, you can break them up at first, wearing just the pants or skirt, with a professional top, or wearing the jacket over something you already own. Then when you're comfortable with the bit more 'formal' clothes, you can wear the suit together. Suits don't have to look stuffy, either, with shorter jackets that have some detailing and a curved waist, they can look feminine, professional and fabulous.

Good choices in colours are browns, greys, blacks, beige and navy--all are neutral colours, which means your blouse or sweater or even a simple tank (keeping the jacket on over it) all work as complementary colours.

I'm a secretary and I don't wear suits all that often, but I do have a three-piece basic style: skirt/pants, top and always a jacket or sweater over. One of the women in my office wears suits a lot, but they're not stuffy (can't really explain that) and she always looks great, and well put-together.

My experience with dressing professionally is that it gives a lot of confidence, and not a small measure of authority with it.
posted by Savannah at 7:16 AM on February 29, 2008

I don't have time to expound at more length about this right now, but I do feel strongly there is a place you can land between "Business Casual" and "Suit". As a woman, there are a much wider set of "dressy business" clothing options open to you than just those two extremes. If it were me, I would start with one good suit and a lot of mix and match dressy separates (check out somewhere like Talbots.com for examples of what I mean) (Although I would also probably actually shop places like TJMaxx or other "discount" retailers to get the actual physical clothes). "Dressing up" doesn't have to mean a suit - what it does mean is good clothes, looking put together, hair, accessories, belts, shoes, the whole bit.
posted by anastasiav at 7:21 AM on February 29, 2008

dressing better will help me be taken more seriously.

That is a very tricky business.. Back when I had a day job, I made a couple of attempts at being taken more seriously which all failed miserably. I realize now that my changes couldn't have worked at that company.

most of the people I'll be working with are more senior than I and dress a little better

Sounds like this change has a chance of working for you though..
posted by Chuckles at 7:28 AM on February 29, 2008

i think that when you come back from maternity leave and start a new position is the perfect time to switch to more professional attire. you've been gone for a while, so it won't be as weird as if you suddenly showed up on monday in a suit.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:28 AM on February 29, 2008

It's really not that expensive, IMO. I see women's suits for sale all the time. Try Steinmart or other outlet-type places. The other thing is that a good suit can last a long, long time. To alleviate dry-cleaning costs, you can use Dryel or similar at home. You really don't have to get your jacket dry-cleaned very often unless you sweat a lot.

If you feel too dressed up compared to your coworkers, just take the jacket off. But really, I dressed in suits all the time while my business-casual coworkers wore khakis and corduroys, and I got nothing but compliments. No awkwardness at all.

Disclaimer: I'm currently wearing an NFL sweatshirt and jeans at work. But it's Friday.
posted by desjardins at 7:32 AM on February 29, 2008

By the way, while perusing the clearance racks at almost any department store, I've noticed a ton of suit jackets sans skirt/pants. Some were really, really cute and it'd be a great way to experiment without buying a whole suit.
posted by desjardins at 7:35 AM on February 29, 2008

Due to a recent job change where I left a very casual academic environment for a more corporate one, I welcomed the "uniformity" of wearing a suit almost every day. True, the dressier clothes take some more wrangling in the morning, but I tend to feel that I'm better off not feeling under-dressed for my day, where I may have impromptu meetings with people who are wearing more formal attire. On days when I'm not wearing a suit, I have a jacket hanging up in my office just in case I need it.

When it came to shopping, I found some amazing deals at outlet centers (especially Nordstrom Rack), Filene's Basement, and several online deals at Eddie Bauer and Old Navy.
posted by cosmodc at 7:50 AM on February 29, 2008

Was it worth the expense of the clothes? Did you feel comfortable? Is there a graceful way to make the transition?

No, it was not worth it, other than I now have something very appropriate for a funeral. I was never comfortable, and even if I made the transition well, I hated every stinking second of it. YMMV.

Now I dress "as well as my boss" most of the time. Sometimes I dress up more, sometimes I come to work in nearly pajamas, but it's that kind of place, so it's okay. When I did work somewhere that I needed to dress "better" I found that separates rather than actual suits were much more comfortable for me, along with some cute dresses that I could put cardigans with. Dresses are more comfortable to me than suits - there is no waistband skrity bullshit in the middle, just a nice, comfy dress.

I would dress as well as my co-workers and my boss, were I you, with the occasional "better dressed" day. It's less expensive, for one thing, and for another, it's more "transitional" -- if you get up to where you need to wear a suit for real, then you can do that, but it won't be such a departure.
posted by Medieval Maven at 8:18 AM on February 29, 2008

So I recently went from jeans + tshirts at work (the norm) to trouser jeans/pencil skirts + heels/boots + nice shirts/jackets. (I am a confessed "What Not to Wear" addict, but I also had a manager suggest I start dressing up a bit as my responsibilities were increasing)

Pros:
- I feel hot.
- The chairman of our board of directors commented on how much more professional I looked.
- It makes me feel older (and I think people react to me as though that's the case), which gives me more confidence managing projects of people much older than I.
- Someone told me I looked like I'd lost 10 lbs.

Cons:
- No on else in my (mostly male) office wears heels. We have hardwood floors. I am loud. Very loud.
- It is more expensive. I'm shopping lots of sales. Ann Taylor/Loft and Banana Republic in particular are being very good to me right now. I also use bags from Bag Borrow or Steal.
- It definitely separates you from the people still dressing casual. That's good for me for the higher-ups, but I spent a lot of time cultivating friendships and working relationships with people at my level/below me, and I can tell those relationships have changed a bit.

Reactions:
- A number of people think I got a huge raise (I did not), and it's a little awkward trying to explain why I'm dressing up and the fact that no really, I'm shopping sales, and no really, I didn't actually *buy* this $500 bag, I'm just renting it, and no really, stop asking me about it.
- I felt incredibly awkward going from jeans and tennis shoes to what I'm in now, but a good (male) friend of mine at work said that while he noticed the transition, he didn't think it was awkward at all -- as far as he was concerned it looked like an appropriate maturing, moving-up-the-corporate-ladder move.
- Since my job changed from hands-on, getting dirty kind of stuff to more management work, the change in clothes was okay, but when I was doing some hands-on stuff in the last week a coworker (very sarcastically) warned me against breaking a nail or getting my hands dirty. No one would have said that to me a year ago when I was wearing hoodies every day. That kind of weirds me out.

Good luck! Post-maternity leave sounds perfect for this.
posted by olinerd at 8:29 AM on February 29, 2008

This is something I learned from a prior boss. She always looked extremely professional, but still appropriate to our business causal environment. An easy way to look a bit more finished and professional is to add a second layer on top. That means instead of a blouse wear a blouse and jacket. Replace a sweater with a sweater set. Even a scarf over your shoulders will work. My boss had a beautiful collection of Hermes scarfs that she used for this purpose. The extra layer looks finished, but not stuffy.

Many people will tell you to keep a jacket at the office for times when clients/bosses stop by unexpectedly. There is a second step that many people miss. The key to making that work is that your clothing, shoes and accessories need to be professional enough to look appropriate with a jacket. That will eliminate the flouncy skirt, too causal shoe, etc. Overall, it will nudge you to slightly more tailored and professional clothing.
posted by 26.2 at 8:48 AM on February 29, 2008

I'm the same boat as you, and I transitioned to mostly suits a few months ago. I'm in my mid-thirties, I started out quite junior, I'm now moving from lower mid-level up to a more supervisory position, I never thought I'd be a suit person, etc.

The discount stores like Ross, TX Maxx, Loehmanns have been invaluable. I keep picking up Calvin Klein suits for 50-70 bucks.

A couple of days a week I wear outfits that are not suits, but are the nicer pieces of my business-casual wardrobe. I find that pantsuits are WAY less conspicuously "suit" than skirt suits. I eased into the skirt suits by wearing a couple that are a little more fun/feminine (which look nice with my tall boots) before bringing out the power suits.

I used several excuses when my nicer attire was noted, all of them true, but not as true as the fact that I wanted to dress more professionally for my own career development:

* I was originally looking for separates, but they're more expensive and of poorer quality than the suits I could find at discount stores.
* It's cold outside. The suit jacket with a sweater underneath is warmer and nicer-looking than layering sweaters.
* Hey, simpler to get dressed. W00t.

It took all of a couple of weeks for people to get used to the fact that I usually wear suits now.

I still don't love wearing the jacket part of the suit, but I did find some pantsuits that are quite comfortable. I get mad compliments, particularly when I wear skirt suits. My CEO has noted to my boss how nice I look.

I'll get the suits drycleaned a few times per season. I'm careful to change as soon as I get home, air the suits hanging them on the back of my bedroom door, then back into the closet they go until the next wearing. They hold their press-creases pretty well.

During the summer, I won't wear suits every day. (Not sure what I'm going to do for the professional wardrobe staples, yet, though. Hopefully a solution will present itself in the dress aisle.)
posted by desuetude at 9:35 AM on February 29, 2008

[a few comments removed - please stick to the topic at hand, thanks]
posted by jessamyn at 10:27 AM on February 29, 2008

I wore a suit to work almost every day for five years. The biggest problem really was hosiery. I don't have the patience to hand wash all those stockings! I ended up buying new pantyhose all the time, which turned out to be expensive. I would definitely start watching "What Not to Wear" because they have great advice on how to fit a suit to a particular body type and how to tell if a suit is fitting you correctly. Also, they give advice about how to make a suit interesting with colorful accessories or shirts. As far as expense goes, here's how I found suits that didn't break the bank: 1. Three-day weekend sales Macy's etc. almost always have their suits on sale during three day weekends and you can often find suits for under $200 2. Discount department stores like Marshall's or Filene's basement will often have designer (Jones New York, etc.) suits on sale. I recently bought a Jones New York suit at Marshall's for $150.

Good luck.
posted by bananafish at 10:53 AM on February 29, 2008

I guess I'm being contrarian here but, if you do get a suit, what about just buying two or three at full price that are exactly what you want and having them well tailored. I love going through sale racks as much as anyone but if I want something specific, it takes so much more time to find it on sale..

A friend of mine who has to wear suits at work will buy hers from J Crew (they're not bad or that expensive, I guess Banana Republic and Ann Taylor are in the same range) and pick up one jacket plus matching trousers and a matching skirt, so you have three pieces to work with instead of two, so you could be wearing parts of the same suit a couple times a week without looking like you always wear the same thing. That said Benetton and Zara have a lot of suits that are not expensive, but their cuts don't work for everyone (I've never managed to find a suit jacket there that fit me properly)..
posted by citron at 12:30 PM on February 29, 2008

bananafish: I wash my pantyhose in a lingerie bag in the regular wash. Haven't snagged a pair yet.
posted by desuetude at 12:30 PM on February 29, 2008

If you are truly very casual you might want to step up naturally. I am *uber* casual and any time I've had to work in a more corporate environment I've been miserable whenever I've had to be in that drag. I'm well regarded in my company and the industry as a whole. I'm just not willing to not be myself to make an extra buck. Your mileage and needs may differ.

All that being said, it does sound like a good transition time though. Just be sure that you feel great in everything you buy, lest you find yourself with a closet full of clothes that you loathe wearing. Been there, done that.
posted by FlamingBore at 12:38 PM on February 29, 2008

FWIW, it will be more expensive at first, but because you're buying what I always referred to as a "classic look" it won't go out of style and you will have a wardrobe that will last you a very long time. I have several suits I spent a lot on when I got them, but have worn them for several years.
posted by NoraCharles at 1:44 PM on February 29, 2008

I've always been told that I it is best to dress for your next position.
posted by nickerbocker at 3:22 PM on February 29, 2008

I want to add to all this - when it comes to things like suits, jackets, tailored skirts and pants - your tailor is your friend, ESPECIALLY if you're petite, very tall, or plus-sized. Some places will do alterations for free, but if you're shopping places like Ross (which I adore), or consignment stores (another great place to find expensive suits or separates), a tailor can make a merely "nice" jacket or skirt into "perfect." Most people aren't going to have things fit perfectly off the rack. Tailoring really doesn't cost that much, especially considering how much you might be shelling out for good work clothes in the first place.
posted by Rosie M. Banks at 3:30 PM on February 29, 2008

If you have a Talbots outlet nearby, it's worth working it into your shopping routine. Selection can be somewhat haphazard, but I have bought several $200 jackets marked down anywhere from $25 to $5. As NoraCharles says, they tend to be classic/preppy (some might say boring/conservative) but I know I'll never regret the purchase because it was too trendy. Regular Talbots stores have great sales 3/4 times a year, too.
posted by Sweetie Darling at 3:45 PM on February 29, 2008

There are suits that don't require dry cleaning, you just have to read every single tag. I prefer separates so I can mix and match and not get bored. In my experience dressing up nicely makes me feel good and I generally get a better response from people. You may enjoy feeling extra nice after returning from maternity leave since you could find yourself extra tired and all the fun that comes with your body returning back to "normal". Best of luck.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 6:20 AM on March 1, 2008

Thank you all very much! Lots of good answers - I highlighted the ones I felt most closely answered my question.
posted by widdershins at 12:23 PM on March 3, 2008