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Business dress for the casual girl?

Metroid Baby — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:17:31 -0800

After a few years of hoodies and flip-flops, I'm re-entering a business-casual work environment - slightly clueless and very reluctant about dressing up. Help me adhere to the dress code and look good while maximizing comfort and minimizing effort. Corporate dress codes aren't completely foreign to me: my first few jobs were in business-casual offices. However, I guess they were foreign enough to me that I was approached by two different bosses at two different jobs about needing to dress better. (On both occasions, I asked for ideas/examples of how to improve, and both times I heard "You know that suit you wore to your interview? You looked really great then.") I amassed a collection of twinsets and crinkly dry-clean-only skirts, but I felt dowdy and uncomfortable in them. And I got really, really tired of having to think about putting together work outfits. All in all, not a pleasant experience for me, and it's left me with a vague dread of dress codes in general.

The last time anyone cared what I wore to work was early 2006. Since then, my work environments have become increasingly relaxed: from unenforced business-casual, to casual, to working at home. I love having the freedom to wear what I want to work, and I love working for people who are more interested in my ideas than my wardrobe.

It probably goes without saying that my wardrobe has gotten more and more casual over the past couple of years, too. I've given away a lot of my old work clothes, and I haven't needed to replace them with similar pieces. My typical daily outfit is a t-shirt/tank top, a knit skirt or yoga pants, a track-ish jacket or hoodie, and flip-flops or sporty flats.

In a few weeks, however, I'll be back in an office with a business-casual dress code. I can't very well roll up to work in a tracksuit, as much as I wish I could. I have a few nice skirts and sweaters from my old office days, but for the most part I'm starting from scratch.

Trouble is, I don't particularly like styles that are suit-y or dressy. I've gone window-shopping with the intent of getting ideas for what I could wear to work, and every time I find myself getting shrugging at the career clothing and drifting into the juniors' or sportswear departments. I'm also not into wearing clothes or shoes that I can't walk a mile in. And I prefer my clothes to be as low-maintenance as possible – in the past, anything that's required ironing or dry-cleaning has stayed wadded in a stale wrinkly ball in the back of my closet.

Ideally, I'd like to throw on an outfit in under a minute, walk to work, and look awesome. Too unrealistic? I'd settle for not feeling like I'm wearing a uniform and not wanting to change into pajamas the second I get home.

And if that weren't picky enough, I'd like to get my work wardrobe together without spending very much money or adding too much stuff. I know I'll need to buy a few things (I have only one pair of dressy pants, for example) but I'd really rather not get a whole ton of new clothes.

I've never found a resource that has been particularly helpful. Most advice seems to fall either into "you'll know what's appropriate when you see it" or "you should wear whatever upper management is wearing."

So I'm looking for advice on what to wear, what to look for in work clothes, how to plan outfits, etc. I'm not completely new to dressing up for work, but I feel like I could stand to learn a lot, so even the most basic Garanimals-level tips are fine by me.

How much should I be spending on my clothes?

Phire — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 07:09:58 -0800

How much should I be paying for a shirt/blouse/shoes/pants? Help me recalibrate my expectations of shopping for clothes. I'm a 20-year-old girl. Up till now, my wardrobe has more or less consisted of t-shirts/tank-tops, jeans, hoodies, and sneakers. In the past year or so I've decided to start dressing a little bit more formally/girly, partially because I run in circles where I need to be business casual on a fairly regular basis.

Previously, my t-shirts/tanks ran in the vicinity of $10 each and my jeans between $15-25 and that worked great for me. Now every top that catches my eye is upwards of $30 (sometimes all the way up to $70, what the hell people), jeans/pants run around $40-80 if I'm lucky, and any formal shoes are all upwards of $40, usually more like $60-70. Needless to say, shoping has been largely fruitless.

I could handle (with some difficulty) spending $50 on a dress. But $50 on a pair of pants? Not so much. Do I just have unrealistic expectations as to how much things should cost? Is this the fair going rate for female clothing? Who buys these $80 shrugs? If my local outlets/boutiques are indeed batshitinsane, what IS the going market rate, and where can I get cheaper things that still look nice/formal?

All prices in Canadian (which I'm told isn't real money), and keep in mind I'm still on a student budget.

I needs me some new duds.

crickets — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:08:31 -0800

I'm about to start my own company, one that will require some face time with clients and partners. I'd like to spruce up my wardrobe a bit, but in simple ways. Help? I'm a guy, and I generally wear business casual -- no polo shirts -- mostly Gap-type button downs (not tucked in), Threadless shirts, and/or long-sleeve shirts that I find cool, and always jeans.

I'd like to step it up with some additional pieces -- a pair of kick ass shoes, a printed blazer... I don't know. Something that will kick up my fashion a notch and make a good and memorable impression. I'm not averse to paying good money for something I will wear a lot.

I'm tall, and not skinny (I weep for my twenties), and in NYC if it that matters.

Any thoughts?

Car-free and needing business-causal...

KirkJobSluder — Sat, 03 May 2008 12:39:11 -0800

Car-free in Savannah, how can I get work-friendly clothes without being malled? Living in Savannah, GA with only foot and public transportation. Downtown
Bay and Broughton are only 20 minutes away but has few mens stores and what little they have is too expensive, too much flair, too hip, or too old. The other choice seems to be taking a very long bus ride out to the malls, which are weighted towards Old Navy and Sears. In general, I don't like malls anyway, so spending an entire weekend afternoon getting out there and back is an unpleasant prospect.

I work five minutes away from a UPS store, so it's easy for me to ship things back. Suggestions on where to look online or hole-in-the-wall places I might have missed are very welcome. Good service is a priority.

Build my Wardrobe

trueluk — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 09:55:28 -0800

Help me update my wardrobe into the realm of "creative casual." I work at a job that allows business casual and "creative casual" style of dress, and I have always tended toward the casual, with little business or creative involved. Recently, however, I have received a promotion and want to update my warddrobe. I will basically be starting from scratch, and want to go for the creative casual look, similar to this Banana Republic clothing. What are the essentials? What are the dos and don'ts? Any advice would be appreciated, as well as links and store recommendations. Thanks!
Oh yeah, I'm a guy.

Boss comments crossing line to sexual harassment?

sperose — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 13:38:21 -0800

My friend has a problem with a comment her new boss made to her the other day, involving her supposedly "inappropriate" clothing. What would other females do in this sort of situation? [more inside] has her side of the story. "my boss said something really uncomfortable to me at work yesterday. i'm the new girl, so i really had no choice but to smile and nod and agree with him.

my department (tech support) has four employees (including myself), one supervisor, and one boss. that's six people total; i, along with a woman named diane, are the only females on the staff. this incident occured yesterday after diane had gone home for the day.

i was doing something that was unusual, and technically not in my job description. a newspaper in ann arbor needed six of our computers, so i was helping to bubble-pack them up, put them into boxes, and get them ready to be shipped out. i was wearing a tank top and a cardigan sweater with khakis; perfectly acceptable for the business-casual dress code.

about an hour later, far after the packing was completed, my boss called me into his enclosed office. "i want to talk to you for a second," he said. i knew that i had accidentally uttered the word "shit" earlier in the day, so i figured it had something to do with that. or, perhaps, he was going to discuss my progress so far, and what my next step in training would be. (this was only my third day on the job, after all.)

i sat down in a chair while he stood.

"summer," he said, "earlier when you were packing boxes, your shirt was...too revealing. when you were bending down, you were, uh, exposing yourself," he said akwardly, "and i'm not sure if anyone else noticed it, but i did."

i froze in my chair. this is not a slap on the wrist for saying "shit"; this is far worse. i was as frozen as a statue, developing a cold and uncomfortable sweat, and nonetheless: my "new hire" self could only smile, nod, and agree.

he continued. "i just wanted you to know that, so it doesn't happen again."

i mustered out a reply. "sorry; i didn't think i'd be bending down to pack up boxes today."

"it's okay, but just remember."

"okay."

but here's my point: i don't think i did anything wrong. i was wearing a perfectly acceptable shirt for work -- almost ANY shirt suitable for business would be "revealing" if the female wearing it bent down at the proper angle. it was nothing i could control -- hell, i can't afford any new shirts anyway, right now -- but that's not even the point. the point is this: PLEASE DON'T FUCKING LOOK AT ME. and if, mr. boss, you DO happen to see down my shirt as i'm bending over, i'd appreciate it if you would keep it to yourself.

and because he DIDN'T keep it to himself, i feel insulted and somewhat ridiculed. my new job, my NEW office -- it's not going to be a comfortable environment for me any more.

what should i do?"

Any idea of what would be the next proper action to occur in this situation?

Thanks everyone.

Belts and you

selfnoise — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:30:02 -0800

I've got belt issues. (of the clothing variety) Belts are excellent devices for holding pants up. I think we can all agree on that. And a belt seems to be a good thing to wear with a nice shirt and pants. However, I really dislike belts when I'm sitting down. The buckle makes me uncomfortable, and since my office job requires me to be sitting down for most of the day, this can start to wear on a person.

Suspenders seem like they might be an alternative, but I really thing my coworkers would giggle if I started wearing them.

So... what are my options here? What's the best, most comfortable way to hold your pants up all day long?