While I'm busy trying to get my Quant-girl (super-hero) costume to fit again, I'd love to hear your thoughts on a topic...
There is no dress code where I work. You can come to work in a suit, or flip-flops. Both are perfectly acceptable. Most people dress in pants, jeans, skirts, sweaters, polo-shirts, etc. Middle of the line. (Confession... I do wear flip-flops to work most days, but they are "nice" flip-flops.) If we're going to client meetings, we dress so that the client is comfortable, but we are still somewhat true to ourselves e.g., if someone never wears a suit, they aren't asked to, but they are asked to look nice.
With that background, which do you think is more acceptable to wear to the office... Very casual outfits, or dressy, but skimpy outfits? What about a strapless dress? What about spaghetti straps? (Edited to clarify, this isn't about me and what I wear to work. I'm firmly in the casual camp. I'll share more after you play along and tell me what you think is appropriate work attire.)
Share your thoughts be they biased or objective, based on Vogue or Glamour (Fashion Dos and Don'ts!).
Play along! It's going to take me a while to get my Quant-girl costume to fit. The last time I wore it was when I was 9 months pregnant with T!
3 comments:
I'd go err on the side of very casual rather than skimpy anyday. But there are lots of modest and dressy things to wear too - no need to go skimpy to be dressy. My 2 cents! :-)
I'm a total casual girl. Most important, being comfortable. I think I work in a similar environment. But I deal with undergrad so feel I need to look a little like an adult, at least on days I teach. No flip flops. but sometimes outdoorsy slip on sandals on a super casual Friday.
I find this kind of thing fascinating. Where I work most guys wear business shirts without ties and suit trousers (or similar). They keep a tie in a cupboard for meetings with top management. So the guys are pretty consistant. Each woman translates the guys' dress code into something she feels is roughly equivalent. The results are extremely varied. The mode would be tidy black trousers and a fitted, plain coloured top but anything from a suit to a sundress would be unsurprising.
One of my workmates wears a seethrough top from time to time. The top is black mesh with velvet flowers on it and she wears an opaque black bra underneath. I sometimes wonder if she does it partly to make the guys notice that she's actually female. The rest of the time what she wears is unremarkable.
In your office I think either very casual or very dressy would be taken as a reflection of personality. Very casual probably thinks that brains and/or personal comfort are more important than looks. Very skimpy is probably trying to divert attention from her brains. Very casual is likely to get more friends and very skimpy more stares. Either may be partly motivated by an enjoyment of testing the bounderies.
I think which is more acceptable depends on the effect on the other people at your work. Is either so extreme that they are discriminated for or against? Does either ones dress offend or disturb anyone?
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