Dress Like a Man (8 page)

Business Casual: The Minimum Standard

We mentioned that this was a broad "code," so broad it can hardly be considered a single look at all.

So what does the most casual end of business casual look like?

This has changed over the last decade or two. There used to be a hard and fast answer that jeans, at least, were right out -- that gave you some sort of standard. But these days, "dressy" jeans of the dark, close-fitted sort are tolerated and even explicitly allowed in some business casual workplaces.

So let's grant that jeans are, sometimes and conditionally, allowed. But it's something you have to weigh carefully. If you want a minimum standard for a business casual level of formality that you don't have to think about, it looks something like this:

• A collared dress shirt or polo, solid color or relatively modestly patterned
  
• Khakis, chinos, or other cotton slacks in a plain, drab color
  
• Brown or black leather shoes (rubber soles are fine, but the uppers should be leather)
  
• Socks to match the slacks
  
• A belt to match the shoes
  

A necktie isn't required just by the words "dress casual" or "business casual," but many workplaces will mandate a tie in their own internal dress guidelines.

People play pretty fast and loose with the idea of business casual these days. It's not out of the question to see things like jeans or sandals, which would once have been considered strictly non-professional attire, worn in business casual settings, especially within the tech industry.

Just like the maximum standard we described above, feel free to wear this minimum standard anywhere that dress casual is the order of the day. But don't drop below it, and be aware that you're pushing the limits of how casual you can go.

Business Casual: Finding the Middle Ground

Between those two extremes -- the khakis-and-open-collar look and the blazer-and-necktie look -- lies a wide range of options.

Generally speaking, if you're in a dress casual environment, you want to be somewhere in that happy middle ground.

There are countless ways to achieve that. Stay away from things that are too formal (suits, very stiff blazers, etc.), too casual (jeans, T-shirts, etc.), or too clearly designed for social situations rather than business (brightly-colored or loudly-striped shirt patterns, for example, even on a collared dress shirt).

Anything else is fair game. Here are just a smattering of common approaches and items used in making "business casual" a comfortable and varied look for men:

• Blazers and sports jackets -- throw 'em on over anything to sharpen up the look a little. It adds a lot of "dress" to your "casual."
  
• Sweaters -- for when a jacket feels too formal, and a shirt on its own feels too bland.
  
• Vests -- don't try to wear the waistcoat from an old three-piece suit on its own (too much of a "thrift store" look to be professional), but a sweater vest is just fine.
  
• Neckties -- even if they're optional, you can always throw one on to jazz an outfit up. Bow ties work too, so long as they're not formal or semiformal white tie/black tie versions.
  
• Pocket squares -- never underestimate how much snappier a unique pocket square makes a blazer or a sports jacket.
  
• Belts -- vary it up. Canvas, leather, woven braids, whatever. A couple of sturdy leather belts that can swap buckles in and out are a good starting place.
  
• Shoes -- again, vary the choices here. A good pair of leather shoes upgrades a "meh" outfit in a major way. Spend a little more to have some unique options. Stick to leather uppers, though; canvas and rubber aren't work-appropriate.
  

Smaller accents like wristwatches and your selection of outerwear can help liven up a look as well.

Think of dress casual as the place to make an interchangeable wardrobe shine: combine some good, simple core pieces like khakis and lightly-patterned dress shirts with brighter, more unique accent pieces to keep your look varied.

You've got a lot of options here. The key is just to keep "business" fixed in your mind as well as "casual." Most men, if they go wrong with business casual, do it by incorporating casual pieces that are meant for evenings out, or daytime social wear -- a slightly different look that we discuss in the very next chapter!

C
HAPTER 14: "
S
HARP
C
ASUAL" FOR
S
OCIAL
S
ITUATIONS

At this point the comforting rules of strict dress codes have been thoroughly abandoned.

You're on your own in the woods -- but don't worry; we've got a map for you.

Like business casual, which we dressed in the previous chapter, "sharp casual" is less of a set of specific rules, and more of a general aesthetic with a few set boundaries.

There's no one gold standard to adhere to here. It's not even a term you're ever likely to see on an invitation -- no one's going to yell at you for showing up in just plain old "casual" when they wanted you in "sharp casual."

Rather, we're talking about the idea of looking a little dressed-up even when you're on your own time here. That means you actually have two concrete goals:

1. Look dressed up, or at least nicely dressed, and
   
2. Look like you're on your own time, i.e., not dressed for work.
   

Some men may not see the last one as strictly necessary. And indeed, there's nothing
wrong
with wearing the same slacks and dress shirts you wear to your job for social situations as well.

The idea of sharp casual is largely there for guys who actively like dressing to stand out. You can't really do that much in a business setting without straining the bounds of professionalism, hence the evolution of a slightly more flamboyant alternative to business casual.

The Difference Between "Business Casual" and "Sharp Casual"

Because the two dress codes (and we use the term lightly) are so similar, the line between "business casual" and "sharp casual" is a blurry one.

In fact, virtually all of the clothes that work for one will work for the other. It's more about how you're putting them together, plus a few exceptions that won't work for work wear because they're too flamboyant.

Broadly speaking:

• Business casual
  is less formal than suits, more formal than jeans and a T-shirt, and always work-appropriate.
  
• Sharp casual
  is less formal than suits, more formal than jeans and a T-shirt, and could be work-appropriate but doesn't have to be.
  

That's pretty much your big difference there. The rest is all just details.

How to Make a Look Separate from Your Work Wear

To make a sharp casual look for social situations, take whatever existing business casual wear you have and ratchet up the colors and patterns a little.

Dress shirts are a really good place to do this: if the colors and patterns are bold, the shirt pretty much says "not meant for corporate office work, no siree." Throw that on with the same slacks and jackets you wear to work and you're good.

Casual sports jackets in plaids, tweeds, and other aggressive patterns and textures can also look more easy-going and less like work wear, helping to set apart any outfit they're worn with. Brightly-colored pants (not for the faint of heart) achieve the same results, a little more dramatically.

The key here is not to overdo it.

A little color goes a long way. The same goes for patterns and even large-scale textures and weaves.

Have one or maybe two pieces that "pop" a bit more than you could get away with at work. Keep the rest basically work-appropriate, and let those few statement pieces do the work of telling people that you haven't just come from the office.

The "Sharp" in "Sharp Casual"

So what makes this any different from just plain ol' normal clothes you wear to run errands or go about your daily life in?

Not much, really, except that most men don't try to look attractive when they're going about their personal business.

If you're making an effort -- if your goal is for people to notice you and think "yeah, he's dressed nicely" -- then you're probably in the realm of sharp casual, rather than just casual.

That "sharp" usually manifests itself as extra pieces or a higher quality of clothing: a nice jacket thrown over an ordinary shirt, or dark, close-fitted jeans instead of faded work jeans.

A noticeable, visible, extra effort beyond the bare minimum that puts you up on a par with business casual, but doesn't strictly adhere to a subdued office style -- that's "sharp casual" in a nutshell.

C
HAPTER 15:
W
ORK
C
LOTHES (
D
RESSING
W
ELL FOR
M
ANUAL
L
ABOR)

"Style" and "manual labor" do not usually go together in the same sentence.

Even professional tailors and fashionable writers will usually lump work clothes together as a utilitarian category, completely separate from the world of men's style.

That's not necessarily a good idea.

The Case for Style in Working Men's Clothes

Here's the thing about guys who work with their hands: most of them are working for someone else.

Maybe that's a boss; maybe that's a contracting company. A few lucky guys might be self-employed and own their own businesses, but even in that case they're working the clients that hire their business. 

There are times when it's useful to impress that person for whom you're working.

Should that come at the expense of safety, or even practicality? No.

But
when there's no harm in it
, working class men benefit from dressing their look up a touch just as much as anyone else.

And the best part is that a little goes a very long way here -- in a world of guys in paint-stained T-shirts and grubby jeans and overalls, someone in clean blue jeans and a polo shirt with the company logo stands out just as much as a high-powered lawyer with a custom-tailored suit stands out from the Men's Wearhouse shoppers in his courtroom.

A Stylish Working Look

Making your work wear look sharp is a matter of small upgrades.