We’ve been curious about this for a while — ever since we advised that a collared shirt should always stay IN if you’re wearing a suit, and numerous readers wrote to say that they had always been advised (by various career counselors) to wear their collars out. So we thought we’d take a poll.
For our $.02 — which purely comes from observation, as we have never heard a “rule” on it — a tucked-in collar looks better with a suit. More fashionable women tend to do it (Angelina, Madonna) when wearing a suit; and it gives them a neat, sharp look. It also puts the emphasis in the desired place, as our eyes are drawn to their face, not their clavicle or shoulders. We suppose it’s possible that there are greater rules here that we’re not aware of, for example dealing with fabric (cotton goes in, silk goes out) or the type of collar or lapel. Perhaps it’s a regional rule — e.g., in DC, collars go out with suits; in Hollywood, collars go in with suits. Either way, we thought we’d start a dialog…
Readers, what say you? Please comment, particularly if you choose #3…
A while back, someone commented that instead of nude hose they wore nude fishnets in the summer. This piqued our curiosity — we used to do this also, back in the days after college, but not in a long while — we stopped because it felt inappropriate. So we thought we’d take a poll… (Photo credit: Fishnets, originally uploaded to Flickr by candinski.)
For our $.02, fishnet tights are generally inappropriate for the office environment. Let’s face it, they conjure up images of dancers (both professional and otherwise) and hookers — and that association is a little too much for bosses of either sex. Besides, the goal of a working wardrobe should be to avoid what we’ll call “the second look” — you don’t want any of your coworkers to look at you once casually in the hallway and then be forced to look a second time in order to answer the question, “Were my eyes deceiving me or is she really wearing that?” Even if they answer the question with a blase “ok, well, I guess that’s acceptable,” the second look in and of itself is something to be avoided. We would argue, though, that fishnet trouser socks could be appropriate as long as they’re in a neutral color. (Our reasoning here is that only perverts are staring at your ankles; otherwise, what you wear there is unlikely to elicit the dreaded second look.)
What are your thoughts, readers?
Last week, we were surprised to see comments saying that a t-shirt is not appropriate to be worn beneath a suit, and we thought, a) perhaps we’re talking about different things, or b) perhaps we’re terribly wrong. So we thought we’d explore.
For our $.02: Agreed, agreed, you can’t wear a Yeah Yeah Yeahs concert shirt beneath a suit, nor can you wear the kind of v-neck from the Gap that you would paint a garage in. And of course, a silk or cashmere sweater or button-down shirt is preferable. But, we would say that a “dressy” cotton t-shirt like the ones we linked to that day, or very classic tees in a thick cotton or machine-washable fabric (e.g., a crewneck without a ribbed neckline), are totally acceptable to wear beneath a suit, particularly in a solid color like white. Our reasoning here is that we’ve just never studied another woman’s clothing that closely beneath her suit. Is it too tight? Too sheer? Too old-school rayon shell-like? If it isn’t any of those things and the suit looks good, the top generally fades into the background. It’s there to provide the woman with an option to take off her jacket if she needs to, but — as we’ve said before — we generally think you should keep the jacket on if you’re roaming the halls or going to meetings. In addition to being acceptable, there’s a benefit — if it’s machine-washable, it makes a working woman’s life that much easier.
But enough of our two cents — what do you guys think?
Some have raised doubts about our TPS reports that feature a silk dress. We think the concerns come from the fact that some cheaper silks can be almost sheer — they can show VPLs; they show sweat like nobody’s business; they wrinkle easily; there are static electricity problems if you’re wearing hose. (To which we say: avoid the cheapest silk — avoid buying clothes at stores that target teenagers and others who like disposable fashion (H&M, Forever 21, etc, etc).) Even then, a lot of these problems can be solved with a slip and properly-fitting undergarments. Picture at left: silks, originally uploaded to Flickr by larry&flo.
But that’s just our $.02 — what do you think, guys?
Check out some silk dresses, below…
We’ve been seeing lots of reports of trends and — as is far too common! — we’ve been rolling our eyes at the prospect of wearing any of them to work. We thought we’d take a poll…
First up: a brief overview of some of the trends we’ve seen reported in multiple places.
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| The boyfriend blazer (illustrated by Aqua Boyfriend Jacket, $88 at Bloomingdales) |
The jumpsuit (illustrated by Black Halo Strapless Jumpsuit, $390 at ShopBop) |
Nude clothes (illustrated by Derek Lam’s scarf dress, $2390 at Bergdorf Goodman) |
Cropped pants (illustrated by Sonia Rykiel’s cotton silk harem pants, $985 at Net-a-Porter.com) |
And now, the poll — will you wear any of these in the near future?
This has come up a few times with regard to the TPS reports, and one of our readers suggested we take a poll on it — which we enthusiastically agree with. Are all sheer fabrics bad for the office, such as chiffon, slightly sheer silk and jersey, and so forth?
For our $.02: A black sheer fabric is always going to be veering into boudoir territory. (We will admit, though, that we have a sheer black blouse that we wear underneath sweaters and sweater-vests.) However, women’s blouses have traditionally been in fabrics like silk, crepe, and even chiffon, all of which tend to be slightly sheer — it’s one of the reasons women in the older days had to wear slips and camisoles as a matter of course. (And: We have just spent far too long searching Google Images for one of the many examples we know we’ve seen of anyone from The Thin Man through Tootsie through Working Girl wearing sheer blouses, all to no avail. Grrrrr.) Our point, though: as long as your undergarments are covered tastefully by a camisole, a slightly sheer blouse or sweater peeking out beneath a jacket is not unprofessional. (Although we would say that full-on sheer, like Salma Hayek’s wearing, is unprofessional. We don’t even think a more demure camisole would have saved that one.)
What say you all?
