Friday Question #42
By kilax, October 17, 2008 8:36 am
Does your profession have a clothing stereotype?
Mine does – lots of gray, black and muted colors. I think I wore the gray/black combo three times this week! To the left is one of my typical “uniforms.”
I have a confession – Steven helps me pick out most of my outfits when I have meetings with clients, interviews, etc. The other day, he advised I take this top, because it is “designer-y.” He told me I looked “architect-y” when I wore the outfit on the left yesterday.
I told Steven he should be on that show, What Not to Wear. As a host, not as a “walking fashion disaster” (that’s what their website says!).
Themocracy
I love the splash of color you added with the shoes! And both tops are great! You see a lot of different things going on in my office, ‘specially on Fridays.
My office is so casual you could probably walk down the hall in pajamas and no one would blink. The only way anyone notices what you’re wearing is if you happen to dress up for a meeting.
LOL. Well, I guess with grays and blacks, it is easy to accessorize. 🙂
sad for me to say, i should be on the show what not to wear but as someone “on the show”… my work “wardrobe” consists of jeans and t-shirts… sweatshirts and thermals in the winter… and flip flops in the summer and tennis shoes during “winter” so maybe one or two months a year, lol… i am horrible but i’m comfortable… my co-irker (from TOC) wears the same polyester pants that he bought 30+ years ago because he refuses to pay more than $15 for “new” pants… needless to say, my office is a fashion disaster!!!
=^..^=
(after re-reading this, i’m so embarrassed to be posting this)
I keep begging people to put me on the show. All I wear are jeans and t-shirts! I’d love to get all the clothes from the show and have someone dress me. I would hate the shopping part though.
I’ve seen his work and he’s got a good eye!
Love the outfit! Especially the shoes!!! Mind if I ask where you got them?
Ever thought of having some of the clothes you still want to wear, tailored?
If you find a good tailor they can reduce the size of almost anything without ruining the style. Something I learned on What Not To Wear. 🙂
P.S. Hope your weekend is fantastic!!!
Gina (Mannyed) – Thanks 🙂 I feel like I see a lot of the same when I am walking to work – it seems like everyone around me has a dress code. Maybe it’s a regional thing! (Maybe NYCers are more outgoing?) 😉
Jenn – It’s funny when you can tell someone has a meeting. Not funny in a mean way, but a cute way 🙂
teeni – Good point! I tend to wear A LOT of silver jewelry though. I guess I even have a “uniform” in jewelry!
CourtneyInControl – Don’t be embarrassed! Not all professions require “fancy” clothes. I would love it if we had a casual Friday and I could wear a nice pair of jeans. Oh, and btw, I don’t think you can find a nice pair of pants for $15!
tori – Hmmm, this could be a blogger project. Should I hang around your house and take some photos of you? 😛
de – Ha! I told him that 🙂 He’s always more stylish than me!
Denise – The shoes are Issac Mirazhi for Target! Only $35 or so! My boss compliments me EVERY TIME (okay, only twice) that I wear them 🙂 I have tried to have some bigger things tailored and they still look too big. Maybe the other things that are only a bit bigger though! I’ve been thinking about it. Hope you have a great weekend too!
Management consulting has but a single uniform: shiny black shoes, black socks, black suit-like dress pants, and a white-with-blue-stripes long-sleeved button-up shirt. About the only more-conservative dress would be a suit and tie (we wear those too sometimes, depending on the client and the occasion).
Out of the 50 or 100 people I see at work every day in the office, and except on Fridays (“jeans day” if we don’t have a client engagement, which we’re encouraged to avoid scheduling for internal team-building purposes), I can probably count on one hand the number of people not conforming to this unofficial uniform…
Almost everyone in my profession is a slob. Think, um, Michael Moore. 🙂
Of course, now I do my profession for an outside company that doesn’t have customers in-house. No one visits the office to buy anything or do business except employees.
So, we all dress how we want. I’m usually shorts (or jeans) and t-shirts. One of my co-workers wears the same shirt almost everyday. (She wears it like a jacket, but still … yikes.)
E – Your description of management consulting made me think of the time I went to a meeting at a trading firm and everyone had blue button-down shirts out! EVERYONE! It’s weird. The people look like clones or something.
ajooja – Ha! I think it’s okay to be more casual if you don’t see clients all the time… but the same shirt? Every day? NO! (Okay, I will admit, when I worked in Italy, people would wear the same outfit a few days in a row, then swap it out for the next outfit. I did try that! 😉 )
No clothing stereotype at my work. Mostly business casual, but nothing that everyone seems to wear the same of. I wear jeans due to my needing to carry servers and work under desks and server racks.
I work in the legal dept. of my office, and everyone in the entire office is conservative, so I stick out like a sore thumb. I love color and patterns and clothing with an artistic flair. Sometimes I feel self-conscious because everyone else is wearing button-down shirts and tailored slacks, but when I try to shop for more conservative styles, I still end up coming home with purple bootcuts and a paisley tunic. I can’t seem to help myself. Besides, when I put on a suit, I look like a child playing dress-up in her daddy’s closet.
Mine is funky. I’m not so much. I think it’s all the younger females in the industry.
martymankins – Ah, the freedom to express yourself! 🙂 I like that.
SJ – I feel like that sometimes! I want to wear more color, but I stand out so much. You really ARE my fair blogmother!
Cheryl – Hmm. I don’t recall what industry you’re in. But it must be something creative? Or marketing?
I am in IT, so we dress as the company does. However, my profession on a whole is known for t-shirts, jeans, and guys who do not shower. Not sure why? LOL 🙂
Felicia – Ha ha. You’ve pin-pointed a FEW IT guys I’ve met! Our new ones are really cool and clean though 😛