Renounced MC/conservative business dress in favor of toned down "sharp casual" ?

[Longmorn]

I work in an environment that demands suit and tie every day from civilians (class A or class B for service personnel) so in short, no. I also find that any sense of 'suit as costume' quickly falls by the wayside if you're working long hours in a conservative business dress environment. However, almost any sense of style, let alone well-tailored suits and english shoes, sticks out like a sore thumb in a sea of JAB and DSW. I avoid looking foppish by sticking to very simple, conservative shirts and ties.

That said, I don't think I ever got quite as wrapped up in the SF mindset as some. I was perhaps eased into it by my parents, both of whom dressed well. I also worked a lot of mistakes out of my system long before I found SF, so this place has helped me refine what I was doing, rather than overhaul it.

I do struggle with finding ways to look sharp and not die in the summer heat of Washington DC. From June through early September, it's a challenge to wear more than a t-shirt and shorts if you're going to spend more than a few minutes outside.

I entirely concur on NOBD, though - seems like he's owns his style, rather than the other way round.

 

[JLibourel]

During the last decade I was working, my style was generally "sharp casual." Occasionally, I would wear a suit to the office, but not often. I usually wore a sport coat, slacka and a necktie, which I sometimes varied with an ascot or more rarely a bowtie. Now that I am retired (the third anniversary of my retirement was Tuesday), I gravitate more toward the casual end of "sharp casual." I wear suit and tie only a few times a year. In cooler weather, I'll rock a sport coat and ascot much of the time. In warmer weather, I only wear a sport coat if I aspire to a more dressy look although if the temps are blistering hot I'll forego the jacket. My necktie wardrobe almost seems forlorn, so infrequently do I wear them.

 

[jrd617]



Updates?

There's a whole thread for this already. It's called MC casual

 

[chogall]

MC casual is now slob formal

 

[El Argentino]



MC casual is now slob formal

QFT

 

[Reevolving]

For people who want to dress as I've described, I just realized that there is pretty much no reason to wear anything except JCrew.
They have truly hit it out of the ballpark. Just wear everything from JCrew, and you are guaranteed to achieve the intent posted in the OP.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

For people who want to dress as I've described, I just realized that there is pretty much no reason to wear anything except JCrew.
They have truly hit it out of the ballpark. Just wear everything from JCrew, and you are guaranteed to achieve the intent posted in the OP.

I was really enjoying and empathizing with this thread until this, whereupon I threw up in my mouth a little.

Good idea for a thread though, considering there is a considerable gap between what you see in the MC Casual thread and WAYWRN. Some of us do wear jacket + tie daily but as casually as possible.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

The major breakthrough for me has been to place an emphasis on the weight and texture of clothing... and understanding what they say at a subconscious level is what takes clothing from a boring paint-by-numbers exercise to a statement that will communicate something meaningful to people beyond "hey, he's wearing a tie."

+ 1000

 

[Reevolving]

I have gone more towards this casual direction, and further away from the MC PeeWee Herman look.
Is this forum as active as it was back in 2010 ?

 

[chogall]

No one knows. Except the occasional Indian voodoo shaman spams and all those pictures of dress-as-if-you-sell-it folks.

 

[aDrummingDude]

I've been in real estate for about 2 years now, coming from a manufacturing sales background. Real estate, especially in the (San Francisco) north bay area is dominated by gentlemen's dress which is casual to the point of being slobby. I HAVE toned it down a bit from the suits I predominately wore at first, to more of a chino/cord and blazer look. I also like the V-neck sweater and tie look. I still enjoy being the best dressed man in the room, and intend to never sacrifice that in favor of satisfying misguided local norms. Good thread.

Edit: My absolute number one peeve is when a man is trying to look put together and decides to don a pair of cheap, payless leather shoes. Those seem to be rampant in my industry, even amongst gentlemen who are very successful. Seeing one walk into a room is like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

 

[Mr Knightley]

I have just discovered this thread - good stuff!

An Englishman has always had a bit of difficulty (and that certainly includes me) with 'toned down sharp casual' so I shall be watching things here with interest. I am also trying to renounce MC/conservative business dress but not sure what will really replace it. So, gentlemen please keep posting your examples.

I shall try to do the same.

 

[ridethecliche]

I was really enjoying and empathizing with this thread until this, whereupon I threw up in my mouth a little.

Good idea for a thread though, considering there is a considerable gap between what you see in the MC Casual thread and WAYWRN. Some of us do wear jacket + tie daily but as casually as possible.

When was the last time you walked into one of their stores? Their new suit stuff is pretty awesome, although some designs have lapels on the skinny side. I own a pair of their wool flannel pants and a pair of tweed (of moon tweed fame) pants and they're awesome. They do stuff other than icky preppy schoolboy.

 

[Andrew Ryan]

When was the last time you walked into one of their stores? Their new suit stuff is pretty awesome, although some designs have lapels on the skinny side. I own a pair of their wool flannel pants and a pair of tweed (of moon tweed fame) pants and they're awesome. They do stuff other than icky preppy schoolboy.

I spent a brief period wearing their Bowery trousers before moving to custom (Luxire) ones that are better suited to my frame and preferences, and of course higher quality w/r/t price point. I just can't stand most of their 'looks' they have on their website and the like. Admittedly, some of the items they sell are well suited to this look. Banana Republic even, as well.

I'll admit this is a process I've gone through over the years. Like many others, I jumped straight into suit and tie, learned all about pattern matching and complementary colors, built a ridiculously large collection of ties and pocket squares and dress shoes. The next phase was moving to more subdued sport coats and trousers, but still with full on tie and PS, both usually patterned (or the shirt) and 'complexly' arranged like so many posters here - and it really does look good, aesthetically. It's just too much often for the real world, for many if not most.

The next phase was moving towards solids only, with more texture - sold shirts, grenadine solid ties, but still with patterned squares - and then finally solid squares as well. I then spent a brief period wearing chinos and cords (occasionally colored jeans) with this look in an attempt to casual-ize it, but as so often demonstrated by these kinds of attempts on here, it's just too incongruent. I moved back to cotton trou/flannels and ditched the tie. Somewhere in here I also became a loafer man exclusively, and own them in a wide variety of styles, from more formal full-straps to regular pennies, and even to things like buckle loafers and (the much maligned) Gucci's for a while.

Then came the square transition to solid white linen only - I found myself too 'dandy' in anything else, but there's no way I could ever give up having one. This of course looks bad, to my eye, with solid non-white shirts - so there was a huge period of experimentation with patterned casual shirts, albeit done up in more formal dress shirt configurations, worn tieless. I always ensured there was a white base in the pattern to bring out the plain white square. I even experimented for a long time with french cuffs on these shirts with white silk knots, as they were something I had a hard time giving up as well.

Next up was a dedication to simplicity. I gradually transitioned to wearing solid white shirts and white square only. This is much more difficult than it sounds - see the 'How to Wear a White Shirt' thread by Manton - but I tried my very hardest and wore it for a long time, and even wrote a thread about it - search 'How to Wear a White OCBD'.

Recently, I gave them up (although I still do the white shirt thing at slight more 'dressed up' occasions at night). The white solid shirt, even with jeans, cords, chinos etc, is simply too stark and has too formal of a connotation, I've found. To dial it back even more, my most recent change has been to neutrals only - my shirts are limited to various shades of ecru or tan, blues, and even greys; a lot of flannel, chambray, and thin-wale corduroy ones in fall/winter (which I find is the easiest season to pull off this look in) and lightweight cotton/linen blends in spring/summer. My SC collection, fortunately, has always been more casually bent - solids and semi-solids in soft half-lined configurations, natural shoulders, and patch pockets, in heavily textured fabrics, and of course a lot of linen in spring/summer. The pocket square is now always a textured solid or semi-solid (solid except at very close range) in a neutral complementary color, usually in a devil may care puff, and no silk - mostly cotton, though some wool, flannel, chambray and corduroy, and I even puff some linens.

With this last configuration, I still wear proper trousers in textured fabrics and appropriate weights, along with dressier loafers, for all work/client-facing situations. Outside of those, though, I wear the exact same thing with a simple switch to cords, chinos or jeans, and my more casual styled loafers. This way I never give up my core 'look', but can dress down for the bar etc up to business casual. When more formality is needed, I simply add back the white shirt and plain TV fold white linen square. I essentially never wear ties anymore - as someone mentioned, a sad thing for my enormous collection, many of which are bespoke.

By wearing only neutral colors, I find my clothes fade more into the background and become a supporting role for my face and body, instead of the other way around. This is key, and really the ultimate point of all clothing. It just fits more naturally in our excessively casual culture. In the hottest days of summer I ditch the linen jacket and roll up my sleeves, but I'm loathe to do so.

Just my (verbose) $0.02.

 

[blackbowtie]



For people who want to dress as I've described, I just realized that there is pretty much no reason to wear anything except JCrew.
They have truly hit it out of the ballpark. Just wear everything from JCrew, and you are guaranteed to achieve the intent posted in the OP.

This thread got revived, so what the heck.

For what it's worth, I was walking around with a friend this past Black Friday and we ended up in J. Crew which I hadn't been to for a while. I was pleasantly surprised with the stuff I saw there. It seems that they've stepped up their game a lot over the last few years, be it in the choice of fabrics (I saw a few Harris tweed sport coats that could probably fit well with the spirit of this thread) or fit and design. (Although the construction of their jackets could probably still be improved.)Their casual stuff, especially the casual/smart casual outerwear that I saw, seemed fresh, comfortable, and appealing. It certainly made me think about the merits of toning down my outfits once in a while.

I also noted that prices have gone up.....