A third suit for the office, after navy and charcoal?

[dieworkwear]

I'm a junior in law at a large firm in NYC

Question: What kind of clothes do lawyers wear?

Answer: Lawsuits.

Spoiler

im sorry

 

[sadkfjaskfaj]

Thanks for the recommendations guys!

As most of you have suggested I think I will go with a dark navy/charcoal subtly patterned suit

Now, I very much favour glen plaid/subtle checks over a pinstripe. However as WhereNext pointed out, pinstripes may be more traiditional/acceptable than a pinstripe? Would the difference in acceptability between a glen plaid/subtle check vs a pinstripe really be that big?

Thanks!

 

[gavrarabba]

I'm thinking about picking up a third suit for the office (mostly out of boredom). Can't decide what fabric I want.

I'm a junior in law at a large firm in NYC so I should go as low key as possible. As much as I want windowpane/chalk stripes, it'd be a bad look for me.

Dress code is dress shirt/dress trousers/no tie in the summer (so no need to get a summer suit), and suit/no-tie in the spring/fall/winter. Ties on only for meetings. I mostly see navy and charcoal suits worn by the people around me. It's not a flashy office to be honest.

I already have a navy and charcoal suit, both notch lapel (moderate width), 2 button, belt loops.

For my third suit, I'm thinking about a very subtle checked dark navy in a 2-button notch lapel with side adjusters, like this:

Thoughts?

Any other patterns you could suggest?

there's no such thing.It's navy, grey, then before you know it you have like 10 with flannels fresco, linen cotton. Or is that just me?

 

[wzyho]

I’m in biglaw, been practicing for the past 12 years. To be honest, I couldn’t care less what my juniors wear, as long as they don’t wear a pocket square (I think you need to be of a certain age and seniority to wear that), suspenders, or a waistcoat.

I usually stick to dark colors, although I have a mid grey POW check and I have just had a French blue suit made up, which looks really sharp. I wore a pinstripe suit as a junior and no one said anything. I think subtle pinstripes are fine, chalk stripes are not. I don’t think I have seen people wear plaid - not really in fashion here.

The only thing I was told is no brown shoes. “No brown in town” and all that jazz. But my firm was super conservative and required us to wear a tie all day every day. This was more than 10 years ago though. I did try to wear a pair of dark brown shoes once, but unluckily got in a lift with the senior partner at my firm and I noticed him looking at my shoes... I’ve since moved to a west coast firm and the dress code is much more relaxed. I never got any snide comments about my pinstripes, pow checks, or mid grey suits. I tried light grey once, but it didn’t work for me. Some people have asked me where I get my suits.

As long as my work is done, I don’t really care what you wear. Sure you could wear a pocket square, waistcoat or suspenders but the quality of your work had better well match up to the image you’re trying to project. As you know by the time you leave the office at 4am no one will care about the color or pattern of your suit. All anyone will care about will be going home to sleep in their creased white shirts and rolled up shirtsleeves.

There was, however, a senior female rainmaking partner at my firm who was always in Chanel suits, pink, white, you name it. She never raised her voice or was ever seen to be stressed. Even at 4am when **** was hitting the fan and the client was on our backs, she never broke a sweat and her hair was always perfectly coiffed even at 4am. Rumors were that she had a hairdresser visit her every morning to get her hair done for work.

In short, don’t sweat it. Focus on the work and no one will care - biglaw is full of eccentric personalities and no one will say anything as long as you deliver quality work on time.

 

[WhereNext]

Thanks for the recommendations guys!

As most of you have suggested I think I will go with a dark navy/charcoal subtly patterned suit

Now, I very much favour glen plaid/subtle checks over a pinstripe. However as WhereNext pointed out, pinstripes may be more traiditional/acceptable than a pinstripe? Would the difference in acceptability between a glen plaid/subtle check vs a pinstripe really be that big?

Thanks!

The word I would use about pinstripes is that they're very common...so common as to keep them "low key", as long as they're not in pink or something unusual. It sounds like you really want to go with a glen plaid or check suit, which could also be fine (again, looking around your office at what others are wearing will give you a reality check on what's common/uncommon), but my advice would be to keep it low contrast. In other words, a very dark navy suit with a white, very thick windowpane is not "low key", but a very dark grey suit with a black glen check (where the pattern basically disappears from more than a few feet away) might also meet what you think of as "low key".

 

[dieworkwear]

For shoes, Loake is so low key they're literally pronounced low key.

 

[SS 376]

Also an attorney at a large, conservative law firm with a business formal dress code. Don't know about everyone else, but I am too busy to be judging other attorneys for what they're wearing. I literally could not tell you what anyone I work with was wearing yesterday. I don't think you have to check your personality at the door and be one of a million attorneys in nondescript navy or dark grey suits. Honestly, if you use discretion and good judgment (and presumably you have it if you made it this far), you'll be fine. I own and wear most (ok, all) of these and any of them would be suitable at any firm:

• Navy/gray birds' eye
• Mid-gray
• Mid/dark blue (as opposed to navy)
• Navy with a faint glen check
• Navy or dark grey pinstripe
• Gray Prince of Wales check if it's not too bold a pattern

To me, these would probably be too casual or inappropriate for an office setting:

• Linen suits
• A really bold chalkstripe
• Sand, tan, off-white, or light brown suits
• Seersucker

It may be a hot take, but I think even a double breasted, peak lapel, or three-piece suit is fine if the pattern is very, very restrained. I wouldn't wear these to a client meeting or a hearing, but for a normal day at the office, I think you have plenty of options.