Tie Tuesday

[dacs7]

My fellow first year associate at a Los Angeles law firm was recently quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about casual dress at work http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...0,100247.story specifically for his proposal of "tie Tuesday." For the last year, he's been pushing this idea of wearing ties on Tuesday, and I join in sometimes, along with a few of the younger associates. Considering that wearing a sport coat is cause for alarm in west L.A., a tie is about as far as you can go unless there is some specific reason, like court or clients. Of course, thanks to Ian of worldsfinest, I've at least been able to convert a few people to Borrelli and Barba shirts... and away from plasticky looking loafers.

Is all of L.A. just poorly dressed at the office? I can't tell you how many times I casually recommend weston or C&J shoes, only to hear, are you kidding, these are prada!

Oh, and while I rarely have anything to post, SF has been a great source of information and fun for the last two years!

 

[mrchapel]

Originally Posted by dacs7

My fellow first year associate at a Los Angeles law firm was recently quoted in a Los Angeles Times article about casual dress at work http://www.latimes.com/news/printedi...0,100247.story specifically for his proposal of "tie Tuesday." For the last year, he's been pushing this idea of wearing ties on Tuesday, and I join in sometimes, along with a few of the younger associates. Considering that wearing a sport coat is cause for alarm in west L.A., a tie is about as far as you can go unless there is some specific reason, like court or clients. Of course, thanks to Ian of worldsfinest, I've at least been able to convert a few people to Borrelli and Barba shirts... and away from plasticky looking loafers.

Is all of L.A. just poorly dressed at the office? I can't tell you how many times I casually recommend weston or C&J shoes, only to hear, are you kidding, these are prada!

Oh, and while I rarely have anything to post, SF has been a great source of information and fun for the last two years!

It's just a very strange vacumn that Southern California finds itself in. Business casual has become the norm in the office place. Why? Who knows. Some say its the weather, others say its the laid back atmosphere. Either way, it's one of those mysteries. I personally attribute it to coming from families where dressing well is either unheard of unknown.

 

[kitonbrioni]

Please join with him and wear a tie on Tuesday and get the LA Times to take you guys picture.

 

[WestOfPCH]

Sorry guys, but when has dressing casually and "dressing well" been mutually exclusive? I know people who pull off business casual in a stylish way (with or without a sports coat) , and others who regularly wear suits who think they look good who clearly don't.

In general, I think it's easier to look bad in "corporate casual" than in a "business dress" environment, as evidenced by the preponderance of people wearing wrinkled khakis and a too-tight golf shirts. But when we all had to wear suits to work, those same people just wore ill-fitting suits with dress shirts that had collars too tight to button. So it has nothing to do with being casual or not, it has to do with knowing how to dress well regardless of level of formality

I think there are just as many 50-something men who who don't know how to dress stylishly casual as there are 20-somethings who don't know how to wear a suit properly. I mean, if you spent 30 years of your professional life (plus maybe church or temple on Sundays) choosing between a blue or white shirt to wear w/ your navy or grey suit, can anyone really expect you to dress your self stylishly, creatively, and appropriately? It's much easier to give some freshly minted 25 year old law school grad a copy of Manton's book.

I travel extensively in the US (and a non-trivial amount internationally) for work, and I honestly don't think people who live East of I-5 are truly comfortable dressing stylishly casual and relaxed as people on the West Coast. Most East Coast types just don't act natural unless they look uptight even when wearing "casual" clothes, while Mid-westerners & Southerners can be casual but conservatively so. Only West Coast guys as a group are likely to try and often succeed in doing casual AND stylish. And I'm not talking about entertainment industry fashionistas wearing $500-Ferragamo flip-flops, I mean the guy who will wear Purple Label and Isaia suits when he's not wearing Lucky jeans and a Robert August surf t-shirt.