Who still wears a suit to work?

[TexasDan]

I am an attorney and wear suits for meetings with clients and referral sources (bankers, financial advisors, trust officers) and certain other days because I feel like it. If not wearing a suit, usually coat without a tie. My attire is atypical in my firm since demographic is younger and most will only wear suits for court but I have no problem being the only one in a meting in a suit. I feel more confident and focused when wearing a suit or odd jacket and have no problem being the only one in a meeting wearing such.

 

[Dadacantona]

I work for a housing association in a fairly parochial English city in which it’s very rare to see a man dressed in a suit. My office houses all staff from customer service to in-house lawyers, so dress norms vary significantly. There’s no prescribed dress code but most men wear trousers, shirt and black derbies.
I generally wear a sports coat; worsted, flannel or cotton trousers; OCBD; loafers or longwings and occasionally a tie. I’m by far the most “dressed up” person in my office. I would like to wear a tie more frequently but can’t shake the feeling that people think I’m strange for doing so. Perhaps it’s just paranoia but there’s a certain symbolism attached to ties. Whereas for me a tie is a sartorial item I simply enjoy wearing, I’m sure most people associate them with having, or attempting to have authority.
Currently trying to shake that self-consciousness and wearing a tie more often.

 

[ERok32]

I’m in sales. I always wear a tie, and split between full suit and odd jacket with trousers.

 

[amiga505]

Wow, only 25% are wearing suits...I did not think it would be this low.

a misrepresentation, I'm afraid, caused by confusion between the question on the thread's subject and a question on the poll. while two are certainly related, one does not necessarily stem from or affect the other. thus, I cast my vote as 'No' since the office environment I work in does not require a suit and tie, the dress code is pretty lax, with the majority of people wearing dress shoes, chinos/slacks and a dress shirt, even jeans sometimes. at the same time I am regularly wearing a suit and tie regardless, often with a pocket square and braces. I am working for one of the biggest investment banks in the world, albeit in IT function, back-office and backwater in geographical terms (they got us stashed in a separate building on the outskirts, away from the downtown). truth be told, I would not probably be wearing a suit if it wasn't for the office, my preferred mode of dressing lately is one kind of blazer/sport coat and slacks/chinos combination or the other, almost exclusively with neckwear and a pocket square. at the same time, I do like suits, and I am to a degree grateful for an office job which, while not mandating, provides me with an opportunity, a space to wear a proper suit. I did get my fair share of raised eyebrows initially, but since I am reasonably good at what I do, and get along with colleagues well, everyone got used to me being dressed up to the nines almost all of the time, and they do not make much of it anymore. I can relate to the suit being a work/life balance separation trigger as mentioned here before by @Mr.SaintClaire

 

[Bogmanstar]

What if, as a bloke, your everyday "real" clothes are too shabby or too unorthodox to wear to work?

This WYOC to work b/s is fine for nice middle-class suburban men who naturally have a wardrobe of preppy clothes. I don't. I'm a working class guy with a college education. Away from work, my colleagues go to wine bars and play golf. I work with them, but we're not friends and never will be. My work and personal lives are as separate as I can make them. Away from work, I farm, play trash rock and go banger-racing. I prefer to wear an honest uniform to work. My 'uniform' has always been a suit and tie; and I love the anonymity it affords me. I hate all this "be yourself at work" crap. I don't have family photos or personal knick-knacks on my desk, and I'm not about to expose my true self by rocking up to work dressed as I'd normally dress - combat trousers, monkey boots or cross-trainers, hoodie, tattoos showing, sex pistols or rolling stones t-shirt etc. I'm a corporate lawyer. My everyday clothes are wholly unsuitable. I'd have to acquire, at vast expense, a bunch of dull preppy or high street fashion clothes that I detest.

I like dressing up sharp in proper suits. I tie a mean tie-knot (triple-Windsor, for preference) and I love a sharp tie. And I like looking like a bum away from work. Either set of clothes reflect who I am.

By contrast, dressing up in the over-priced casual clothing deemed acceptable in a corporate role would involve me being a phoney, showing up in clothes that I'd never naturally wish to wear out of the office.

I have a bunch of ordinary suits; some formal brogues and some proper Italian silk tiers and vintage links. Start of the week, you line up the shirts and you never have to think and you always look the business. Rotate the suits and they last for years.

I'll be damned if I ever succumb to this "wear your own clothes" to work rubbish. It's faux-egalitarianism b/s. As noted, it would involve me buying a complete new wardrobe, at huge expense in order to pretend to be something I'm not.

When I worked in a City law firm in London, all men adhered to the following dress-code. It was never written down in detail, but everyone knew what it was, and no transgressions or deviations were permitted:

- charcoal or navy plain or chalk/pin-striped off-the-peg suit. In
such a client-facing role, bespoke or designer was and remains
offensively ostentatious; and, worse, permits an inference of
self-regarding shallowness. Proper lawyers should look
reassuringly-dull. A bemused Italian secondee was sharply reprimanded
by HR for wearing an Armani suit and was told to revert to wearing
ill-fitting chalkstripes like everybody else.
- black (not West End brown) leather lace-up shoes. "Slip-on is
slip-shod", explained a senior partner to me; adding that "anyone who can't
be bothered to do up their laces could not be trusted properly to
reverse proof-read a listing prospectus".
- blue or pink plain or Bengal-striped cotton shirt - no button-down
collars and ideally not plain white in case people mistook you for a
Accountant. No comedy cufflinks, and don't "shoot your cuffs" in
meetings.
- plain or striped silk tie, tied in a jutting triple-Windsor (no
half-hearted footballers' knots).
- togas only for equity partners (I'm making that one up).

That was your lot. Sartorially, only slightly better than being in an
army, but it was great. You never had to think about what to wear and
nobody ever needed guidance to stop them turning up bedecked in
"athleisure" garments ...

 

[amiga505]

I would like to wear a tie more frequently but can’t shake the feeling that people think I’m strange for doing so. Perhaps it’s just paranoia but there’s a certain symbolism attached to ties. Whereas for me a tie is a sartorial item I simply enjoy wearing, I’m sure most people associate them with having, or attempting to have authority.
Currently trying to shake that self-consciousness and wearing a tie more often.

stupid as it may sound, it does indeed take some nerve, but only at the beginning. I remember I was attending a friend's party and had to go there straight from the office. I bought a couple of bow-ties not long before, and was itching to don one, but I just could not work up the confidence to wear it in the office. so I kept it on me until the end of the working day, snuck into a washroom and put it on. my biggest fear was to run into one of the colleagues from my floor on the way out... couple of years since I am able to sail into the office wearing a suit and an odd vest, bow-tie on, saying 'hello-s' and 'good-morning-s' left and right like it does not mean a thing. last summer (it was damn hot) two colleagues pulled my leg on the elevator, asked if it was a special occasion. to which I replied, that a bow-tie is actually much better suited for hot weather than a usual tie (quite truthfully, as this was my genuine consideration on that particular occasion). we all had a good laugh.

 

[Leverandon]

I work at a U.S. Embassy abroad and wear a full suit or sport coat and tie every day, as does nearly everyone else. With some exceptions based on region of posting, nearly everyone in the State Department maintains very traditional attire.

 

[Anachronist]

I work as a management consultant, probably one of the domains with the worst dressed men, who just copy whatever their bosses wear leading to a homogeneous mass of chaps wearing black, navy blue or dark grey suits with either a white or light blue shirt without a tie, thinking they are the gods of the world and looking like they are going to the annual global meeting of undertakers :-/

For my part, I just frankly don't care about what either my colleagues or clients wear and usually opt for suit with tie and pocket square to uphold at least a minimum of style in this world of increasing ignorance and tastelessness.

Of course you get the occasional comment, like last week, where a client asked me if I came from the last century (it was meant as a joke as I was the only person coming to a meeting in full business dress)... I only had to chuckle, because precisely this company is still working like a hundred years ago and simply wearing sneakers, chinos and a blazer doesn't take you to 21st century...

 

[Thomson]

What if, as a bloke, your everyday "real" clothes are too shabby or too unorthodox to wear to work?

This WYOC to work b/s is fine for nice middle-class suburban men who naturally have a wardrobe of preppy clothes. I don't. I'm a working class guy with a college education. Away from work, my colleagues go to wine bars and play golf. I work with them, but we're not friends and never will be. My work and personal lives are as separate as I can make them. Away from work, I farm, play trash rock and go banger-racing. I prefer to wear an honest uniform to work. My 'uniform' has always been a suit and tie; and I love the anonymity it affords me. I hate all this "be yourself at work" crap. I don't have family photos or personal knick-knacks on my desk, and I'm not about to expose my true self by rocking up to work dressed as I'd normally dress - combat trousers, monkey boots or cross-trainers, hoodie, tattoos showing, sex pistols or rolling stones t-shirt etc. I'm a corporate lawyer. My everyday clothes are wholly unsuitable. I'd have to acquire, at vast expense, a bunch of dull preppy or high street fashion clothes that I detest.

I like dressing up sharp in proper suits. I tie a mean tie-knot (triple-Windsor, for preference) and I love a sharp tie. And I like looking like a bum away from work. Either set of clothes reflect who I am.

By contrast, dressing up in the over-priced casual clothing deemed acceptable in a corporate role would involve me being a phoney, showing up in clothes that I'd never naturally wish to wear out of the office.

I have a bunch of ordinary suits; some formal brogues and some proper Italian silk tiers and vintage links. Start of the week, you line up the shirts and you never have to think and you always look the business. Rotate the suits and they last for years.

I'll be damned if I ever succumb to this "wear your own clothes" to work rubbish. It's faux-egalitarianism b/s. As noted, it would involve me buying a complete new wardrobe, at huge expense in order to pretend to be something I'm not.

When I worked in a City law firm in London, all men adhered to the following dress-code. It was never written down in detail, but everyone knew what it was, and no transgressions or deviations were permitted:

- charcoal or navy plain or chalk/pin-striped off-the-peg suit. In
such a client-facing role, bespoke or designer was and remains
offensively ostentatious; and, worse, permits an inference of
self-regarding shallowness. Proper lawyers should look
reassuringly-dull. A bemused Italian secondee was sharply reprimanded
by HR for wearing an Armani suit and was told to revert to wearing
ill-fitting chalkstripes like everybody else.
- black (not West End brown) leather lace-up shoes. "Slip-on is
slip-shod", explained a senior partner to me; adding that "anyone who can't
be bothered to do up their laces could not be trusted properly to
reverse proof-read a listing prospectus".
- blue or pink plain or Bengal-striped cotton shirt - no button-down
collars and ideally not plain white in case people mistook you for a
Accountant. No comedy cufflinks, and don't "shoot your cuffs" in
meetings.
- plain or striped silk tie, tied in a jutting triple-Windsor (no
half-hearted footballers' knots).
- togas only for equity partners (I'm making that one up).

That was your lot. Sartorially, only slightly better than being in an
army, but it was great. You never had to think about what to wear and
nobody ever needed guidance to stop them turning up bedecked in
"athleisure" garments ...

Having worked in the City for a while with loads of interactions with magic circle firms, it is a look I recognise well. Too expensive garments meant that the lawyers were charging too much and weren’t working hard enough to actually have time to worry about mundane things like clothes. In reality they were making much more than most of their clients but it wasn’t supposed to show.

Dress codes in banking as well. White shirts? For bus drivers. Shirt pockets? What for? A pen? You mean you don’t have someone to take notes for you?

The dot com era casualisation (is that a word?) in banking felt different to what happens now. Everyone bought an expensive casual wardrobe for non-client days. When the bubble burst, not having client days suddenly was a serious impediment to job security so everyone was back in suits and tie. I didn’t buy said wardrobe as I had no energy left to think about such things after working what felt like non-stop.

Working on the continent at a pretty conservative financial institution now. This time it feels different because everyone is still in suits but about 60%-70% of the male workforce have ditched the tie.
The dreaded navy suit, white shirt investment banking drone look. With a yellowed undershirt showing if you want to spare the expense of buying new ones. Only seen a fleece vest once though. Interestingly enough, it tends to be the internal guys who wear a tie more frequently.
Clients (finance guys) tend to be the same, most don a tie when they are seeing bankers but might not wear one otherwise. Most wear suits but it depends a bit on their industry.
My gut feeling is that in my field of industry the suit is here to stay but that the tie is on its way out. I might be wrong though, once this particular asset bubble bursts we might all want to show we are serious about our job again and wear ties. I certainly intend to ride this one out - a mark of individuality, who wants to look like next guy in a grey suit.

 

[James1051]

Lawyer here. Dress code for the office is suits for court and depositions, business casual otherwise. And that is what I and my colleagues do. Except, where I interpret "business casual" to mean SC and tie, most of my colleagues interpret "business casual" to mean 'just rolled out of bed on Saturday morning' casual--jeans, polos, flannel shirts, flip flops and fkucing hoodies, believe it or not.

The upshot is, when I bring clients back to the office from court, us in our suits, the other lawyers in the office are running around in the hoodies, jeans and flips; and when they bring their clients back to the office from court, I'm in a coat and tie. This happens because the corporate types who run the office don't feel like they can say anything to anyone about what they wear to work. Meaning there are no standards, and the slobs in the office are forever lowering the bar. This pisses me off to no end.

 

[clee1982]

I wear suit but definitely not required, other than meeting with clients no one wears suit for real here

 

[Loathing]

Having worked in the City for a while with loads of interactions with magic circle firms, it is a look I recognise well. Too expensive garments meant that the lawyers were charging too much and weren’t working hard enough to actually have time to worry about mundane things like clothes. In reality they were making much more than most of their clients but it wasn’t supposed to show.

This always surprises me when people say this. Plenty of even the most junior lawyers at magic circle/white shoe firms wear Hermes ties, £500+ shoes, and designer suits. More senior lawyers often wear Patek Philippes as standard. I've even seen first years fresh from university wearing AP Royal Oaks and A. Lange & Sohne 1815s.

Also, the contention that expensive garments suggest lawyers charge too much is oft repeated but seems totally mythological and incoherent to me. Even juniors at top firms charge about £800/hr. The clients know that; it's no secret. Many clients run up bills of £100k/month. Why would they care what you spend it on?

When I worked in a City law firm in London, all men adhered to the following dress-code. It was never written down in detail, but everyone knew what it was, and no transgressions or deviations were permitted:

- charcoal or navy plain or chalk/pin-striped off-the-peg suit. In
such a client-facing role, bespoke or designer was and remains
offensively ostentatious; and, worse, permits an inference of
self-regarding shallowness. Proper lawyers should look
reassuringly-dull. A bemused Italian secondee was sharply reprimanded
by HR for wearing an Armani suit and was told to revert to wearing
ill-fitting chalkstripes like everybody else.
- black (not West End brown) leather lace-up shoes. "Slip-on is
slip-shod", explained a senior partner to me; adding that "anyone who can't
be bothered to do up their laces could not be trusted properly to
reverse proof-read a listing prospectus".
- blue or pink plain or Bengal-striped cotton shirt - no button-down
collars and ideally not plain white in case people mistook you for a
Accountant. No comedy cufflinks, and don't "shoot your cuffs" in
meetings.
- plain or striped silk tie, tied in a jutting triple-Windsor (no
half-hearted footballers' knots).

This is either 30 years out of date or just totally made up. Loafers are extremely common. Almost everyone is wearing designer suits. The idea that HR would even notice what suit you're wearing is farcical. I've never seen a triple Windsor knot in my entire career, and a FIH is always the most elegant knot anyway. Striped ties are rare - foulards and simple things like pindots are the most common. White shirts are standard whereas pink Bengal is extraordinarily rare. Comedy cufflinks are common right up to the partnership.

 

[JLibourel]

I wore coat and tie (rarely suit and tie) most of the time on my last job (editor of the recently defunct Gun World magazine). No one else in the company did. I am sure it was regarded as eccentric, but I don't believe I suffered any negative consequences from doing so. However, I have been retired for almost nine years.

 

[Thomson]

This always surprises me when people say this. Plenty of even the most junior lawyers at magic circle/white shoe firms wear Hermes ties, £500+ shoes, and designer suits. More senior lawyers often wear Patek Philippes as standard. I've even seen first years fresh from university wearing AP Royal Oaks and A. Lange & Sohne 1815s.

Also, the contention that expensive garments suggest lawyers charge too much is oft repeated but seems totally mythological and incoherent to me. Even juniors at top firms charge about £800/hr. The clients know that; it's no secret. Many clients run up bills of £100k/month. Why would they care what you spend it on?



This is either 30 years out of date or just totally made up. Loafers are extremely common. Almost everyone is wearing designer suits. The idea that HR would even notice what suit you're wearing is farcical. I've never seen a triple Windsor knot in my entire career, and a FIH

Well, 800 quid for a junior seems a bit much.

Anyway, as in any client facing role - outdressing the client isn’t necessarily a recipe for success. Less of an issue when it comes to the quality of your suit maybe. And quality shoes are no problem whatsoever, never have been. But luxury watches etc. can be a problem e.g. if you are selling to a business owner who himself might be quite frugal.

 

[Dzzzzz]

I work as a management consultant, probably one of the domains with the worst dressed men, who just copy whatever their bosses wear leading to a homogeneous mass of chaps wearing black, navy blue or dark grey suits with either a white or light blue shirt without a tie, thinking they are the gods of the world and looking like they are going to the annual global meeting of undertakers :-/

It’s this kind of thinking make more and more people stop dressing up for work. Will you say your workplace a better dressed one if all those start dressing casually?