Who still wears a suit to work?

[Aquafortis]

Great thread and I've really enjoyed reading all the insights. Two things are immediately apparent - many people can't wear a suit to work, they have to wear a 'uniform' of sorts to conform to the wishes of an employer or for practical reasons (eg. military, healthcare etc.) and that 'the suit' (like all forms of clothing) is subject to evolutionary change and development over time. My own view is that many of us (who work in non-uniform commercial enterprises) have never had more choice when it comes to business attire than we have today. If you do decide to stick to wearing a suit to work, the fabric choices are bewilderingly varied, for example pinstripe, herringbone, checked, hopsack, pick-and-pick, cotton drill, linen and many more as well as different weights. Formality can be adjusted not only by selecting differing fabrics and cloth weights, but also by carefully choosing colour, for example a mid blue or air force blue cloth will be less formal than a dark navy and a light grey will be less formal than charcoal grey. I believe that the suit remains one of the most flexible forms of dress for the commercial environment and while I may wear a grey pinstripe with white shirt, polished black oxfords and a plain or striped tie to a meeting with lawyers and bankers on a Monday, by Friday I could be wearing an unstructured beige linen suit with brown suede loafers and white pique shirt to an internal staff meeting. Long may the suit continue!

Well summarized. I'll chime in here since I've been mostly lurking on this thread, but have kept up with it.

I work in architecture/design for civic government and while some of our highest level managers wear suits daily (sans ties typically), business casual (or even much more casual, unfortunately) is effectively De Rigueur here in San Francisco - arguably ground-zero for the casualization of the workplace and definitely a bastion of fleece vest techie culture. I think it could be argued that SF has always been all over the place in terms of workplace dress, and it certainly is a melting pot extreme currently. Probably as far to the other end of the spectrum of sartorially conservative cities as DC where @smittycl works.

I often take a very early commute bus into the City, and many finance folks are on the same but - those who start work at 6am in San Francisco's Financial District. The work attire of the men in that group is all over the place, from fleece vests to dress shirts sans jacket, to suits, but a greater proportion in at least sport coats and dress trousers than the greater sample one would see walking around downtown San Francisco.

As stated well above by @DEE1970 , the present-day absence of pretty much any required formal workplace attire, has given those of us who want to dress more conservative business dress the freedom to do so when we are in the mood or have meeting or events where such attire is more appropriate. And on other days it's great to simply wear jeans, short sleeve polo, and loafers.

There have been days where I've seen some colleagues attire and lamented a more formal dress code not being in place on a wider scale, and other days where I've been grateful to have the flexibility to just throw on something decent and not worry about conforming to anything prescribed. I've personally tried to implement an anti-casual Friday campaign in my office (so far a one-man effort as far as I can tell) by at least wearing a sport coat, dressier trousers, and decent footwear. I am among those who subscribe to the school of personal/social ethics that believes dressing well is also a show of respect for those you're interacting with during the situations at hand.

With that said, it's rare for me to wear a suit, I can only think of two days in the last year I've done so - for work at least.

Today will be the third time , but it's not for work. Attending the opera tonight with my wife, and since I don't own black tie, am going with my midnight-blue Cesare Attolini suit in Super 210's, silver satin silk RL/PL tie. And I'm taking advantage of being able to bend the conventions a bit by not wearing black oxfords (don't own any black shoes actually) and going with my EG burgundy antique calf Audleys which are a plain toe, high single monk.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

Hello. I am wearing a fleece vest to work today, because it's weird weather - halfway between warm and cold, and can't decide whether it's raining or not. Classes have finished and all I've got is a couple of meetings with research collaborators, so shirt (Oliver Spencer), trousers (Pure Blue Japan), fleece vest (Patagonia - yes!) and sneakers (Onitsuka Tiger), plus a light waxed jacket if it rains when I'm cycling to and from home, is perfect. Fleece vests have their uses, but they aren't a uniform here (yet).

 

[dieworkwear]

For the vest experts in this thread: What's the most casual iteration of a vest? I assume white fleece is more formal than black? Cucinelli makes a worsted wool vest with a welted pocket. Is that more formal than Patagonia's patch zipped chest pocket? ?

 

[beargonefishing]

For the vest experts in this thread: What's the most casual iteration of a vest? I assume white fleece is more formal than black? Cucinelli makes a worsted wool vest with a welted pocket. Is that more formal than Patagonia's patch zipped chest pocket? ?

 

[FlyingMonkey]

For the vest experts in this thread: What's the most casual iteration of a vest? I assume white fleece is more formal than black? Cucinelli makes a worsted wool vest with a welted pocket. Is that more formal than Patagonia's patch zipped chest pocket? ?

Clearly simultaneously the most casual, the most expensive and the most hideous items that the company makes, are Kapital's ethnic-print fleece vests. I'm not sure how well they would go down in Midtown...

 

[RJman]

For the vest experts in this thread: What's the most casual iteration of a vest? I assume white fleece is more formal than black? Cucinelli makes a worsted wool vest with a welted pocket. Is that more formal than Patagonia's patch zipped chest pocket? ?

This is pretty casual. I believe it anticipates Hedi’s future Design classic in the Céline 2020 collection:

 

[Alan Bee]

Squad Goals. I knew someone was going to eventually do it. I mean, 3,000 pounds for a Gilet?

Brioni - Quilted Nubuck Gilet

Gilets are often considered pretty casual but Brioni's version has been made in Italy from nubuck, so it instantly feels smarter. This piece has a traditional quilted profile and plenty of pockets for your phone, keys and wallet. The neat shape means it layers comfortably over button-down shirts...

www.mrporter.com

The Wall St. bonus money has to go some where since bespoke tailoring is sooooo 1990's

Coats and Jackets for Men | Designer Menswear | MR PORTER

Shop men's coats and jackets at MR PORTER, the men's style destination. Discover our selection of over 400 designers to find your perfect look.

www.mrporter.com

Alan Bee

 

[am55]

Squad Goals. I knew someone was going to eventually do it. I mean, 3,000 pounds for a Gilet?

Brioni - Quilted Nubuck Gilet

Gilets are often considered pretty casual but Brioni's version has been made in Italy from nubuck, so it instantly feels smarter. This piece has a traditional quilted profile and plenty of pockets for your phone, keys and wallet. The neat shape means it layers comfortably over button-down shirts...

www.mrporter.com

The Wall St. bonus money has to go some where since bespoke tailoring is sooooo 1990's

Coats and Jackets for Men | Designer Menswear | MR PORTER

Shop men's coats and jackets at MR PORTER, the men's style destination. Discover our selection of over 400 designers to find your perfect look.

www.mrporter.com

Alan Bee

It's the ethical choice Monsieur Alain.

 

[Alan Bee]

It's the ethical choice Monsieur Alain.

Monsieur Cher,

Since when do hogs (pigs) and 3,000 pound sterling gilets go together? Some lefties might argue they do perfectly

Maybe one of our Wall Street Gilet wearing Squad Bros could confirm ....

Alan Bee

 

[dieworkwear]

Just realized Patagonia vests are a normie's good

 

[am55]

Monsieur Cher,

Since when do hogs (pigs) and 3,000 pound sterling gilets go together? Some lefties might argue they do perfectly

Maybe one of our Wall Street Gilet wearing Squad Bros could confirm ....

Alan Bee

Some gilets cost more than others
@Clouseau

 

[Riva]

The thread title and the poll asked the wrong question and the discussion took that up on the last few pages: Today there are very few jobs which require suit and tie and that definitely includes my and most other office job profiles at least for the last twenty years. The more relevant question is: Are you officially punished for wearing suit and tie at work? And for me and most other office workers the answer is: Nope.

Of course the traditional business dresscodes are slowly fading away. And now people react very differently to it: There are some who conjure up new dresscodes out of thin Patagonian air just to be able to conform further to something as part of an imagined group. Many wear sportcoat, chinos, jeans, swimshorts, whatever instead. And a few others like me still wear suit and tie and are fine with it. So there is more freedom and less conformity (at the surface) in the office. Sounds not too bad.

The bad part for some is that it becomes more and more difficult to show the world that you are an important master of the universe just because of the nice clothing you wear. But is that really that important? If yes the sad fact is though that the fleece vest will never have the traditional and social-historic foundation to be a proper replacement of the suit in that matter. I would rather say that that is generally a good development for the society.

I didn't think this day would come. A woman I'm interested in just told me to lose the jacket cuz it made me looked old. Wouldn't care if this is work related but this is a sign from God.

 

[Riva]

I know what you mean, though. I wore fatigues for 25 years. Basically like wearing pajamas and boots to work.

In my first job in IT, I got lazy as I had to stay until 3am while everyone else went to a free company cruise. So I came in at 9pm not expecting anyone to be working in a full pajama assemble without underwear and wearing sandals. A colleague came out of the lab just as I entered and gave me a full head to toe stare. I didn't give a **** though as it was an IT gig and I can wear whatever I want as long as I slave it out. We should have a thread about the crazy stuff we wear to work instead of this lamenting boring thread.

 

[bluesman528]

I didn't think this day would come. A woman I'm interested in just told me to lose the jacket cuz it made me looked old. Wouldn't care if this is work related but this is a sign from God.

This is not a sign from god, you simply got older in the meantime and the woman thought it was only the jacket. Keep the jacket as it doesn't matter anyway.

 

[beargonefishing]

Jacket off in front of women, always.