Lynchburg News & Advance

Arts/Life

How casual is casual?

Originally published July 25, 2005


Who would have thought wearing flip-flops could cause such an outcry?

When Northwestern University's women's lacrosse team visited President Bush earlier this month, some of them were sporting flip-flops, much to the horror of fashion experts across the country.

The girls defended their choice of footwear, saying they were wearing fancier versions decorated with rhine-stones and heels, not your average beach flip-flops. It begs the question: If flip-flops, even the more elaborate styles that are currently available, aren't appropriate at the White House, where are they appropriate? On a date? In school?

And what about in the office?

It depends on the office, says Sandy Dumont, an image consultant and founder of The Image Architect in Norfolk.

"Flip-flops are for when you know everybody," she said. "You don't wear flip-flops to formal occasions. ... They're for the friendliest of friendly offices." And what about beyond footwear?

What is and is not appropriate depends on where you work, but in general, the national trend is moving back toward dressing up, especially for men in the workforce.

"Men are getting dressed up again," says Todd Snyder, vice president of menswear design at J. Crew, which has a distribution center in Lynchburg. When the business-casual movement hit, Snyder said men were confused about what to wear. The confusion comes in when, because "casual" means different things to different people, what is OK in one setting is not appropriate for another.

Dumont says the business casual trend - or "business casualty" as she likes to call it - began during the dot.com revolution of the late '90s. Its increase in popularity has morphed into different things to different people, and could be anything from jeans paired with a short-sleeve dress shirt to khakis with a Hawaiian-printed shirt.

Locally, the trend seems to continue to lean toward casual but pulled together,says Lynn Sonnenleiter, internship coordinator at Liberty University's Career Center.

"At a lot of the companies we have visited, you can wear whatever you want (whether it be) khakis, Polos or jeans," she says. But, "the larger corporations tend to keep the standards high."

Indeed, Snyder says a number of major corporations are starting to shy away from "Casual Fridays" because they want to impress their customers; there's also a debate about how clothes affect work performance.

"Some argue that the more comfortable you are, the better you work," says Sonnenleiter. The argument against comfort is that if you're dressed down, you slack off because you don't feel professional.

So, which is it?

Dumont says if you show up to work in a crisp, cotton button-up shirt, not only will you make a powerful impression on your colleagues and boss, you'll feel better and work harder.

Recent Virginia Tech graduate Leighann Elmore, 22, works as a loan officer in Lynchburg and agrees with Dumont.

"If I wore casual clothes to work, I'd fall asleep at my desk," she says. "I wouldn't be productive."

Mistakes we make Liberty University's Sonnenleiter thinks people sometimes don't realize they're dressing inappropriately because our culture has become so relaxed. With college students so used to dressing down, Sonnenleiter says even wearing a knee-length skirt seems like being dressed to the nines to them.

"In college, I never picked out an outfit the night before class," Elmore says. "Whatever I slept in, I went to school in."

But now that she's working in the professional world, Elmore likes getting dressed up because she thinks people take her more seriously.

"Being young and out of school, a lot of people don't necessarily trust you," she says. "Dressing up earns respect."

Camisoles can be a tricky item for women at work. Dumont says plain, simple ones are OK to wear underneath jackets, but lacy ones are not. She recently saw a woman dressed in a red, stretchy camisole with spaghetti straps and ruffles, sans jacket, and thought it was too suggestive to wear at work.

"(It looked like) sexy, Frederick's of Hollywood lingerie."

Even under a suit, she felt the color and all the ruffles would still be distracting and inappropriate.

"If I wear a camisole to work, I make sure it's high enough," Elmore says. "And I wear a suit jacket over it."

Men's biggest mistake, Dumont says, are inappropriate ties in bold patterns and pale, washed-out colors. She even called out President Bush for starting a pale blue tie fad. She says those pale colors could be worn out to dinner, but not in the board room.

Regardless of the color, ties are back in style, J. Crew's Snyder says, and a classic striped one is essential to any man's wardrobe.

"Two years ago, we had a small assortment of 12 ties," he says. "Now we have almost 150 (styles)."

Sales for dress clothes, everything from suits to dress shirts to even sweaters, have tripled since last year, he says, as men "return to the little bit more sophisticated, little bit more grown-up way of dressing."

Today's suits are meant to be worn in a new, hipper way, Snyder says. The fit is a little bit slimmer and dress belts are narrower and cleaner.

But dressing nicely doesn't always involve a suit. If men do wear jeans to work, Snyder recommends pairing them with a sport coat and woven shirt.

Dumont says a jacket is essential to a female's wardrobe because it is the mark of a professional. It's OK to take it off in the office when you're not meeting with clients, but should be donned outside private spaces.

The most important thing to keep in mind, Dumont warns, is that just about everyone is working for someone else.

"You're not there for your own pleasure and comfort," she says. "(You're there) because you're getting paid."

Do's and Don'ts

For Women

-- Do wear your skirt to the knee or just above with no front slits that can open when you sit down.

-- Do wear light undergarments with light clothes and dark with dark clothes.

-- Don't think that the workplace is a singles' bar. This means no mini-skirts or low-cut, tight tops.

-- Don't wear noisy or too much jewelry.

For Men

-- Do make sure one half inch of your shirt cuff shows below your jacket sleeve.

-- Do get some good casual shoes. Wing tips look odd with khakis, so having a good pair of loafers will come in handy.

-- Don't wear short or sport socks with your business pants.

-- Don't wear the same jeans (if the company allows them) or khakis that you wear to clean up the yard.

Sources:
www.selfesteem.org/labelle/curriculum/dress.htm;
www.westalabamaworks.cc/student_educator/article-dressing-success.htm

Copyright © 2005, Lynchburg News & Advance