Quote:
Originally Posted by Bond
Dear Gay Man who Appreciates fashion,
This summer I will be starting an internship at a financial services company. The dress code is classified as business casual Monday through Thursday, with dress down on Friday. I have a fair amount of "business causal" clothing, but am always looking for better things to wear. Do you have any suggestions as to business causal essentials? Or perhaps particular brands you would recommend?
Thanking you sincerely,
Bond
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Dear Bond,
I'm stealing this, because I do keep up on brands.
First, depends on what the company means by "Business Casual"
A lot of companies these days consider business casual as dress Jeans and a nice shirt. However most consider business casual as slacks and a nice shirt. Think you need to also find out whether the company allows polos, especially for the summer. Most companies are ok with polos now. However I suggest on your first day you choose a nice dress shirt, preferably long sleeves. I scoff at the people who wear short sleeve dress shirts. For the love of god those have never been ok.
1st do you plan to wear a tie? If so, I suggest you do not get the clip on kind or the pre-tied kind. So tacky. If you don't know how to tie up your tie, there are a ton of online tutorials and massive amount of youtube videos. There are several ways to tie one, but my fave is the one that creates a nice triangle with the knot. Little more complex than the standard, but and awesome knot.
If you do decide on a tie, next decide whether you plan on spending quite a bit of money on a few nice ties or getting multiple ties for less money. When I decide to get a new tie I usually either try to find them on sale (Macy's has tie sells all the time, especially as they go out of season), or I shop here:
http://www.thetiebar.com/?gclid=CNKa...FRBM5QodYClRaw
The ties are honestly of great quality, and pretty much everything is 15 dollars. Trust me much better than the shit you find at JCPenney for 20 bucks. They have some awesome styles too.
If you're looking for the newest trendy kinda stuff, I suggest Ralph Lauren or Tommy Hilfiger for ties. They always make superb stuff, but you're looking at paying anywhere from 50-100 dollars for one of these. Let's not even get into serious designer ties. I will say that I own 3 RL and 3 TH ties, and each RL tie was 30 dollars on sale at Macy's and each TH tie was 30 bucks on sale at Macy's during different times of the season. They are great ties.
Also this tie is so hot:
http://www.ralphlauren.com/product/i...SEO_GoogleBase
Very stylish
Now onto the pants.
If you're just going to be wearing the pants you get to work, then this is an area where you can slack on some spendage. If, however, you plan on wearing these for multiple occasions I say get some high quality stuff.
Also I highly disagree with Typhoid on the Brown/Tan pants. It's very dependent on skin tone usually what colors you can wear, and khaki colors can pretty much be pulled off by anyone. Also Khaki can be worn with many more shirt colors than black, especially brighter colors. However for any business attire please stay away from clothes that don't fit you. It's so tacky. I wouldn't think you would betray me like that though bonder, even in non-business type settings. Baggy is tacky to the max. Also pinstripe isn't exactly out of the question either, it kinda made a comeback, and in the business world it never went away. I highly suggest khaki colors actually.
For the work stuff, I would say hit up discount stores. TJ Maxx or places of the such usually have stuff at a highly discounted price, with some name brand stuff that maybe is missing a stitch here or lose thread there. Generally it's stuff that barely failed QC. Sometimes it's hard to find your size if you wear a particularly weird size like me (30-34 is just non-existent basically, I need to pack on some poundage).
If you plan on wearing the stuff outside of the work environment, maybe school stuff etc. (When I joined a fraternity I was dressing up like every sunday for some event), then I suggest getting fancy. I'm a huge fan of clothes from banana republic for business stuff, but they can get pretty pricey.
http://bananarepublic.gap.com/browse...ry.do?cid=5381
Also no pockets on the sides of your legs, no pockets with flaps, all pockets should be inside.
However if BR is too pricey (Definitely is for me, though when I decide to splurge on clothes I generally go here), then surprising places like American Eagle, Abercrombie, Abercrombie & Fitch, Hollister etc. often carry trendy dress pants, or pants that would be acceptable for business casual, for under 50 dollars, and if you catch them at the right time, even cheaper (Like right now before the summer stuff starts heavily). Usually you have to visit the store for that kind of shopping though, as online generally the sales suck and the selection is generally the lastest styles. Stores generally carry the newest stuff, and stuff that was leftover from last season or before.
If it's something you really don't want to go too out of the way on, but still want to get something quality, Dockers are always acceptable, and they even make some dockers that don't have that little logo on the butt. Hooray!
Shirts:
I'm a huge fan of button up dress shirts with long sleeves. For me they're quite possibly the most versatile piece of clothing. It's something you can not only wear to work and it's totally cool, but also you can wear it out to the club later that night if you loosen up a few buttons and slap a graphics tee on underneath. Loose fitting tie, some jeans, untucked, and sleeves rolled up to the elbows and you're styling. Polos have become sorta business casual as well, but like I said, you should wait and see how that goes over at your workplace. Often times a dress shirt is more comfortable and cooler than a polo anyway, and no one ever complains if you roll up the sleeves.
I highly enjoy Abercrombie and Fitch for Dress shirts. They always have some great styles, quality material. I have A&F shirts that I've had for 3 or 4 years now that still don't show signs of wear. Generally they have a small little icon on the pocket but doubt anyone would say anything about that.
Banana republic, American Eagle, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren's Polo line. Always generally good quality stuff with great style.
As far as polos go it gets really tricky. Generally the only designer I suggest is Ralph Lauren as far as business polos. Banana Republic just generally has ugly polos, and AE and AF tend to slap giant logos, wacky colors and huge collars on their polos.
Once again if you're shopping cheap, I highly suggest Discount clothing stores over stuff like JC Penny. Generally can find a lot of nice looking dress shirts and polos for cheap. Also for business never ever go plaid. Vertical stripes and solids only. Also no vertical stripes over an inch wide, pinstripes are good. If you do choose black pants, please consider this in your color selection with shirts.
http://www.abercrombie.com/webapp/wc...12213_-1_12202
http://bananarepublic.gap.com/browse...y.do?cid=44866
http://www.ae.com/web/browse/categor...catId=cat40005
http://www.ralphlauren.com/family/in...s1_dressshirts
Be sure to match tie color to shirt. By match I mean often times it's great to pick a tie that clashes with your shirt, or compliments it. Like black shirts go great with bright ties.
As far as shoes go, I say go with something completely comfortable. The most comfortable pair of dress shoes I own came from one Doc Marten himself 4 years ago and they've held up great. I paid around 80 dollars for them, but I've seriously worn these shoes at least 2/3 of the year for the last 4 years, hell I'm wearing them right now and they've always been this comfortable. Also make sure they match the pants. Brown for khaki black for black. Also make sure you never wear white socks. Make sure the socks are dress style and match the pants as well, because I can think the most embarrassing thing ever would be to cross your leg and show that you're wearing white socks.
Also if you're a heavy sweater, Undershirts are a must. No one wants to see your sweaty pits. Ick.
EDIT:
I just ordered this tie. Thanks Bond.
http://www.thetiebar.com/order_page....&boysTiesOnly=