Business Casual Attire

[midmo]

mathmom,

What did you tell your son? What is business casual for college males? Is a tie required? Sports coat?

I'm afraid my son will think it is nothing more than upgrading from sandals to tennis shoes!!

[mafool]

I think the hardest part of "Business" anything for my son will be the following crazy notions:

the pants should sit withing striking distance of the actual waist
the pants should not be so long that you are walking on them

[midmo]

^^^Unless male 'business casual' comes to include shorts, my son has a long-term problem. I've seen him in dress shirt with tie, atop cargo shorts, worn long and loose. Somewhere on YouTube is the evidence.

Perhaps he should move to Australia.

[Marian]

The suit sounds great, Kristin.

I would add, though, that for some college women who are unaccustomed to business clothing, it might be easier to wear a sleeveless shell or a lightweight short-sleeved sweater under the jacket, rather than a blouse or shirt with a collar. This eliminates the need to worry about whether your multiple collars are arranged properly.

My son is facing the business casual problem. He's going to visit a graduate school in a southern state, where people trend to dress up a bit. He's already been accepted but doesn't want to be conspicuously dressed even so (his usual wardrobe of huge jeans worn with T-shirts with silly things written on them simply won't work). He bought several dress shirts, to be worn with either of his two existing pair of dress pants (one dark gray, one khaki), a dress belt, black socks, and black shoes. He will also probably bring his one (dark blue) blazer and a nice, plain, V-necked dark blue sweater that looks OK over a dress shirt. Whether he wears the jacket or sweater or neither depends on the weather and what others are wearing. I think I'll suggest having a tie in his pocket, just in case everyone else is wearing one.

What I don't know is what he is going to do with all his wordly possessions. His keys, wallet, cell phone, and other necessities of life usually reside in the huge pockets of his huge pants. How will he manage with normal-size pockets?

[mafool]

As long as the necessities of life don't extend beyond those you listed above, and as long as he doesn't carry an oversized wallet, they should fit in "normal" pockets!

An alternative to a wallet is a money clip (alternative is a binder clip from an office supply store) which would hold cash, ID, and a credit card.

[mathmom]

I told him he could wear his khakis if they were nice, but he has dark pants too. I told him to wear the button up shirt that wasn't wrinkly - though he thought it looked less dressed up than the other one. Unless he found someone with an iron. I said no tie necessary, but it wouldn't hurt to wear his navy blue blazer. I think it's just a big job fair. I also told him that if he was going to find jobs with investment bankers he'd probably need to be more dressed up than if he's talking to computer programmers. And I reminded him he shouldn't be wearing his sneakers.

mafool, my son arrived at Thanksgiving in that outfit. "It was 68 degrees in Pittsburgh."

[mafool]

My observation: To many males in our kids' generation, one of the the worst things is to look like they are trying too hard. Thus the cargo shorts with the tie, the rumpled pants with everything......

[TrinSF]

"...the rumpled pants with everything..."

Important Life Skill to Teach Teens #434: How to mostly de-wrinkle clothing by putting it in the dryer for a few minutes. It's not the same as ironing, but it's a lot easier and gets ride of most rumpling.

[TrinSF]

In the long run, have him check out Dockers "Mobile Pants". They have reissued them in a more casual form than they had before. They have extra hidden pockets in the legs that allow you to keep more things. Not dressy, but a step up from jeans and cargo pants.

[mafool]

^^^#38^^^ add a damp washcloth to enhance. (not that I know this first hand....)