Has "men's business casual" changed over time?

We have bought clothes for our sons at Joseph Banks for internships - flat front pants, shirts in both solid colors or with a thin stripe. Also made sure they had black and brown belts/shoes and dress socks.

You don’t have to spend big bucks at JA Banks. Your kid can go to Kohls or H&M. The point is…he needs to look nice enough.

Like Mathmom’s kid, my husband keeps a sport jacket and tie at work…he never knows when he will,be called into a client meeting. And sometimes he just puts the jacket on because the AC is too cold in the summers.

Nothing more confusing imo than the words “business casual”. I have to line out to future employees what it means as there has been tremendous wide swing of interpretation. Now I even have to tell young ladies - it means if you’d wear in the garden, to bed or to a nightclub, it probably isn’t appropriate for an office. At least with guys you can’t go wrong with khaki’s, belt and polo.

Does he have a few things he can start in? A pair of nicer pants, a polo and a button down with a pair of brown shoes. I would send him with a bare minimum and order clothes when he knows what the other people in the office are wearing. I would tell him he can err on the dressier side of what people are wearing.

My S now works at corporate headquarters, he found that he had to improve his business casual dress. I buy him khaki pants from banana republic for Christmas. They are nicer than many, don’t need to be ironed and fit him well. He wears plaid or checked shirts with sweaters in the winter.

D works in a cube and dresses a bit more casually than S does. when she was an intern we bought 2 pairs of nice pants from Express and she wore shells and cardigans. Those pants lasted 3 years so they were a good buy. I think we might have bought 3 cardigans and 5 shells and she interchanged them over that summer. Now she dresses more casually than that but not jeans. That’s ok now since she has the job but I think interns need to not distinguish themselves one way or another in their dress.

We have exactly the same issue @PokeyJoe! Internship starting today!

Where I live, for men business casual means a collared shirt with buttons (polos are too casual for most business offices here), and slacks (khaki colored dress slacks are fine, but docker type khakis are too casual in some offices).

My H wears khaki colored slacks and a light blue pinpoint cotton button down. It’s like the uniform for middle-aged professionals!

My recent college grad professional son wears stuff like khaki, brown or grey dress pants. He wears the blue shirts like his dad but also has some light color shirts like a pale yellow and light green pinpoint oxford button down shirts, and he also wears dark shirts (dad would not wear those) like dark maroon or navy dress shirts, and patterns like shirts with a discreet stripe or plaid - not a loud pattern. The young guys wear much slimmer fitting shirts and slacks. Son wears boots some days. Dad would never.

So from our experience, the older guys all dress alike! But the younger guys do dress a little hipper but still conservative.

My H is an engineer and he wears khakis, polo shirt and a fleece jacket. Every single day, winter or summer lol! Today he wore jeans because he can fit in them again. Even his boss wears jeans to the office. Every office is different so it seems.

One lesson about interviewing at employers is that if there is any concern about how people dress there (e.g. what “business casual” means), just observe what the people interviewing you are wearing.

Another thing he can do if the employer says “business casual” is to ask the employer what it means.

Either of the above would be better than just guessing like people are doing here.

One other aspect of engineering jobs is whether he will be in the field (e.g. a civil engineer at a construction site) or in a factory environment (e.g. where they may be machinery around that makes wearing ties or long hair hazardous).

@deb922, so true! Business casual at an accounting firm/law firm/oil company versus business casual at something more “artistic” like a marketing company, design company, etc. For business casual in the entertainment industry, my nephew wears his long hair in a bun and can leave the piercings in, and they don’t care if tattoos show. They call it “business casual”, but really they just don’t want jeans and t-shirts.

In my neck of the woods I can wear a polo shirt without tucking it in. On his first day/week he should go conservative and see what his colleagues are doing.

I work in a factory so anything that costs more than about $30 does not get worn to work. As an intern, unless he is NYC, he won’t be expected to be in Brooks Brothers. Stick with no-iron clothes, scan the sales racks at Macy’s or go to TJ Maxx. If he sticks with gray, black and navy he will need black belt and shoes only. Shiny shoes, no wrinkles, and a neat haircut will be universally appreciated in the engineering world.

For over-40 dressy casual I have two Hugo Boss flat front pants that I like best, summer weight wool, that I pair with fitted patterned shirts, definitely no polos and definitely tucked in. It helps there is no gut to camouflage.

My observations at engineering departments/firms located in Seattle and Silicon Valley. Guys wear dark jeans/no holes (but jeans are generally discouraged) or dark or khaki flat-front pants (think Nordstrom Smartcare or Dockers) and long sleeve shirts or polos, tucked in. Belts and slip on type shoes (belt color matching shoe color), and no sneakers, unless they are cool sneakers worn by the cooler dudes.

BB has been spying on me :). Around Seattle all bets are off. The boss wears jeans, sneakers and Hawaiian shirts. Anyone too put together is either from the east or is trying to sell you something.

I have 2 boys with entirely different taste in clothing. (One could care less and the other likes Banana Republic/J Crew) and they both survived their last two “business casual” internships with the Lands End No Iron Twill Plain front pants. I cannot remember if they were the tailored or the straight fit. The fabric is great, they look amazing and they really do not wrinkle.

No iron is a godsend, Kajon! Best source for high quality no iron shirts is Nordstrom Rack, IMO.

For my scientist husband, business casual means shorts instead of jeans, and/or a t-shirt instead of a polo or button down type shirt. He loves that he gets to dress this way. When he hasd to go to a funeral mid-day, he took a suit and changed. Obviously that’s not the right answer for an internship… But different places certainly have different standards.

If it is out of state, I would suggest getting him a few things and ordering other stuff from Amazon (or wherever, maybe do some sizing beforehand just in case) if he needs it.

Business casual for guys is, in the summer, in my experience:

  • definitely long pants, khakis or a solid dark color
  • long sleeved shirt with a collar OR polo shirt

The shirt is the thing. Also think about undershirts - many men have to wear an undershirt underneath if the weather is at all warm and they go out for lunch.

I’d think even if he hasn’t been there, isn’t there a corporate website with photos, or possibly a former intern at his college to talk to?

(I’d probably cut to the chase and email HR or my future boss and ask - “I was wondering about your company’s definition of business casual - are khakis and a polo shirt okay?” )

Nordstrums was a life saver for sons first job. He was measured there, and some clothes ordered. Our saleslady let me know when sale would occur, and son let me know specifics. She had pants, dressy jeans (gray, black) hemmed, and shirts sent to him, for a cost of $10.00.

For years, my son never wore anything but solids. Since he is thin, BR was main source of pants! sweaters! etc.

When he worked in SV, he asked for short sleeved checked shirts. Ben Sherman had nice styles, especially for slim guys. I don’t know if he is wearing those shirts now, being back on east coast.

No one has mentioned Costco, which has no iron shirts. Instead of traditional pinstripes, they have some with a little variety, in terms of color and patterns. All cost under $20.00

I can buy son a sweater at Brooks B ros, but no shirts, as they are not cut for slim bodies. They do have great sales and a wonderful staff.

Wouldn’t it take years of martial arts training to get the black belt? :slight_smile:

Isn’t that usually called “casual” rather than “business casual”? At least that is not very ambiguous, unlike “business casual”. It is also not uncommon on the technical side of Silicon Valley computer companies.

Agree. Who calls a t shirt and shorts “business casual”? That’s casual.