That outfit looks fine to me…but I would put a little 3/4 length sleeve sweater over the top if I were going out.
My 20 something DD, however, probably would skip the sweater.
Not true. No matter how big a campus is, you still interact with small circle of people everyday (classes, ECs). My girls would remember, and so would I - both very well dressed and poorly dressed.
I remember sloppy, dirty, and torn…and ill fitted clothing. I’m not sure I would care about someone who was dressed less formally unless it was really “off”.
"And on a plane, seriously, who dresses up to fly? Who exactly are you trying to impress? "
Could we stop misrepresenting this thread? Who has said it’s important to dress up to fly? I personally think it’s smarter to wear long pants than shorts - just like in a movie theater - because of how they a/c planes - but no one, absolutely no one, has suggested that it’s necessary to dress up. So could we PLEASE stop acting as those go people are talking about anything other casual wear?
Did anyone say it was cold at the Thai restaurant?
RE post #283 The OP told them to wear what they wore on the plane so she did and the OP was surprised that is was, in fact, “really casual”. Also, in my experience both as a teen and as the parent of teens they don’t get cold.
I suppose one could say that clothes are just covering of the body and leave it at that. But I remember my grandmother, who toward the end of her life was crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. She was a woman who never wore trousers in her life. In the nursing home, it took her almost two hours to get “dressed” (by her standards) toward the end of her life: blouse, skirt, stockings, shoes. But she would never consent to becoming a rambling wreck in a housecoat and slippers, even if it were easier and more “practical.” It was because of how she saw herself.
The stretchy workout wear and tee shirt are today’s equivalent of the housecoat. It’s like, “I just don’t care.”
“You said “really casual”. If I heard that, I would think athletic wear is fine.”
Do you all seriously wear the same type of clothing you work out in, to restaurants? Compression shorts? Tank tops with sports bras? Tight fitting yoga pants?
Lots of people ride their bicycles and stop at a restaurant for a bite to eat or a grocery store for a snack. And no one around here complains if they are dressed like that when they do.
Again with your uber literalness. Of course no one “complains.” And yes, we’ve sometimes stopped for iced coffee at Starbucks or similar midway through a bike ride. But see, when I walk into Starbucks with a bike propped outside and my bike helmet on, people kind of figure that I’m riding a bike. That has nothing to do with choosing to go out to a sit-down restaurant.
I thought it was during the phone conversation that OP learned the girl even wore gym shorts on the plane.
I do think we’re getting confused when we focus on what we, as parents, would wear, now or then. We’re a different generation, it’s a different era. Eg, we wouldn’t show bra straps (even a sports bra, if it’s more bra than a midriff-top) when we were younger- that’s a more recent ok thing (to some. Let’s not argue about it.) We thought gym shoes were for the gym. Today, more flexible.
I wonder if this get-together came out of the blue- was it a last minute arrangement with OP? If you have time, call Southern Hope-?
Few years ago we went to an European resort where guests were allowed to go topless at the pool. There were few Americans there. An European told us that you could always who are the Americans. Americans ten to think just because you could go topless around the pool, it meant you could go topless when going up to a bar to get a drink. The etiquette was to be covered up when away from the pool and beach.
I respectfully disagree, NJSue. Workout gear is not the equivalent to a housecoat. Not every occasion requires a change of clothes and I genuinely believe it’s okay not to “care” because there’s a time and place when others who see you should not care about what you have on.
For example, if I’m going to the grocery store and I happen to have a henley and leggings on, I’m throwing on a pair of toms and heading out. If my elastic band signals that I don’t care about my appearance well that’s a powerful waistband considering I made sure I didn’t smell, my hair wasn’t dirty, and my clothes are clean.
Do your clothes smell? Do they have holes? Does it fit on your body? Do your shoes fit? As this thread goes on, it just reinforces my belief that yes, while appearances matter, you’d have to try pretty hard to be bluntly inappropriate when it comes to everyday occasions. Come as your are. Come how you feel comfortable. It just really doesn’t matter unless you like having everyone dress to how you want them to dress.
So what if you stopped to get a sandwich in a sit down restaurant in between your bike ride. People don’t need to understand that you were biking. You know you were biking. Let them fret over someone wearing compression leggings at Panera. Oh, the horror. What’s hard about assuming someone who is in workout clothes was perhaps working out? Or perhaps like stretchy waistbands? Or like the compressed feeling on their legs?
Henley and leggings trumps gym shorts. I guess gym shorts can trump what you have on straight from the Mud Marathon. Or sleepwear or Joe Boxers.
This meet with friends of friends does seem a bit more than the market. I think that underlies why some of us are wondering.
That is not too unusual to see around here.
There is no mention of the orientation ice breaker games including any kind of mud pit or paint balling, and the OP most clearly said that the young woman had a top on. Apparently it was too baggy or too cottony or something rather than being too skimpy or too elastic as is being suggested.
A Henley and leggings aren’t gym shorts. Just like a sweatshirt isn’t an athletic tank top. Do you not get the difference?
So … Pajama pants to orientation, on a plane, out to dinner. Yes or no? Why not? Or are there just no standards as long as private parts are covered?
Netflix USA currently holds 7500 titles, and all of them have an ending. Which this thread seems not to have… 
I would wear the top pizzagirl linked if I already had it on from exercising. If I were running errands or stopping for a burger, I would be fine in that. I would not put on an exercise top like that specifically to go to a restaurant (I would freeze, for one thing), but I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable going to a casual restaurant in it. I do live in a warm climate (much of the year it’s warm) and people wear stuff like that. I am in running clothes a lot, but would not wear running shorts out to dinner with friends (unless we had been running)- but I’m 62 and not 18!