# Do you notice what your coworkers wear? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 28, 2016, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396 "2016-02-28T15:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/21 "2016-02-28T18:51:04Z")
I always notice what people are wearing. Not that I care, I just can’t help it. I, too, recycle the same pair of black pants in a week. I don’t think anyone notices though as black pants are fairly innocuous. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/22 "2016-02-28T19:44:49Z")
I spent most of my professional life in book publishing, a Manhattan-based industry populated mostly by women. You bet your ASS I noticed what they were wearing. Damn, they looked good. ---
**Author:** ![Pai325](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Pai325](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pai325)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/23 "2016-02-28T20:42:09Z")
Not at all, unless it’s a bright pattern or plaid. Everybody just sort of blends in. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/24 "2016-02-28T20:47:21Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > …I’m going to ask my wife about this, I’m pretty sure she notices what the other women in her office wear in much more detail. So I asked her, and she definitely notices stuff. There’s some rule for colors that go together and coordinating outfits and other stuff she’s tried to explain to me but I’ll never understand. I’m guy who has rules for clothes like ‘Always wear two socks’. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/25 "2016-02-28T20:56:59Z")
I notice: - someone who’s particularly well put-out; I used to have a coworker who could give any fashion editor a run for her money, very stylish. - on that same line, joke shirts and ties that I happen to like, although I’ll admit that often I couldn’t tell you who was wearing which one. - pigs. I don’t care how casual your Fridays are, white T-shirts so old your body hairs can be counted through them are not appropriate. - and people whose outfits need just a touch more makeup for either whore or clown. But I’m one of those people for whom being able to wear jeans to work is an enormous blessing, as is the notion that blue or black jeans go with pretty much anything so long as they’re in good shape themselves. ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/26 "2016-02-28T21:13:35Z")
Yes, but I only pay attention to what certain colleagues wear. There is one fairly good looking middle age woman who seems to have an enormous wardrobe rarely wearing the same thing twice. I can’t imagine what that’s like. I work closely with another woman who has a great sense of style. She is tiny and cute and always wears stylish short skirts over jeans. She’s the kind of person who can wear totally mismatched patterns and pull it off perfectly. Then there’s this librarian who works in the children’s department who always wears the same thing - chinos and a dark mock turtleneck - I notice him all the time. I have quite the crush on him. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/27 "2016-02-28T21:22:10Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > _\_ But I’m one of those people for whom being able to wear jeans to work is an enormous blessing, as is the notion that blue or black jeans go with pretty much anything so long as they’re in good shape themselves. This is my case also. I don’t generally wear the blue jeans to work because I tend to save them for weekends, but I have black, brown, khaki, deep purple, and burgundy jeans. I’ve got multiple tops to go with each pair, and my footwear will vary from white sneaks to black sneaks to black loafers to brown loafers. I won’t wear t-shirts that say anything - that crosses the line for me personally. That and I have a bunch of Ts from ThinkGeek that I spend way too much time explaining. Then again, I work with engineers, so maybe they’d understand. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/28 "2016-02-28T21:29:29Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > That and I have a bunch of Ts from ThinkGeek that I spend way too much time explaining. Then again, I work with engineers, so maybe they’d understand. Right now I’m in the kind of company that makes us functional analysts look almost like technophobes 😃 ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/29 "2016-02-28T21:45:05Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Warehouse-like situation. I’m noticed more than I notice others. **We have visited an ungodly number of amusement parks** and I have shirts from most of them. Way too many shirts. And I tend to rotate them. So ------- I have sometimes gotten the question “Just how many damn t-shirts do you own?” from one coworker or another. [Bolding mine.] I want your job! 🙂 As far as noticing? I usually do, but it’s almost always in a positive way. If I’ve got to work with them, I want to try to find something good to focus on. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/30 "2016-02-28T21:50:59Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > [Bolding mine.] > > I want your job! 🙂 Hobby actually. Our usual record is 30-40 days a year, at least 15 different parks, and at least 3 new to us. Yeah – we’re two of _those coaster people_. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Periwinkle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Periwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Periwinkle)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/31 "2016-02-28T23:03:45Z")
I very rarely pay any attention to what the men at work are wearing, it would have to be something very unusual for me to notice, I think. Most of the women dress very much like the men, and I don’t pay any attention to them either. But there are a few women around my age who like the same kinds of things I do (e.g. beautiful cashmere sweaters), and I like seeing their outfits. I would not notice if someone wore some basic item more than once in a week, or think poorly of them even if I did notice. The thing I am more likely to be judgmental about is if someone wears something that seems to me to be highly inappropriate for the office. I wouldn’t make any comment to them about unless I was their manager, but I would feel that it didn’t reflect well on them. I would see a lack of cleanliness as coming under that category of inappropriate for the office, although I’ve never run across anyone in my office who came across as having poor hygiene. ---
**Author:** ![Memnon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f1d935/32.png) [@Memnon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Memnon)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/32 "2016-02-28T23:23:19Z")
I don’t care one whit what anyone around me wears, but last week I had a sharp lesson in just how judgemental other people tend to be about such things. I’ve recently started a new job. I’ve been there about 2 months. Recently, the company took on a new batch of trainees. One of them is a woman in her early 20s with a very eye-catching (and, in my humble opinion, very appealing) sense of style. It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s like a mish-mash of different fashions from different eras. The closest I can get to describing it is Twiggy meets Daisy Buchanan meets Mata Hari. I know that’s useless, but it’s the best I can do. Whatever you call it, it’s a bit ostentatious but she makes it looks damn good. Anyway, I’m one of two men on a team of about a dozen women, and _oh my God!_ The bitchiness and the slut-shaming the women on my team direct at this poor newbie is un-fucking-believable. With one exception, they’ve _all_ denounced her as a slut, or a tramp, or some equivalent. One of them, on seeing her for the first time, loudly exclaimed “What the fuck is _that?!_” It’s all behind her back, of course, but this new girl seems to have basically alienated herself from every other woman in the department, just because she wore red stilettos with black tights (at least, I _think_ that’s what the problem was). I must say, I found the sheer vehemence of their reactions genuinely a little bit shocking. Call me naive, but I had no idea women could be so judgemental of what other women wear. I mean, I knew it was a stereotype, but I’d always just assumed it was a silly and unfounded stereotype, like a sitcom trope or something. I’ve never actually seen it in action before. I guess being a woman is even tougher than I thought it was. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/33 "2016-02-29T01:43:07Z")
I hardly ever paid any attention to what my colleagues wore. Except for one guy who always wore a suit, white shirt, and tie. He was, in fact, a jecke (a somewhat derisory term for descendants of German Jews, comes from “jacket”, quite appropriately). He was, nonetheless, a fine mathematician. ---
**Author:** ![Morelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Morelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morelin)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/34 "2016-02-29T02:05:09Z")
I’m in management, so I notice, but only as far as to make sure it’s in dress code. Also, I generally assume if you wear black pants several days in a row, you either own a lot of black dress pants, or do laundry daily. ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/35 "2016-02-29T02:46:32Z")
Yes, I notice what my coworkers are wearing. I don’t think I’d notice if someone wore the same pants twice in a week (I do that myself), but I do notice both general patterns/styles of dress and specific outfits, on both men and women. If you named one of my coworkers, I could assign a general style to him or her, and also describe a typical outfit he or she might wear. I don’t follow fashion, and I don’t consider myself particularly fashionable, but I’m curious about and interested in people’s clothing and accessorizing choices. ---
**Author:** ![Seanette](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/seanette/32/9139_2.png) [@Seanette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seanette)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/36 "2016-02-29T03:01:44Z")
If anyone did happen to notice I’d worn the same piece (such as a given pair of pants) twice in one week, I would be able to honestly state that that item had been washed between wearings. I have to do laundry fairly frequently, due in part to a small washer. ---
**Author:** ![Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/278dde/32.png) [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Runs_With_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/37 "2016-02-29T03:01:45Z")
> [@Buttercup\_Smith](#): > > I don’t notice or care but I have an employee that comments almost daily on what I wear. It’s a little annoying to be honest. Word for word what I was going to post. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/38 "2016-02-29T04:14:11Z")
I do notice, but I don’t often judge people on it. My mother was a seamstress and I used to model. I like fashion (though I don’t wear much of it myself) so I do notice what people wear. Usually, I’m looking at fit, fabric, style, or a particularly beautiful color or combination. I usually keep it to myself unless I think the person will appreciate the comment. Regarding the repeat pregnancy clothing. I expect to see lots of repeats. It’s insane to spend lots of money on clothing you will only wear for a few months. Regarding repeat other clothing, who cares? Just be well-groomed and as clean as the job requires. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/39 "2016-02-29T05:25:13Z")
only if it isn’t “professional” for the occasion and client. That means underdressed or something more appropriate for a nightclub than a meeting. It’s hard to be overdressed in a suit because you can always lose the jacket, tie and roll up your sleeves. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396/40 "2016-02-29T05:44:02Z")
I work at home, so my only coworkers are my two cats. They always wear the same thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-notice-what-your-coworkers-wear/747396.md?page=3)