My general work attire is Dockers-style slacks and a polo or business casual long sleeved shirt depending on the weather. I own more slacks than jeans so I tend to wear them for most outings unless they’re inappropriate. I wouldn’t wear them to help someone clean out a garage or something. If we’re going out for dinner or to a show or something, I’ll grab a shirt a tier higher on the “nice” scale.
I have no problem with suits and ties and would wear one on a regular basis except that I’d be overdressed for the office and look like a poor-man’s Barney Stinson everywhere else. I like putting on a suit for weddings or fancy nights out (and don’t begrudge it for funerals although I guess I don’t “enjoy” it).
I like looking good and having a ‘personal style’. I spend some chunk of time nearly every day thinking about and organizing my clothes and putting together outfits. I own a lot of dressier clothes and shoes, and even my most casual clothes are chosen with an eye towards how flattering and stylish they are. There’s never a time I look like a slob.
During the week I will often wear a dress etc for no reason. If my SO and I are going out, I break out the heels. I always wear cute shoes - even my rubber rain boots are trendy. I have one pair of sneakers and they are work-issued.
I like dressing up. I hate jeans - I’ve never considered jeans comfortable. Skirts are way more comfortable for me - knee length and on the full side so I’m not taking tiny mincing steps.
The only part of dress-up that I hate are the shoes. I have real trouble finding nice shoes that don’t give me blisters.
I wear a uniform to work and have mostly casual clothes for my days off. If I was invited to a wedding, I’d have to buy something for the occasion, having nothing ‘dressy’ enough in my wardrobe.
I do like to make a bit of an effort when a group of us go out to dinner once every six weeks. (Skirt or dress, lowish heels, makeup). The funerals I go to are all work related so I go in uniform but if I had a non-work funeral to attend, I’d be able to put together an appropriate outfit but I wouldn’t call it ‘dressing up’.
Under that definition it would be almost everytime I go anywhere to meet people. I spend most of my time at home, or in the neighborhood, and wear jeans or Dickies and a T-shirt. Even going to the office once in a while means putting on my good clothes that don’t have holes, and the clean sneakers.
For social occasions, the fancier the event, the fancier I dress. For people who know me, seeing me in a tie is equivalent to top hat and tails for the average guy. If I wear a suit, a shirt that fits, polished shoes, a quality tie, the typical accessories, and trim my beard and other hair that grows where I don’t want it instead of where I do, I can go unrecognized except by people very close to me. The change is that drastic.
Most of the time, by those standards. I realised back in the spring that always dressing in jeans and t-shirts was making me feel frumpy and unattractive. I deliberately started wearing skirts, and felt better and prettier in them. I went on a hunt for nicer, fancier t-shirts. Sometime around early summer I morphed into only wearing dresses and skirts.
I’m a SAHM, so everything I wear is intensely washable but also deliberately sort-of put together, and pretty. Except my shoes. I have functional shoes, I don’t do heels. I wear Docs, Blundstones, or sandals.
Wearing only dresses has worked nicely for me since I found out I was pregnant- I hate maternity pants and more skirts and dresses are stretchy.
My office has a “business casual” dress code, which officially means chinos and a polo shirt but in practice seems to mean clean jeans and a tee-shirt that isn’t sctively selling something.
I usually wear an oxford cloth shirt, often wear a vest or suspenders, and on occasion will wear a tie (a bowtie more often than a long tie). Because I like projecting an air of authority.
When going out with the Wife I tend to look very tweedy in the colder weather and yacht-clubby in the summer (although I have been discouraged from wearing the salmon shorts or the belt with the little tiny whales). I don’t need any excuse to “dress up” but I am a stuffy old fart.
Something that surprises me among the responses - the statement by some women that dressing up makes them feel pretty. It just makes me feel uncomfortable. Not that I live my life as a slob, but a dress or skirt, a blouse in a nice fabric, hose and dress shoes - if I’m wearing these, I’m terrified of getting something on myself or tripping over my own feet and having my skirt fly over my head or getting caught on something and tearing a garment. Kinda hard to feel pretty when in a standby panic mode all the time.
I guess it’s an understatement that I’m not a girly girl. As long as my clothes cover the important bits, are clean and in good repair, and perhaps are of a flattering color, I’m good. m
Makeup - don’t own any. A friend had to make my buy some lipstick for my daughter’s wedding. Jewelry - pretty much never comes out of the jewelry box - I wear my wedding band and a cheap watch (I’ve managed to ruin 2 really nice ones, so I stick to cheapies now.) I’ve never had my fingernails done, and the one pedicure I had (at my daughter’s insistence) was a horrible experience, leaving me with a painful toe for weeks.
I must admit, I didn’t realize I was in such a minority. It doesn’t bother me, but it does somewhat surprise me.
I can never figure out why so many women “never wear dresses.” In the summer they are much cooler, and they offer better freedom of movement all around. I find skirts to be a lot more comfortable than being bound up in a pair of jeans. If they are around knee-length, you don’t really have to worry about flashing people unless you are climbing a fence or something.
I agree they were a lot less fun when I was eight years old, but I don’t spend my time on the monkey bars these days.
For years, I wore skirts almost exclusively. With a fitted-style tshirt in the summer, and with a cashmere sweater in the winter.
Then after several years of that, I bought myself a pair of jeans and haven’t looked back. One problem is that I have chubby thighs that chafe unless I’m wearing tights or Spanx or something under a skirt. Jeans/cords/khakis don’t have that problem, and they’re cooler and more comfortable than tights or Spanx.
I still wore my cashmere sweaters all winter still, till last winter when I was pregnant, and from now till eternity when I’m handling small children. Frankly, I’m wondering what I AM going to wear that’s completely washable-dryable and equally warm. I’m experimenting with designer hoodies and zip-front sweatshirts from Sam’s Club.
Anyway, things I’ll dress up for (and I love to dress up):
Weddings
Funerals
Baptisms
Special dinners with the hubster
Nights out on the town with my crazy friends (which don’t happen anymore, cuz I go to bed at 9)
Going to work, back when I used to do that
In the past six or seven years, I’ve been hard-pressed to wear a dress, mostly because I’ve been insecure about how my body looks. Same for shorts - haven’t worn them until this summer because I was worried I looked fat and my legs were too pasty.
Then for some reason, something sort of snapped in my head. All of a sudden, I’m tired of sweating through my pants on hot summer days and feeling so covered up. So as of this summer, I’m finally wearing shorts and dresses again. I’m a far cry from super sexy, but I think I look better because I’m not as concerned. You can always tell when someone is uncomfortable in their clothes.
Ah, but nothing I wear is uncomfortable. I have no tight waistbands, no heavy seams, and nothing digging into me. Today I’m wearing a wine and aubergine dress I remade from a thrift store dress, and leggings. Everything is stretchy.
I have two small kids, so everything I wear is washable. I don’t worry about anything getting wrecked by little fingers or my own tendency to drop food all over myself. And I always wear either leggings or bike shorts, and don’t worry about strong winds. Nothing interesting is going to be visible even in strong wind.
Well, I like nice clothes and I like to look good, but I’m lazy. Many days I’m just not in the mood for pulling together an outfit, so it’s jeans, t-shirt and flip-flops.
For work, I often wear snappy but casual stuff: nice jeans, a jacket, heels, a good blouse, jewelry. It’s not to the level of business casual, but I’m in Silicon Valley so I can get away with it. If I have a big stakeholder meeting I might crank out some non-denim trousers, but that’s about as formal as I’m going to get for work.
For weddings and funerals I dress. If I’m really feeling froggy, I’ll even wear a hat and gloves (gasp).
I don’t like dressing up - weddings and funerals is pretty much it. I work in a lab so I don’t have to dress up (it’s not really dirty, but since I don’t have to wear anything other than jeans, I don’t) but I have to wear long pants and closed shoes. It is also kept on the cool-ish side year round, so I usually wear a light jacket of some sort over a tee.
The problems (for me) come when I do need to wear nicer clothes. I feel like a hoochie mama in anything other than jeans. I hate dressing like a college student all the time (I’m 46), but I don’t feel like myself when I do dress up.
The usual stuff; weddings, funerals, graduations, etc. Normal attire in summer is cargo shorts & a non-white t-shirt. In winter, jeans or cargo pants (I like lots of pockets) and long sleeve shirts. My youngest daughter graduated from college this spring and I wore a suit. I was one of maybe a dozen men out of hundreds that wore one. The rest of the people, men and women both, looked like they’d just washed up on a beach. I dress up as a sign of respect for the event and/or the people involved.
Yeah, yeah. Wedding, funeral, job, music job (the kind with the gold lame suits or the tuxes). Maybe if I was a ho, sucking some John off in an alley who I knew would tip good. The usual. How much variance in the responses?
Not often enough to really set a standard. I’ve worn a dress twice in ten years, both times when I was cowardly and let myself get pressured into it.
“Nice” for me means appropriate for the modern workplace: khakis or black slacks and a polo or button-down shirt. I can’t stand skirts or dresses (they just feel…wrong, like I’m half-naked). I refuse to wear heels, because they’re stupid and impractical. I also refuse to wear pants without pockets, on the same basis.
If I can’t get away with wearing something my standard of nice to an event, I generally don’t go.
