Screw colors - if he wants to look clean-cut, there are only three basic things he needs to worry about:
Long-sleeved and tucked-in shirt (Roll the sleeves up) OR a solid-color polo (golf) shirt. No short-sleeved button-up shirts!
Shoes and belt match. Socks match pants OR shoes, whichever is darker.
Non-pleated and non-cuffed pants. The words you need are “flat front” and “straight leg.”
Please for the love of all that is holy, don’t let him go around in pleated and cuffed pants. They are god-awful, and don’t look good on anyone.
If he goes the polo-shirt route, he needs to go for nicer pants and shoes/belt to balance that. If he goes with long-sleeved dress shirts, then the pants and shoes/belt can be a little less formal.
Specific info that might make things easier:
Shirts - If he’s going to be bending over things a lot, consider getting shirts in Tall sizes - they will have a longer torso, and will stay tucked in better when he’s bending and twisting to inspect things.
Pants - the advice above to have them very fitted is good - they will look better that way. However, if he will be squatting and bending and crouching to look at things, make sure he does that in the fitting room - ending up with a split crotch or an exploded inseam is a bad thing.
General clothing advice: Find out what color the “dirt” is in his workplace - brake dust is dark metallic grey, clay dirt and rust are red-orange, wood-working gives off a light brown/tan dust, a lot of oils and lubricants have a specific color. Find out what the dominant dirt color is for him, and buy mainly clothes of that color, preferably slightly darker. This will make the dirt blend in, and he won’t look as bad at the end of the day.
Extra points if you can convince him to keep an extra white shirt, nice pair of light grey or khaki pants, and a matching (complementary) jacket in the office, to change into if he needs to look extra nice for a particular customer or boss when they come through.
All of this is based on my husband who is second-in-command of a shop with 5 employees, so he has to balance looking good and representing the company (usually with about 10 minutes notice) with hard physical labor in an open-air South Carolina shop(otherwise known as the foyer to hell) where he gets really freaking dirty every day.
No pleats, no cuffs! Kimmy is spot on on that. It’s not about looking professional, it’s about avoiding a style that should never have been invented in the first place.
Question about sox matching pants – is that matching the color, or wearing compatible colors? I’ve sometimes seen guys wearing pretty brightly colored socks that didn’t match anything, except maybe the tie – but these guys were clearly operating on ninja levels of fashion.
Thank you everyone for your replies. I’ve got such a better idea about how to dress my friend.
I agree that pleated pants are just buttugly and would never suggest them to anyone.
My friend is very excited about his lateral move and wants to look sharp. I rode to his workplace at lunch and looked at the other estimators, they do look like office drones and not bankers.
I didn’t ask any of them to show me their socks, but I could tell that they seemed to match the shoes.
I also saw that my friend would have to shave his beard. I’m looking forward to all the drama of that, I’m also looking forward to seeing his face for the first time. There will be many screams of protest when I make him buy an iron and an ironing board, but it looks like that is something he will need as well.
Any suggestions as to fabric? We are in the land of always summer (Central AZ), so I’m thinking cotton/poly blend.
Lasciel your advice about buying extra tall shirts is very good. He will be bending over a lot. Its not like on bike runs when his t-shirts pull up and he can just tuck them in when he notices.
Again, I really appreciate everyone’s advice. Tomorrow will be much less stressful now that I know how to point him in the right direction.
I’ll have him do the squats in front of me, I’m in this for the free lunch and looking at his butt, afterall
good grief. forget about the clothes & make sure he understands how to use the software right (he does have it, doesn’t he?) because it’ll do most the work for him. “Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.”—Henry David Thoreau
(I wrote the “forget about the clothes” post)…and, if he’s good enuff at his job, at some point ppl will be saying “Go to the guy who always wears plaid pants. He’s right on the money”. u can’t pay for that kind of advertising
Thank you all again. My friend’s new look is totally fab. I bought him a tie, just because I thought it would look sharp, but he won’t need it at work. Being the evil person I am, I made him bend over and squat down so I could see how the pants fit.
Becky2844 my friend knows the computer system better than most of the current estimators, which is why he is getting this lateral move. He’s going to lose money to start, but he’s getting the USAA account, which has been losing money. I’m thinking that he will do well.
The beard shaving thing was just as entertaining as I had hoped. Lots of whining and crying and whimpering. Evil me enjoyed ever minute.
