By j66’s logic, if IT is a trade, then so must engineering be*. My company occupies two neighboring high-rises; the next building to the east is occupied by Boeing and the next building to the west is Raytheon; and those guys are even more casually dressed then we are. I look wistfully on as I see them entering their offices, dressed college style.
*Note to all the engineers here, you know I don’t really think that.
It can vary depending on where you go. There are very few places you can’t go in, say jeans and a polo. People in law offices and banks do tend to dress more formally, so if you spent most of your time in areas where they tend to congregate, like Century City, or the downtown courts or financial district, you probably did see a lot of better dressed people. The shopping district of Beverly Hills is different again. Here you find women in their expensive Seven jeans being waited on by immaculately dressed salespeople in the shops; so the traditional correlation between wealth and conservative, expensive dress is turned on its head.
(But I think the women look great in their Sevens! :))
Ah, hah. Do we have a ‘collar-snob’ here?
Is there something wrong with belonging to a trade?
My mother had me late in life-40 and had NO fashion sense.
She never bought an article of clothing ever, she took what her sister gave her.
I thought Once you turn 30, you have to wear “old lady” clothes.
Thankfully, Cher dispelled that!
I was toot hin when a teen to wear anything revealing, I’d look horrid.
I was 5"11" and 100 lbs in high school, and wore long sleeved sweaters in the summer cause I knew I looked bad.
Now that I am older, 45, I have gained and am 148 lbs!
I am very happy about this and love to wear jeans or pants with sleevelss tops(I’m in thew wrong state).
One of my former friends was like “You are trying to recapture your youth”.
But nothing wrong with clothes like that.
She was 5’3" and 250 lbs so I can see why she would say this.
I refuse to wear prim proper old lady clothing.
I won’t ever wear short sleeved tops, makes me feel way too old, sleeveless is the only way.
Glad I could get this off my chest!
Pictures of my 39 year old self can be seen on my web page
It’s one thing to wear trendy clothes if you’ve still got the body for it, but it’s quite another to oufit yourself in the same thing your 16-year-old wears.
I was in line behind a petite older lady (45-50) the other day. She was wearing MUDD capri jeans, and a t-shirt with some print of an ice cream cone or something similar. She was also wearing some Sketchers tennis shoes with the really thick sole. And, big shocker, she was buying a bunch more stuff just like she was wearing.
She was cute and fit, but she had leather tan skin. The clothes made her look like she is desperately clinging to her youth. The same outfit that would be cute on my 16-year-old sister looked ridiculous on this woman.
I don’t want to take this too far afield, but since I’m the OP I think I can take a little lattitude here.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with being in a trade, it’s just that I can’t think of engineering as one. Just do a search on “engineer” and “license” to pull up the several threads we’ve had over the years discussing discussing it. To save you the trouble, engineers have to get a four-year degree in the field, and then work several years under a licensed engineer before they can even sit for the licensure examination.
Thanks for the recommendation. I know there are several very good makers of women’s jeans; it’s just that finding ones that fit me is almost impossible. If they fit on the hips, they don’t fit at the waist or the inseam is wrong. If they fit at the waist, the hips are wrong or the length is screwed up. I resorted to men’s jeans as a way not to get completely frustrated and miserable every time I tried to pick up a pair of pants. (And it’s not really true that I spend all my time in men’s jeans. There are women’s stretchy cotton pants I love, too.) If I had more money (and didn’t want to spend what money I had either paying my rent, checking out restaurants, and traveling), I’d have everything tailor-made. That way, I won’t constantly be finding out that there is something inherently wrong with my shape.
Not, mind you, that I’ve recieved any complaints from people whose opinions I’ve cared about on this issue. 
No need to be snippy, here. I spend most of my time either in my lab or running my intro bio lab section. Wearing jeans and T-shirts that you can bear to have various crud splashed on makes a lot of sense for me. When I’m not actually doing anything with various icky substances, and I want to look nice but casual, sometimes I’ll wear a long-sleeved top or blouse with a pair of men’s jeans. It looks just fine. No-one would mistake me for a lumberjack.
Not that there’s anything wrong with being or looking like a lumberjack–it’s simply that that’s not the look I’m aiming for.
BTW–when I tell people that I’m wearing men’s jeans, they’re almost always suprised. At one point, I told a guy I was interested in that I always bought my jeans in the men’s section. “Really?!” he said. He then spent a few seconds admiring parts of me covered by my traditional fit indigo Lees. “Well…,” he continued, “I’ve never seen men’s jeans look quite like that, my dear ;).”
So I don’t think it’s a problem for me.
God, I must be in a bad mood today; I really am not trying to annoy you all.
Scribbles, I love flannel shirts; my only problem is that the tails on men’s are too long and women’s are too tight in the shoulder (and cost 2, 3 times as much for a good one.) Did you note my post on lab dress-codes? It’s half the reason I love working in a lab.
Spectre:
OK, I’ll stop.
I am sure you dress appropriately for your job, frequently in blue shirts.
I am sure you are highly and expensively educated, as well as experienced and talented.
I am sure all the engineers you see on both sides of your building are, too.
I will again state that I think very highly of the trades.
I won’t mention how much “work several years under a licensed engineer” sounds like an apprenticeship.
Yeah, actually, I did read your post. That’s why I was a little puzzled when I read your last post to me. I apologize for taking offense too quickly.
And I do wear flannel shirts sometimes when I’m hiking or doing field work. They’re warm, they’re comfy, and they live through just about anything. Or anything I put them through, at any rate–I’d bet that I don’t work with as many corrosive substances as you do.
Incidentally–I agree with your assessment of tradespeople. I respect them immensely, and I think the word “trade” gets an undeservedly bad rap.
It may shift, but it probably won’t split in two. You keep calling me “Scribbles”, when there’s only one of me. 
I may be imitated, but I won’t be duplicated.
Actually it’s more like being a journeyman in the old guild system, which was a step above being an apprentice. You’d go to work for a craftsman as a raw beginner–that was apprentice status. After a few years you would reach journeyman status, when you were supposed to undertake a “Wanderjahr”, travelling about the region and working with various masters in your craft. At some point not long after that you were acknowledged to be a “Master” in your craft, so the attainment of journeyman and master status corresponded roughly to getting a bachelor’s and master’s degree, respectively.
I too respect the trades. Believe me, when you need a plumber there’s nobody in the world you’d rather see on your doorstep. But I can’t compare the preparation and education needed by a plumber with that required to be an engineer or doctor.
You’re not annoying me. We’re just having a lively little chat.
Once I had to lend a pair of my 501s to my then fiancee, and they looked great on her. It’s just a matter of terminology. The phrase “wearing men’s jeans” in the context of women has a slightly androgynous, even dykey effect on the listener or reader. But that’s patently ridiculous, though women have been wearing, and looking great in, men’s Levis for years and years. I can recall several attempts by Levi Strauss to market “women’s jeans” in the 1970s and 80s, but I don’t think they ever really caught on. Most women who wanted to wear levis just went on wearing the men’s.
Or at least they did look great. I haven’t seen a woman wearing 501s for a quite a while, but that’s to be expected as they have a lot more choices now.
patently ridiculous because,
not though.
Absolutely on the bows. I don’t know. It seems like if women wearing skintight vinyl and fishnets are clinging to their adolescence, women wearing Winnie-the-Pooh shirts, pigtails, and bows in their hair are clinging to their childhoods. Clinging to your adolescence is maybe a little immature, probably a little annoying. But clinging to your actual childhood is just… I don’t know. It’s almost depressing. It makes me wonder why.
I’m not sure if I can condense what floats randomly around in my brain when I see those women. My secondary feeling (after the age appropriate dissonance. I just like writing dissonance) is exhaustion: to maintain that particular kind of image, you have to spend enormous amounts of time and money. Expensive hairstyles, bloody freaking expensive clothes and accessories, a whole lot of time every day spent doing makeup and complicated nailpolish.
Maybe it’s a sign of my inherent laziness and cheapness.
I’ll grant you your legs…now if only men could wear above-the-knee shorts without people thinking they’re … um, you know, yeah.
Point taken (and appreciated) about journeyman v. apprentice.
Actually, I usually stick to loose tees or sweaters in the lab; my shoulders are so broad that sleeves are always too long, and they will NOT stay rolled up.
Actually, I don’t know what people think about men in above the knees shorts.