Women who wear pant suits "unprofessional"?

In My Humble Opinion
41

In this thread, and in the one that gave rise to it, I saw arguments that privileged pants over skirts and arguments that privileged skirts over pants. And I’m just like, WTF? I can’t get my brain around the idea that it matters either way. As long as a person has made the effort to dress neat and put together, that anyone would take the time and effort to nitpick different types of neat dress and rank them hierarchically just makes me feel like an alien on this planet. Way I see it, in truly professional situations, everyone is too busy with serious work to bother with this nitpicky nonsense.

Where I work, everyone dresses neatly and professionally, and the skirts vs. pants issue simply is not an issue.

But speaking of skirt length… I was shopping online for a long skirt suit (forget about looking in stores!), but they are practically impossible to find anywhere. I was on the verge of buying some patterns, hacking the skirt length, and sewing my own, because that’s the only way I’ll ever get one. Long skirts are everyplace nowadays, and have been for years, only never in a suit…? I don’t get it.

Long skirt suits would obviate the issues of leg exposure and breeziness, while being much easier to fit than pants, and far more comfortable. You could skip the uncomfortable hosiery with a long skirt and just wear socks or something; for that matter, you don’t have to feel compelled to wear pumps and heels, flats go with longies too. It makes no sense to me that long skirts are excluded from “professional” attire. Just because hippie chicks wore granny skirts back in the '70s?

I was once interviewed by two women both in navy wool power suits (meant to intimidate me, probably) with knee-length skirts. The interview was overlong, and everyone uncrossed and recrossed their legs several times in the course of it. The older woman was able to do this professionally, but the younger one flashed maximum thigh exposure every time. Not only did it not look professional, it had the opposite effect of making her look like she only just put that outfit on without knowing how to wear it, making her seem pretentious and out of her league.

Anyway, I hope for a world where everyone is respected for wearing the styles that flatter her figure. For some that means long skirts, for others short skirts, and for others, well-tailored pants suits. Can’t we all just accept one another’s natural differences?

42

My wife is a director at one of the Final Four professional services firms, and makes well, well into the six-figure range. She has worn suits with trousers (as opposed to skirts) almost exclusively for the past decade. Doesn’t seem to have harmed her career in the slightest.

43

I’d be guilty of preferential hiring in the case of a man in a utilikilt. I think they’re great.

44

The military issues two dress skirts and two pairs of dress slacks to females along with the dress jacket. The military unit to which the serviceperson belongs sets the dress code. Depending on the occasion, the unit might specify that with the dress outfit, the females will wear skirts. Or they might leave it up to the individual female. It is possible that the day you were there, the females were required to wear their skirts. It also might be that it was pleasant weather and all the females you saw had chosen to take advantage of the opportunity to get some air on their legs (despite the pantyhose that is required with skirts).

If this were an Army event, and the soldiers were in formation, the females would have to all either wear skirts or slacks, not some in skirts and some in slacks. But I don’t know what the Air Force does about that.

45

See this thread, where a Judge asked the jurors to wear a"snugly knotted necktie." :rolleyes:

46

Nitpick, but I assume you are talking about the Big-4 (Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopersandFriends, KPMG and Ernst & Young)

In my experience, the Big-4 tends to be on the business casual side.

Must be an LA thing. Mostly I see women wearing skirts/dresses or conservative pant-suits here in NY

47

This “pantsuit” is just ridiculous. I don’t know what it is with these horrid knee-length pants these days, they are so ugly:
http://www.bananarepublic.com/browse/outfit.do?cid=5017&oid=OUT04408

I personally prefer a skirt suit. Just personal preference…

However, this is a nice example of a pantsuit:
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod77784481&catId=cat108178

But, if you compare these two pictures, the first is a pair og nice suit trousers and the second a nice suit skirt, I just think the skirt looks a bit more formal and professional, and the pants a little more casual:
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod74023481&catId=cat108181
http://www.jcrew.com/catalog/product.jhtml?id=prod75465481&catId=cat108181

But for me, I just think a skirt suit is more comfortable, easier to fit, and a bit more feminine and formal looking.

48

More examples…

I think this ensemble (skirt suit, look for the pic on the upper left):
http://www.anntaylor.com/IWCatSectionView.process?IWAction=Load&RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=8231

looks more formal/professional than this ensemble:
http://www.anntaylor.com/IWCatSectionView.process?IWAction=Load&RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=8547

It’s the same suit jacket, but one with a skirt and one with pants. I just think the skirt looks a bit better.

How cute is this skirt suit?!
http://www.anntaylor.com/IWCatSectionView.process?IWAction=Load&RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=8544

Gosh I wish I had enough money to buy suits from Ann Taylor… they are really well-made clothes. I own one skirt from there, it’s gorgeous.

49

I’d wear tons more skirted suits if I could find ones that aren’t straight or pencil styled. I have a very very curvy shape and straight/pencil skirts make my hips look huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge. They seriously make me look 20-30 lbs heavier than I am. If more skirt suits had bias cut skirts or a-lines, etc, I’d wear them.

And, uh, nyctea, do you seriously think the pant suits fans in here think that retarded suit with shorts are in the same area? At all?

50

No, I don’t think that. I just added that link because it was just so ridiculous.

51

:eek:

You’re not kidding. What’s the inspiration-Little Lady Fauntleroy?

52

Back in the late 80s/early 90s when I worked for IBM, the unspoken rule was to wear a skirt. You could wear pantsuits, but supposedly it was inwardly frowned upon.

I’m sure that’s changed today. I always wore skirts and skirt suits, but I had pretty nice legs. I don’t think it has any bearing one way or another on how successful you’ll be. I work for a gigantor corporation now, and the women wear either/or.

53

My dad is now retired, but back in the day he used to tell me that when he was interviewing he would only consider women in skirts, and not because he was a pervert or a leg man. He just thought it was the way it should be done.

Dad is 65 - I’m sure there are men that age or a few years younger in hiring positions that agree with him. For that reason, I would always wear a skirt to an interview. Of course, I look kind of good in a skirt - probably better than in pants so that’s swaying my opinion.

I don’t think that a woman in a skirt is any more competent than a woman in pants - the opposite in fact. But, for a young person just starting out I think if you can find a skirt suit that fits you and looks ok it’s always the safer choice for an interview, on the off chance that you run into my dad on the other side of the desk. FWIW, he’s really not an ogre to work for - I think he’s pretty nice as a boss, he just has a few throw back things that he sticks to. Skirts on women for job interviews. Slow martch at my wedding. heh. That one will probably never be an issue… :slight_smile:

54

In the New York legal world, skirt suits and dresses and considered more formal/professional than pants suits.

When I entered the profession in the mid 1990’s, the prevailing wisdom at my rather conservative firm was that if a female lawyer was going to court she should wear a skirt, though pants were acceptable (but not really preferred) in the office. There were stories of one or two crusty old judges who objected to women in pants suits.

From what I saw, the turning point was the winter of (I think) '96-'97, when New York had something like 17 major snow storms. During that winter everyone was wearing pants out of weather-related necessity, and thereafter I saw virtually no objection to pants suits. Also, around that time there were several commissions and studies on gender issues and the courts, and the judicial hierarchy and bar associations took a strong stand against overtly discriminatory treatment of female lawyers in the courts, which reduced the acceptability of judges making overt comments about the manner of dress of female lawyers.

Still, skirt suits are generally seen to be a bit more formal, and where female lawyers have important hearings or trials, they tend toward them. In routine conferences and in lower court hearings, the dress is fairly well mixed.

55

In some instances, yeah. White shoe law firms (possibly high profile law firms in general), high-end banking. I’ll have to let the SVP I work for know that her St. John & Dana Buchman pantsuits just ain’t cuttin’ it & will damage her career. :stuck_out_tongue:

VCNJ~

56

“Final Four” is how she and her colleagues have been referring to the remaining firms since the demise of Anderson. It is assumed that, given the business climate and Sarbanes-Oxley regulations, there will be no more mergers or other winnowing of the number of large firms.

Only relatively recently, and only in their offices. When you’re making a presentation to a client or potential client it’s suit-and-tie for the most part.