Casual Clothes for Work

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21

How does everyone else in your position dress? This was actually hell for me to adjust to in an office job…I’d rarely worn a button up at all

If you’re a bigger dude, Penny’s St. John’s Bay button ups are nice and they’re not too pricey and come in big sizes. Buy 3-4 good polo or button up shirts, and 2-3 decent slacks. Stick with basic colors that go well with your skin tone. Choose 3 colors, buy one shirt in each. Buy slacks that work with at least 2 of the 3 colors. For me, it’s a gray shirt, a green shirt, and a red shirt. I have black, gray and navy blue slacks to pair them with. It works OK. I can mix and match and don’t have to worry about it not matching or anything.

22

Get a few decent golf style polos (silky material) striped or solid. They are awesome for the heat. Some darker 559 levis that you only wear to work a brown belt and some decent brown shoes like dr.martens and you’re all set. I am a project manager for a construction contractor and constantly have meetings with clients, peers, and corporate people and they all seem to dress the same. It is a good Idea to get some plain black fitted slacks that go well with your polos and a few fitted button up shirts as well for times when looking a little better is necessary.

23

[quote]crazyj23 wrote:
Get a few decent golf style polos (silky material) striped or solid. They are awesome for the heat. Some darker 559 levis that you only wear to work a brown belt and some decent brown shoes like dr.martens and you’re all set. I am a project manager for a construction contractor and constantly have meetings with clients, peers, and corporate people and they all seem to dress the same. It is a good Idea to get some plain black fitted slacks that go well with your polos and a few fitted button up shirts as well for times when looking a little better is necessary. [/quote]

Could you try find a polo shirt like that so I know what I’m looking for.

Cheers

Stephen

24

Shirts like this are perfect and go very well with jeans. I personally prefer darker colors.

http://www.target.com/p/c9-by-champion-men-s-short-sleeve-golf-polo/-/A-13539413?ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001&AFID=Google_PLA_df&LNM=|13539413&CPNG=men&ci_sku=13539413&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw=

25

Man since I posted, been looking at damn clothes !!!

I have 2 pairs of jeans (Both Levi’s)
2 Tommy Hilfiger Polo Shirts
3 Shirts

It’s the damn shoes that I can’t get, no idea how formal the shoes are meant to be !

If someone can find me a pair on Amazon - I’d be most thankful … how do people go shopping on a weekly basis yeesh.

Thanks for everyone’s help on this, great forum - half expecting to be ridiculed for being 29 and not able to pick out clothes for myself.

26

I found a pair !

Look like something my boss wears, so they’ll do fine.

Suppose, now I’ve started I’ll just have to keep buying more clothes to phase out all the sports t-shirts etc that I mainly have and runners… I need to hire someone to do my clothes shopping !

27

Thank God I work in the “Creative” buissness where I can wear t shirts and sneakers all day everyday.

28

[quote]Voluminous wrote:
I found a pair !

Look like something my boss wears, so they’ll do fine.

Suppose, now I’ve started I’ll just have to keep buying more clothes to phase out all the sports t-shirts etc that I mainly have and runners… I need to hire someone to do my clothes shopping ![/quote]
Those look like some boat shoes. Why not just get some Sperry Topsiders?

29

Check these out. They are super comfortable Dr martens orson dark brown overdrive + FREE SHIPPING | Zappos.com

30

shoes are hard. I’m an 11 1/2 4E (in most models) so finding ones that fit are a bitch. Whatever you do do NOT buy shoes sight unseen at least the first time you buy a certain type. Find a place and try 'em on first. Shoes that don’t fit can make your day awful.

31

[quote]Voluminous wrote:
Man since I posted, been looking at damn clothes !!!

I have 2 pairs of jeans (Both Levi’s)
2 Tommy Hilfiger Polo Shirts
3 Shirts

It’s the damn shoes that I can’t get, no idea how formal the shoes are meant to be !

If someone can find me a pair on Amazon - I’d be most thankful … how do people go shopping on a weekly basis yeesh.

Thanks for everyone’s help on this, great forum - half expecting to be ridiculed for being 29 and not able to pick out clothes for myself.[/quote]

The Polo shirts are a keeper, not sure how casual the other shirts are though. The jeans, ditch, unless your company has casual Friday. That is the only time that denim is acceptable. Running shoes are a no-go unless specifically told that you can wear them. As far as shoes, this is a nice casual one: http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Madden-Nobyll-Loafer-Black/dp/B002R0EAE8/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1341784597&sr=8-21&keywords=steve+madden+shoes+for+men Just remember, belt must always match shoes and if you can, own one of each in black and brown. Also, never wear black shoes and belt with a tan colored pant. The last thing is to match your socks to your pants, not your shoes.

32

If you like good looking, durable, work-worthy cargo pants, I’d recommend the 5.11 tactical-light pants. I do a lot of military support as a civilian and they are great for it. I wear them in the office/lab as well because:

  1. They are light
  2. They breathe well for bigger guys
  3. They have cargo pockets
  4. They look professional enough for business casual, if you ask me
33

Thanks guys - my boss & his boss both wear jeans, once they don’t have meetings so I should be ok.

The shoes in the UK for Steve Madden only go up to size 11 - I’m a size 13 unfortunately, hard to find shoes.

Belt matching shoes is a good tip … need to buy a brown belt then !

Gonna crash, work in 6 hours.

Many thanks to everyone.

34

I own my own custom clothing company (http://www.custom-clothing.ca) and have worked in a great variety of fields here’s my advice take it or leave it:

Shirts

Go with long sleeve shirts. Either a modified spread or traditional long point collar. Barrel cuffs, no pockets, don’t worry too much about the front placket or the pleats on the rear though ideally do away with the latter.

For colour I would suggest collecting 2 or 3 white (maybe with some self patterning), then a few pinstripes (start wtih blue since it always looks good and then branch out) and finally a few check. Then start adding some new colours to the solids and the stripes. Those are in order of formality, a white shirt is never wronga nd goes with anything, checks can be too casual depending on the situation.

Pants

Grey wool dress trousers, two or three pair in various shades ideally and a few khakis to be more casual.

Jacket

Get a decent sports jacket or blazer, solid is safe but feel free to go with something in a pinstripe or check if you really like it. I love my glen plaid sports jacket, it sees a ton of use and will go with virtually any pant/shirt combo.

Shoes

Drop some money on some brown and black loafers as they’re nice and casual but can still be tossed on with a suit if needed. I love allen edmonds and you can get great used ones on ebay at a reasonable price.

So that’s what I’ve got. Feel free to drop me a PM with questions if you have any.

STU

35

Hello,

Turned up to work today with my shoes, dark jeans and my hilfiger polo shirt - my team was shocked heh.

The polo shirt is not loose fitting so looks pretty good - normally the X-Large float down by my waist due to my shoulders.

Many thanks for your help - I’ll be sure to drop an order on Biotest.co.uk to thank the site.

Kindest Regards

Stephen

36

[quote]BuildingUP wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
Get some button down shirts from Banana Republic or Express. Some solid, some striped. Wear darker jeans that fit well from Buckle or J Crew. Your current jeans might be fine. For shoes, get some black or brown shoes from Cole Haan or Johnston and Murphy. DSW sometimes have these on clearance too. Shoes will probably cost the most, but good shoes last. Black dress socks. Have a belt that matches your shoes. You can tuck in your shirt if you need a bit more formality. Roll up the sleeves if you’re hot, etc.

Eventually you’ll learn what colors work best for your skin/hair/eyes. A girl friend can help with that.

If and when you need to dress more formally, you can swap the jeans for some nice pants, and everything else should still work.

You’ll probably feel weird dressing like this for awhile, but eventually it’ll feel normal. You can swap stuff around to dress up or down, experiment with colors and patterns, etc.

I personally wear handmade Italian shoes with jeans to the office, but decent American made shoes are fine. Florsheim is NOT a decent brand. Good luck.[/quote]

Don’t buy express, their quality is shit.
[/quote]

I’d disagree with this, their shirts are made very well and wok well in the larger size for people who actually eat / pick up something heavy. not to mention they put the button on the arms so you can roll up the sleeves when its hot. Their vests are also made well and look great with a lot of their shirts… I cant speak to anything other than the above…

Also, with express, if you find a larger store they usually have a huge table of mens clothes on great sales… I stop by the larger one here every other week and usually find something I like for less then 15 bucks…

I also do a lot of goodwill and salvation army for sport coats (less then 10 bucks then 3 bucks to dry clean)… sometimes you find a brand new button shirt there for 2 bucks…

T.J.Max is a great place for discount clothes…

Biggest thing that will help you right now is find a girl whose sylish, and take her with… just do what she tells you…

37

A fellow Amazonian! I used to work at Amazon at the RNO distribution center. Amazon is a great place to come from and I learned a lot from my time there. Are you looking to get into the dist centers at all or are you going to stick with transp?

Best of luck with the promotion.

james

38

[quote]Jackie_Jacked wrote:

[quote]Voluminous wrote:
Man since I posted, been looking at damn clothes !!!

I have 2 pairs of jeans (Both Levi’s)
2 Tommy Hilfiger Polo Shirts
3 Shirts

It’s the damn shoes that I can’t get, no idea how formal the shoes are meant to be !

If someone can find me a pair on Amazon - I’d be most thankful … how do people go shopping on a weekly basis yeesh.

Thanks for everyone’s help on this, great forum - half expecting to be ridiculed for being 29 and not able to pick out clothes for myself.[/quote]

The Polo shirts are a keeper, not sure how casual the other shirts are though. The jeans, ditch, unless your company has casual Friday. That is the only time that denim is acceptable. Running shoes are a no-go unless specifically told that you can wear them. As far as shoes, this is a nice casual one: http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Madden-Nobyll-Loafer-Black/dp/B002R0EAE8/ref=sr_1_21?ie=UTF8&qid=1341784597&sr=8-21&keywords=steve+madden+shoes+for+men Just remember, belt must always match shoes and if you can, own one of each in black and brown. Also, never wear black shoes and belt with a tan colored pant. The last thing is to match your socks to your pants, not your shoes.
[/quote]
^^This^^ Listen to her, she is correct.
Try it on before you buy it to make sure it fits right. So many dudes wear shirts that are loose and floppy. They look like slackers. Don’t look like a douche, but dress sharp and look like you actually care about what you look like. Then tone it down just a little.