Informal attire

Last updated April 09, 2019

Informal attire, also called international corporate attire, Western business attire, business/office wear or tenue de ville is a dress code, typified by a suit (and a necktie for men). On the scale of formality, informal attire is less formal than semi-formal. It is more presentational than semi-casual, but offers more room for personal expression than semi-formal dress.

A dress code is a set of rules, often written, with regards to clothing. Dress codes are created out of social perceptions and norms, and vary based on purpose, circumstances and occasions. Different societies and cultures are likely to have different dress codes.

In clothing, a suit is a set of garments made from the same cloth, usually consisting of at least a jacket and trousers. Lounge suits, which originated in Britain as country wear, are the most common style of Western suit. Other types of suit still worn today are the dinner suit, part of black tie, which arose as a lounging alternative to dress coats in much the same way as the day lounge suit came to replace frock coats and morning coats; and, rarely worn today, the morning suit. This article discusses the lounge suit, elements of informal dress code.

A necktie, or simply a tie, is a long piece of cloth, worn, usually by men, for decorative purposes around the neck, resting under the shirt collar and knotted at the throat.

Informal should not be confused with casual, not even smart casual — in loose common usage, many people refer to informal dress as semi-formal or formal and formal dress (in the technical sense — that is, white tie, black tie, and similar) as very formal. The technical definition of informal is used in this article.

Smart casual is an ambiguously defined Western dress code that is generally casual wear but with additional components of a proper lounge suit from traditional informal wear. Different localities, kinds of events, contexts, or cultures can have varying interpretations of the dress code and therefore the designation of certain clothing pieces as smart casual is disputed, as its distinction, if any, from business casual.

The informal attire is most commonly used for business events and meetings, job interviews, or in professions like law and finance. It is a conservative dress code that aims to show respect to the situation and not draw attention.^[1]^{[ dead link ]}

Definition

Informal attire for men consists of a lounge suit, made up of a jacket with matching trousers. The suit is typically dark-coloured (without a pattern or with a subtle one): gray, dark blue, brown, or black. The suit is worn with a long-sleeved shirt, usually in white or light blue color, leather dress shoes in black or brown color and a conservative necktie.^[2]^[1]

A jacket is a mid-stomach–length garment for the upper body. A jacket typically has sleeves, and fastens in the front or slightly on the side. A jacket is generally lighter, tighter-fitting, and less insulating than a coat, which is outerwear. Some jackets are fashionable, while others serve as protective clothing. Jackets without sleeves are vests.

Trousers clothing for the legs and lower body

Trousers or pants are an item of clothing that might have originated in East Asia, worn from the waist to the ankles, covering both legs separately.

A dress shirt, button shirt, button-front, button-front shirt, or button-up shirt is a garment with a collar and a full-length opening at the front, which is fastened using buttons or shirt studs. A button-down or button-down shirt is a dress shirt which has a button-down collar – a collar having the ends fastened to the shirt with buttons.

Informal attire is today considered a form of dress customarily appropriate for all formal settings, which do not explicitly require white tie or black tie. For instance, it is commonly worn to religious services and funerals, in government offices and schools. Some professions, like law or finance, may require it. At present, informal attire is the typical dress at daytime weddings in the United States, serving as a replacement for the increasingly rare morning dress.

White tie, also called full evening dress or a dress suit, is the most formal in traditional evening Western dress codes. For men, it consists of a black dress tailcoat worn over a white starched shirt, marcella waistcoat and the eponymous white bow tie worn around a standing wingtip collar. High-waisted black trousers and patent leather oxford or optionally court shoes complete the outfit. Orders insignia and medals can be worn. Acceptable accessories include a top hat, white gloves, a white scarf, a pocket watch and a boutonnière. Women wear full length ball or evening gowns and, optionally, jewellery, tiaras, a small handbag and evening gloves.

Black tie is a semi-formal Western dress code for evening events, originating in British and American conventions for attire in the 19th century. In British English, the dress code is often referred to synecdochically by its principal element for men, the dinner suit or dinner jacket. In American English, the equivalent term, tuxedo, is common. The dinner suit is a black, midnight blue or white two- or three-piece suit, distinguished by satin or grosgrain jacket lapels and similar stripes along the outseam of the trousers. It is worn with a white dress shirt with standing or turndown collar and link cuffs, a black bow tie, typically an evening waist coat or a cummerbund, and black patent leather dress shoes or court pumps. Accessories may include a semi-formal homburg, bowler, or boater hat. For women, an evening gown or other fashionable evening attire may be worn.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Because of its strong association with the business world, informal attire is also known as international standard business dress, business professional or business formal.

Origins

The suit was originally a 19th-century British innovation in dress: seeking a casual alternative to the long, heavy frock coats then considered appropriate business dress, men began to wear lighter coats cut just below the waist when not engaged in business.

A frock coat is a man's coat characterised by a knee-length skirt all around the base, popular during the Victorian and Edwardian periods. The double-breasted styled frock coat is sometimes called a Prince Albert after Prince Albert, consort to Queen Victoria. The frock coat is a fitted, long-sleeved coat with a centre vent at the back, and some features unusual in post-Victorian dress. These include the reverse collar and lapels, where the outer edge of the lapel is cut from a separate piece of cloth from the main body, and also a high degree of waist suppression, where the coat's diameter round the waist is much less than round the chest. This is achieved by a high horizontal waist seam with side bodies, which are extra panels of fabric above the waist used to pull in the naturally cylindrical drape.

Standard suit-making fabric is fine combed wool, with the inclusion of cashmere in more expensive fabrics. Middle-price suits are often made of wool-polyester blends, whilst the cheapest are made entirely of polyester fabric.

This business suit (also known as the "sack suit" in North America, commonly by Brooks Brothers) became the standard business daywear for all men who were not engaged in physical labor. The waistcoat (British) or vest (American) was worn regularly with the suit up to World War II, but is rarely seen today, due to central heating in offices and the expense of construction. Until at least the early 1960s it was common to wear a hat.

In general, business suits are characterized by three styles and a fourth fusion style. English suits are noted for having a "touch fit" to the wearer's body shape and carefully made padded shoulders. Italian suits are often slimmer, with higher armholes and highly shaped to complement a slim physique. Traditional American suits have lightly padded shoulders and loose natural fit with minimal shaping. Since the 1960s, designer brands (especially Polo Ralph Lauren) have created fusion style that brings a more shaped European look to the natural American cut.

Suits in Britain were often made in tweed, often with three pieces, and were worn outside the City of London. Tweed is made from uncombed wool, and, like all fabrics from the time, was thick and durable (18oz. was considered medium-weight in the Edwardian era). A full tweed suit is less common today, with just tweed sports jackets more often worn, but is still used generally as everyday wear by some, and for outdoor sports such as shooting and angling. It is worn with appropriate accompanying clothes, much as any other suit; brown full brogues and wool ties are common items not worn with other types of suit.

Usage in the workplace

In the United States, wearing a suit to work daily is often an indication of managerial or professional status. However, when on a job interview or attending business meetings, many men who do not otherwise wear suits will dutifully wear them as a mark of respect and formality. Many how-to books for men recommend wearing a conservatively styled suit to an employment interview even when the man does not expect to ever wear a suit on the job.^[2]^{[ dead link ]}

In the 1990s, Internet businesses flourished and so did the relaxed dress standards enjoyed by unconventional dot-com businesspeople. A new form of attire had arisen, business casual, which consists of nice trousers, often chinos or khakis, and a polo shirt or short-sleeved shirt. Today this is acceptable and common attire at technically oriented business meetings and in semiprofessional settings, and is continuing to gain ground over traditional business attire.

The standard for women is also in flux. In the 1970s, women aspiring to managerial or professional status were advised to "dress for success" by wearing clothing that imitated the male business suit: jacket and matching skirt, worn with a plain blouse and discreet accessories. The plain blouse is designated as a long sleeve button down shirt tucked properly into the skirt at the waist. Some women wore pantsuits, substituting pants for the skirt, but in doing so, they risked the displeasure of many who felt that women should not wear pants.

Now even conservative Western workplaces are more accepting of pants on female employees. However, they may still expect female employees to exhibit the formality of men's suits. Women in "creative" professions, such as advertising, web design, or fashion, can usually dress with more color and flair.

Male business attire is also nuanced. Choice of clothing and accessories proclaims social and financial status. An inexpensive ready-to-wear suit will lack the cachet of a bespoke suit fashioned by a famous tailor. Custom shirts, hand-made leather shoes, fine cuff links and expensive watches may indicate wealth, and in certain professions may effectively amount to a "dress code" (e.g., in investment banking).

Western business wear is standard in many workplaces around the globe, even in countries where the usual daily wear may be a distinctive national clothing.

Some non-Western business-people will wear national clothing nonetheless. A Saudi Arabian sheikh may wear the traditional robes and headdress to an international conference; United Arab Emirates diplomats in particular are noted for attending conventions of the United Nations General Assembly in full keffiyeh and thawb. Diplomats of the People's Republic of China are similarly noted for wearing the Mao suit to international events; Indian leaders often wear Nehru jackets, with Manmohan Singh wearing a suit-like combination including such a jacket with his Sikh turban. Wearing national clothing in such contexts can proclaim national pride, or just extremely high status which allows the wearer to defy convention. Sometimes an element of the national attire such as a hat is combined with a Western business suit; for instance, Yasser Arafat was noted for wearing the aforementioned kaffiyeh with a Western-style military uniform, a derivative of the suit.

The aloha shirt, while considered casual attire in the mainland United States, is considered acceptable business wear in Hawaii, where it is well-suited to that state's warm and humid climate. Similarly, Kariyushi style attire is encouraged in Japan, especially southern locales of Japan, to allow more comfort in the workplace, and to encourage dress that conforms with Cool Biz guidelines. Akihiko Higa, a researcher of Kaiho Soken who has worked on a Kariyushi style project for an Okinawan clothing manufacturer, said, “It (the Kariyushi shirt) is easy-to-wear and highly functional for wearing either in an office situation or in a resort."

Related Research Articles

Business casual is an ambiguously defined dress code adopted by some white-collar workplaces in Western countries, comprising more casual wear than informal wear, but less casual than smart casual.

A blouse is a loose-fitting upper garment that was formerly worn by workmen, peasants, artists, women, and children. It is typically gathered at the waist or hips so that it hangs loosely ("blouses") over the wearer's body. Today, the word most commonly refers to a girl's or woman's dress shirt It can also refer to a man's shirt if it is a loose-fitting style, though it rarely is. Traditionally, the term has been used to refer to a shirt which blouses out or has an unmistakably feminine appearance.

1860s fashion in European and European-influenced clothing is characterized by extremely full-skirted women's fashions relying on crinolines and hoops and the emergence of "alternative fashions" under the influence of the Artistic Dress movement.

Fashion in the 1890s in European and European-influenced countries is characterized by long elegant lines, tall collars, and the rise of sportswear. It was an era of great dress reforms led by the invention of the drop-frame safety bicycle, which allowed women the opportunity to ride bicycles more comfortably, and therefore, created the need for appropriate clothing.

Western wear is a category of men's and women's clothing which derives its unique style from the clothes worn in the 19th-century Wild West. It ranges from accurate historical reproductions of pioneer, mountain man, Civil War, cowboy and vaquero clothing to the stylized garments popularized by singing cowboys such as Gene Autry and Roy Rogers in the 1940s and 1950s. Western wear can be very informal, with a t-shirt and blue jeans forming a basic ensemble, or it may consist of tailored formal garments with western accents. At minimum, western wear generally incorporates a cowboy hat, a leather belt, and cowboy boots.

Casual wear/attire/clothing is a Western dress code category that comprises anything not traditionally appropriate with more formal dress codes: formal wear, semi-formal wear, or informal wear. In general, casual wear is associated with emphasising personal comfort and individuality over formality or conformity. As such, it may referred to as leisurewear. In a broader sense, the word "casual" may be defined as anything relaxed, occasional, spontaneous, "suited for everyday use", or "informal" in the sense of "not formal".

1850s in Western fashion costume and fashion of the 1850s

1850s fashion in Western and Western-influenced clothing is characterized by an increase in the width of women's skirts supported by crinolines or hoops, and the beginnings of dress reform. Masculine styles began to originate more in London, while female fashions originated almost exclusively in Paris.

The formal Thai national costume, known in Thai as ชุดไทยพระราชนิยม, includes several sets of clothing, or chut thai, designed for use as national costume in formal occasions. Although described and intended for use as national costume, they are of relatively modern origins, having been conceived in the second half of the twentieth century.

Fashion in the 1880s in Western and Western-influenced countries is characterized by the return of the bustle. The long, lean line of the late 1870s was replaced by a full, curvy silhouette with gradually widening shoulders. Fashionable waists were low and tiny below a full, low bust supported by a corset. The Rational Dress Society was founded in 1881 in reaction to the extremes of fashionable corsetry.

Fashion in the 1970s was about individuality. In the early 1970s, Vogue proclaimed "There are no rules in the fashion game now" due to overproduction flooding the market with cheap synthetic clothing. Common items included mini skirts, bell-bottoms popularized by hippies, vintage clothing from the 1950s and earlier, and the androgynous glam rock and disco styles that introduced platform shoes, bright colors, glitter, and satin.

Fashion in the period 1900–1909 in the Western world continued the long elegant lines of the 1890s. Tall, stiff collars characterize the period, as do women's broad hats and full "Gibson Girl" hairstyles. A new, columnar silhouette introduced by the couturiers of Paris late in the decade signaled the approaching abandonment of the corset as an indispensable garment.

Ivy League is a style of men's dress, popular during the late 1950s in the Northeastern United States, and said to have originated on college campuses, particularly those of the Ivy League. It was the predecessor to the preppy style of dress.

The man's suit of clothes, in the sense of a lounge or business or office suit, is a set of garments which are crafted from the same cloth. This article discusses the history of the lounge suit, often called a business suit when made in dark colors and of conservative cut.

A Quadrille dress is a bespoke dress worn by women in Caribbean countries. The quadrille dress is the folk costume of Jamaica, Dominica and Haiti. It is known by a different name in each country. The dress is worn during the quadrille dance.

Fashion and clothing in the Philippines refers to the way the people of Filipino society dress up in instances such as while they are at home, at work, travelling and when attending special occasions.

British country clothing or English country clothing is the traditional attire worn by men and women in rural Britain; it is the choice of clothing when taking part in outdoor sports such as equestrian pursuits, shooting, fishing and during general outdoor activity such as when working outdoors, on picnics, walking and gardening. It is also worn at events such as horse races, country weddings, beer festivals and country fairs.

References

1 2 "Business Professional Attire for Men: The Complete Guide". Success Attire. Success Attire. Sep 10, 2016. Retrieved Sep 23, 2016.
1 2 "Interview appearance and attire". Career services. Virginia Tech, Division of Student Affairs. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.

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[:0-1] 1 2 "Business Professional Attire for Men: The Complete Guide". Success Attire. Success Attire. Sep 10, 2016. Retrieved Sep 23, 2016.

[VaTech-interview-2] 1 2 "Interview appearance and attire". Career services. Virginia Tech, Division of Student Affairs. 10 July 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.