Are dress codes outdated?

cheesefest said:
I have turned down wedding invites as I don’t own any smart wedding clothes.
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Let's be honest, this isn't the real reason you've turned them down.

On a different note, I know people who work from home who dress properly every morning. Their theory is that they can't get into "work mode" if they just wake up and throw on some old trackies and a T-shirt.
 
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I personally think dress codes ie MUST WEAR A FORMAL SHIRT AND TROUSERS are a little outdated, and actually people can look a lot smarter and better dressed in jeans a a casual shirt that fit properly than someone wearing a really poorly fitted asda suit that technically meets the dress code.

I work for a City law firm, and 99% of the men now dress in chinos, a shirt and smart-ish trainers now, with suits reserved for when we have client meetings. Even then, if we know the client and they dress similarly then we will sometimes make the call to dress the same way as they do.

rare said:
I like dress codes - there’s no way you could wear anything other than a suit where I work. For a long time if you didn’t wear a tie you would get sent home…although that relaxed around the time of Covid.
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Where is it you work that is full suits still? Law is one of the "most traditional" industries, down to if you wore the wrong brand of shoes you could jeopardise your chances, yet now I don't know any major law firm where suits are the normal still, so interested to know what type of company still has them as the norm!
 
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rare said:
Oof - that’s a line for me!

I like dress codes - there’s no way you could wear anything other than a suit where I work. For a long time if you didn’t wear a tie you would get sent home…although that relaxed around the time of Covid.

If it’s somewhere special, like a nice place to eat or an evening out, then dress codes are important in my opinion and set a tone. Otherwise you end up with people wearing baseball caps at dinner. Not cool.

There’s a time and a place, I wouldn’t think of wearing anything other than a suit to a funeral, wedding (unless asked not to) or interview. But then I am a bit more old fashioned in that respect.

Day to day I dress like a bum - when I was younger I would only ever wear shirts.
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I think for my next such occasion i'd wear black pants. It's just on this occasion the funeral caught me at short notice and i had no trousers that'd fit as i've recently lost a lot of weight.
 
rG-tom said:
I personally think dress codes ie MUST WEAR A FORMAL SHIRT AND TROUSERS are a little outdated, and actually people can look a lot smarter and better dressed in jeans a a casual shirt that fit properly than someone wearing a really poorly fitted asda suit that technically meets the dress code.

I work for a City law firm, and 99% of the men now dress in chinos, a shirt and smart-ish trainers now, with suits reserved for when we have client meetings. Even then, if we know the client and they dress similarly then we will sometimes make the call to dress the same way as they do.




Where is it you work that is full suits still? Law is one of the "most traditional" industries, down to if you wore the wrong brand of shoes you could jeopardise your chances, yet now I don't know any major law firm where suits are the normal still, so interested to know what type of company still has them as the norm!
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While it's been twenty years since I worked in finance in The City, I can't recall not seeing 95%+ suited and booted people milling about when passing through over the years. Have things really changed that much now?

The last twenty years I've hardly worn a suit for anything - only twice to a couple of funerals and say three or four posh shindigs out of a few hundred different occasions where I could. The last six to eight funerals I've been to have all been more of a celebration of life type of thing and everyone just wore smart clothes. Not having to ware shoes has been a bloody godsend.
 
Rroff said:
Went to a funeral awhile back where the deceased's sons all turned up in blue jeans and smartish lounge jackets, much to the consternation of some of the older folk. I'm pretty sure the deceased would have turned up to his own funeral in similar attire though.
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I wore a psychedelic Hawaiian shirt featuring skulls and mushrooms to my dads funeral. (Also black moleskin trousers and Timberlands).
 
platinum87 said:
Its about the quality of the staff, the product is a separate category.

If you cannot put effort into dressing properly for the situation, then you will not be bothered to do many more things down the line.
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To be frank, that's complete ********.

I work with some incredibly smart people in their respective software development areas of expertise, and they've never so much as worn a shirt and trousers to the office in decades of their career.

I appreciate this will be very industry dependent, and maybe you'd expect a team of car salesman to dress to impress. But not all industries work that way.
 
I guess Snails are always half-dressed and codeless.

Fwiw - in Australia the dress code for many software dev staff is also smart casual.
 
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Mr Blonde said:
While it's been twenty years since I worked in finance in The City, I can't recall not seeing 95%+ suited and booted people milling about when passing through over the years. Have things really changed that much now?
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I'd say yes, it has changed that much! Even friends that work for very traditional private banks, that again had tie rules before covid, chinos decent trainers and shirts are basically the uniform now!
 
I’m going to specify for my funeral to wear whatever the **** you want. Will be more of a humanist type of thing than a Jebus one anyway.
 
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Nasher said:
Unless you need to look official, I don't see the point in a dress code. Strict dress codes feel old fashioned now. I think it's more of a power trip for the people in charge than anything TBH.

People turning up in a suit in most modern offices just look like they are on the way to court these days.
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Honestly, I don't think it's a power trip, I think it's about wanting to have certain standards.
 
Lopéz said:
Honestly, I don't think it's a power trip, I think it's about wanting to have certain standards.
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Standards at the detriment to the people who have to follow them? Why would you want to make people uncomfortable*

*Noting not everyone feels so wearing certain clothes.
 
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