LEH is bus formal

I like to walk in with nothing but fruit of the looms on.

What's the weekend dress code like?

Come as you are?

Side note: I'm at home on a saturday night posting on here beacuse it's getting icy outside....haha

I'm at the office right now, wearing jeans and a t-shirt.

yeah i mean i wouldn't wear anything offensive, but casual is fine.

Weekends are whatever -- I've seen sweatpants, hairy guys in their undershirts swilling beer, whatever. I wear jeans or slacks and a nice sweater, though... I'd hate for my VP to see me in a client meeting and think back to that weekend when I came in old sweatpants and a tank top or something.

Weekdays are b-cas, heavy on the b, light on the cas. Some people wear suits every day, women especially. No cleavage, no flats, no denim of any color. Some guys get away with not wearing ties, but most don't try it. Guys' shirts are often Pink (not pink) or Burberry, never Brooks Brothers (or if they are, nobody admits it). Shoes for guys are Gucci or Ferragamo; shoes for girls are Chanel, Louboutin, Choos, or Ferragamo.

Not having much money, you can imagine that I choose the Ferragamo. Heh.

Thomas Pink Vs Philip Michael Thomas Pink

Brand Vs color

Where on earth do you work that all of the analysts dress so well? Are you at a boutique ala Bstone?

There's a lot of brooks brothers among the analysts at BBs. It's awful looking and you can usually tell if a shirt is Brooks, but people still wear them. I mean, most analysts aren't exactly loaded, and a lot just don't know how to dress anyway. There were a bunch of guys in my summer class wearing pleated pants, slip-on unpolished loafers, ill-fitting brooks brothers shirts, and j crew ties.

Personally, though, I'd rather just own 5 thomas pink (or actually zegna and ralph lauren purple label are much better in my opinion) than 15 brooks brothers shirts if you're on a limited budget. Same goes for suits - if you're business casual, just buy a few very nice suits versus a bunch of cheap pieces of crap. No one will notice if you repeat clothing often...ties perhaps, but definitely not shirts.

I'd really like to get into your bank if the female analysts dress so well. A lot of the girls at my bank were wearing cheap heels and always always pants. Skirts should really be required..much more classy.

Sure, there's absolutely nothing wrong with that... as long as you don't mind the made-in-Taiwan and mall-bought look. Not to mention fused construction on suit jackets that make the shoulder seams pucker after ten wearings. Nobody notices such tiny things, right? Right?

Brooks Brothers makes "traditional" suits like Crate and Barrel makes traditional home decor: at as low a cost as possible, with as little variation as possible, while remaining visually similar to luxury goods. These brands are designed for the demographic that marketers refer to as "aspirational". Same as Armani Exchange. You think Brooks Brothers is "traditional"because of the marketing campaign that drives the brand image. Because you can walk into any suburban office building in Witchita Falls or Louisville and say "I'm wearing Brooks Brothers" and get instant brand recognition across the upper lower to upper middle classes. (That's not a good thing.) The key to breaking free from the mall-rat aesthetic is to stop and think about distribution chains and the economics of luxury branding.

And I'm not saying this is the way it should be; I'm saying it's the way it is. My mom's electricity gets turned off every other month due to nonpayment, but many of the other analysts on this floor are the scions of millionaires and quasi-millionaires. I know one guy that's been wearing Pink since he was fifteen. There's another guy from Eastern Europe who grew up with next to nothing, but you'd better bet he lives in a crappy cheap apartment so that he can go out every weekend and buy more (and more and more and more) Burberry, Gucci, Pink, and whatever else guys are wearing these days.

Just calling it like it is. I don't like it, but I'm in no position to fight it from where I am at the moment.

And I agree with the tailor comment, completely.

I think it is difficult to call brooks brothers "mall bought" and not call pink that as well. Both are mass produced.

Also, like it or not, Mis Ind, Brooks is a staple of old line, conservative, money, WASP male clothing. The ones that can afford to are wearing the Golden Fleece stuff and MTM, but it is Brooks nonetheless.

...

Agree with the comment about bespoke. But while it's true you can get some bespoke clothes at relatively inexpensive prices, I'm always a bit skeptical about the quality of the fabric if the bespoke suit is not very very expensive. At least with good brands like armani, ralph lauren pl, etc., you know you're getting relatively good quality (and its cheaper than good quality bespoke). The same can't really be said for some random tailor in nyc or some internet tailor where you just enter your size measurements. Speaking of which, does anyone know where to find a list of the top tailors in nyc? I'd like to get exactly one well-made bespoke suit lol.

Zala, all I'm saying is that I want to present a neat, attractive image to my superiors at all times. Between guys it's okay because guys don't focus too much on each other, and because there's a certain bracing masculinity about being ugly, poorly-groomed, and generally a sloppy human being (I love boys, but you got to admit that some of y'all get kinda foul every now and then).

But I'm a girl, and I don't want my male VP to come into the office and see me with unmanicured toes in flip-flops, an ass clad in bulky sweatpants, and an old t-shirt with my favorite cartoon character on it. I may wear that stuff while cleaning house, but not at work. That doesn't make him gay, I don't think.

However, some girls dress like that on weekends. Ick.

You wear Pink shirts to formal or semi-formal events? You should be wearing Tails and White tie to Formal events and black tie w/ a dinner jacket, or a cutaway (if before 6:00 pm), to semi-formal events.

Ronald, don't be snarky. Yes, the words "formal" and "semi-formal" are constantly misused, particularly in the US, but almost nobody reads Emily Post anymore. I do, but that's me. We can't expect every single banker in his/her twenties and thirties to behave as if they were raised by old-money families.

On the other hand, I believe your comments are slightly imprecise. There is more than one level of "formal" in both the US and in Britain. In the US, one encompasses white tie, one encompasses black tie, and of course in Britain there are strata of society in which orders are worn at times, in which case they'll be called for on the lower right hand side of the engraved invitation. You may wear black tie at a semi-formal event, or (as you correctly note) a cutaway, but in most US cities it is perfectly acceptable to wear business formal to semi-formal events, particularly before 8:00, particularly if you're a banker.

So let's not be snarky, or you're gonna get snarked. There's no reason for your average banker or banking candidate to know this stuff. Cool?

Yeah, people are a little too harsh about not wearing Brooks Brothers. For a fucking analyst, Brooks Brothers is FINE.

But if I had to disagree with anything you wrote, I'd have to point out that Brooks =/= J Press.

You guys are insane. I'm doing what so-cal is doing and going to macy's during their clearance sale. You cannot tell me that anyone is going to care if an analyst is wearing a $200 shirt or a $50 one. Maybe I'll stop by goodwill first to see if they have anything in my size.

Mis Ind gave perfect advice on what to get. I would go for seven shirts though and no more than one with stripes. Three white, two light blue, one stiped/white and one pink or dark blue. And get them cleaned somewhere that charges more than $1 a shirt. You'll thank yourself in a year.

oops, doublepost