What a great post Angie! As a scientist, I love models and charts. I think that this is a a great start and that everyone can fit somewhere in there. For example, in my area I am definitely a combo of conservative and casual, the same as the engineering company ( and we are probbaly even more casual). Looking forward to all the posts and discussions on business casual!

It will be a really informative series! The graph is very helpful. I look forward to seeing how you would dress someone in each category. I don’t work outside of my home, but I like to learn new things.

Great chart! I’m a consultant and I travel to nursing homes all over the country. Styles vary drastically so I’ve learned to take my lead from the administrators. Still a challenge though because some of the other staff members can be pretty casual. I don’t want the contrast in our professional attire result in the staff feeling that I am unapproachable. Can’t wait to see your advice!

Angie, so excited to see this! I work in IT for a large financial company. Although our dress code is Business Casual I think what we really see from day to day is anything from Casual to Smart Casual to Business Casual. From my observations across the company, I’ve seen many leaders & those with more of a day-to-day in-person customer interaction dress more Smart Casual and Business Casual. Personally, I am Smart Casual with some creative flair (mostly through accessories). I think agenda & workday plays a key role as well just as you mentioned.

It would be very helpful to see pictures in each quadrant. Knowing you, I’m guessing that’s something you already have in the works though!

Great model for the visual people! and a great topic, too. I´m often asked by new colleagues that are very unsure what to wear. My working environment is a High school / college and I´m not sure if it fits into these quadrants.

Yet I find it very difficult to dress for the job because there seems to be an “anything goes” strategy. I have colleagues that dress business formal and on the other end there are teachers that don´t seem to waste a single thought on their appearance. I dress somewhere between business formal and business casual.

For our younger teachers it´s very difficult to keep their style AND to make clear that they are not one of the students (students are up to 20 years).

For me it´s a bit difficult, because the rule says “dress for the job you want to have, not for the job you already have”. That would mean business formal always, but a college is such an informal environment…
And, my fashion persona is more trendy than modern classic, so I´m getting tired of the suits all the time – and on the other hand I don´t dare to sport extremely trendy pieces at work…..

I’m so glad to see this series! I’m a musician–usually we’re very casual dressers. But in addition to working as a performer I’m the artistic director of a non-profit–a youth orchestra. I need to look professional, trust-worthy and “in charge”. Particularly when I’m asking for donations. It’s also important to me to dress my artist side. Quite a balancing act. I really look forward to reading your advice!

I work in a large company with everyone represented on your chart (accountants, marketers, engineers, and designers) and more. Personally, I’m in Human Resources. We have only a single dress code, “business casual,” to encompass all of the functions. I’d say that most people in my function are on the conservative side, straddling the line between dressy and casual. I’m definitely on the creative half, and dressy most days. I stand out, but I prefer to express myself than fit in.

I worked in an ad agency and there were two basic modes of dress:

1. If you were in the creative side of the house (copywriter, graphic designer, photographer, creative director), you were more apt to dress smart casually, not business casual. Jeans were perfectly acceptable. You’d also see a lot of vintage clothing. The dress code was “anything goes.” The funkier and more creative and expressive, the better.

2. If you were in the business side of the house (public relations, media relations, account executive), then you dressed business casually, with Friday being your day to wear jeans (unless you were seeing a client).

Great post, and I like the model. I very much look forward to more posts on business casual; it’s a dress style I will settle on for my job.

I’m glad to see I get YLF approval on my edgy/creative outfits, but I still can’t help but feel insecure.

When you’re new and as junior level as I am (heck, I’m not even being paid), it can be especially intimidating to try and navigate a biz casual dress code. I do feel that most of my coworkers dress inappropriately, and the way I dress is much more acceptable, but I’m going against the majority here, which complicates the matter. And even though I have YLF support on this, what ultimately matters is what my coworkers think. Since this has the potential to turn into a paying job, it is that much more important that I fit in…that they can see me as being part of their team.

I wonder how much I should let the general vibe of the office influence me, even if it goes against my better judgment. The other issue is that the dress code seems to be pretty unenforced. There is one guy who wears jeans and hoodies, and another guy who wears slacks and crisp buttondowns and keeps his hair neatly coiffed at all times. Everyone seems to err on the side of conservative though. I don’t really see anyone else as trendy or creative as I am…which is stupid, but it is what it is.

I guess I have just repeated what I have been saying all along on the forum, but I still don’t feel like it is quite resolved for me. I’ll be watching these posts closely.

I’m at a conservative midwestern insurance company, so we are on the left side of the chart.

Another factor to throw in is what level is your job. In my company, the women who are managers or above definitely dress up more than women at the lower level jobs. Many do wear pants suits, not every day, but one or two days a week. There is also somewhat of an age divide, with the women over say 50 tending to dress up more and the younger women dressing more casual but more stylishly as well (still talking about managment level).

The men all dress the same. Button down and khakis or slacks in winter, sport short and khakis or slacks in summer. They also sneak in the team button down or sport shirt during football season.

Shari

Great model! I am a graphic designer who has been working in ad agencies all over the country for almost 20 years. I also think what part of the country you live in affects the level of dress: nothing gave me an office fashion-wakeup-call like moving to Chicago!

May I also note that women who want to be taken seriously in the workplace need to keep their hair on the shorter side and dress less casually. Especially the younger you are! Just my opinion based on what I’ve seen. I’ve had a personal no-jeans-at-work policy for years, despite some ribbing from my jeans-wearing co-workers, I think it’s the professional way to go.

I just found your website and am enjoying it very much!

I’m glad Phoebe raised the question of teacher dress code. I teach middle school. We teachers need durable and comfortable clothes, but it bugs me when teachers dress like they’ve given up on their appearance. Who wants to look at that, even a kid?

Personally I enjoy fashion, so while I think it’s important to project the right image of authority, I like to have some fun and be a little unpredictable. Striking the right balance isn’t easy, but I think that doing so helps a teacher become an approachable yet appropriate role model.

Love the post. Great graphic (helps us visual folks) and wonderful topic! I am always struggling to dress for work. I’m a software engineer at an engineering firm, but since we are also a govt contractor things tend to be fairly casual (although still conservative). Personally I prefer to dress fairly nice so I usually dress business casual but I would say most everyone else is smart casual or even casual. I will definitely be interested to read your suggestions/advice!

Great post! I work in a history museum. The history field is typically conservative while museums in general are more creative. There’s also a significant difference between people who interact with the public versus people who work with the collection all day.

Not surprisingly, people are all over the board. There are people who wear birkenstocks and people who wear suits! Navigating the dress code has been challenging. I usually dress smart casual or business casual. I’m looking forward to the discussions on this subject.

fjt wrote: “May I also note that women who want to be taken seriously in the workplace need to keep their hair on the shorter side and dress less casually.”

I respectfully disagree. Long or medium length hair can be completely professional, as long as it’s well maintained and polished.

This is an exciting begining of an important but confusing topic. Like Phoebe, I see teachers dressing as if anything goes. As a teacher, your age, the age of the students, and grade level and subject matter will make a difference in what dress is appropriate. However, after long experience, it seems best to be on the dressy side as much as possible. It sets you apart from the students and can help give you an air of authority, especially if you are young. I’ll be watching for your tips and guidelines.

This will be interesting learning for me. Even though I don’t personally use these dress codes, I love to learn what they are.

I’m definitely slap bang in the centre of the conservative dressy quadrant which is at complete odds with my style persona. I hate dressing for work at the moment and hope (know) you will be able to inspire me in the coming months.

Thank you so much for this, Angie. I think the model is great.

Thank you thank you thank you for this post and the promise of exciting posts to come!

I’m still trying to get my wardrobe in order and one of the areas that needs lots of work is this exact one. My wardrobe is conservative to say the least so when I say I want to be more creative, I really do have a long way to go!

I’m a (very part-time at the moment) piano teacher/examiner/free-lance musician. Until recently I have worn business formal when I examine/teach in a school environment/do free-lance music work (of the type I do) – I wanted to look professional and, probably, older! phoebe’s and fjt’s posts strike a chord with me.

This is too much now, though. I want to be able to do somewhere on the continuum between creative and conservative dressy. I need to look professional and be taken seriously (and examining will probably always be business formal) but in an environment where I don’t need to conform to any particular dress code.

So great model and can’t wait to read more.

Brilliant! That little diagram is incredibly helpful, and, as far as I’ve heard, quite accurate. Very true that there is leeway, depending on each office’s environment, rules, and culture.

Love the chart! I find it funny that the “Design Studio” casual/creative combo is where my workplace falls. I’m a minister!

Great post, Angie! I’m looking forward to more on this subject. Using a chart like that is a great way to try and set up some guidelines around “business casual”. I work in the IT department of a telecom company and the majority of my co-workers are male and are have come here from India. People around here dress mostly in the casual to very casual area – jeans, sneakers, flip flops, t-shirts. Most of the women also wear jeans and sneakers as well.

I am one of the few people who “dress up” on a daily basis – meaning I wear dress slacks or skirts. I usually wear jeans on Thurdays and Fridays. I never wear a suit (except when I first interviewed for the job).

I feel comfortable dressing this way even if it is different from what everyone else wears. I never meet outside clients. I am on the compouter and conference calls most of the day, but I still like to look nice – it just makes me feel better and more productive.

Most of the time, I am on the dressy/conservative side, but one good thing about my work is that I can opt for more creative outfits and not feel out of place.

I’ll be especially interested to learn about the creative side of business casual. Though I’m not in a design/art field, I’m a creative person and i’d love for that to show in job interviews and such, rather than just looking “office-y”. Business casual is not what I’m required to wear day to day, so I don’t have as much practice at it, but when an interview comes around, I’d like to have some outfits prepared.

Maybe there will be a dedicated post to interview wear?

Oh, I LOVE this model! It’s so true, there are so many other factors at play that can influence where on the continuum you fall, and I especially adore this comment: “You might be able to move along each continuum depending on the agenda of the work day.” I work in IT in Catholic healthcare in the Midwest, so I fall toward dressy conservative most days, but depending on what meetings I have, the weather, what day of the week it is, etc, I can move up or down, get more creative or play it straight, etc.

I think this is a great first step to looking at the major ranges in business casual. Obviously there are many other factors that influence our choices — like age, position, season, seniority level, experience, and location — but I would agree that these are the biggest, broadest ones.

I am really looking forward to seeing how explore this topic, Angie! As you know, it’s near and dear to my heart.

This is really interesting. I work in television which is SUPER casual. Honestly, I’ve seen people wear lounge wear, house slippers, and Crocs in the office. No one seems to care. I think this is because the full time staff work extremely long hours (think 12+ hours sitting at their desk) so they want to be very comfortable. I wish they realized that smart casual formulas as just as comfortable, if not more comfortable!

That said, there are obviously those colleagues who dress very well, but usually stop at smart casual. On tape days, when we’re working with guests, we kick it up a notch, but still smart casual is perfectly acceptable. Some producers will dress business casual on tape days, and it is refreshing to see. I personally think all the producers should be dressed business casual (creative) when we’re taping the show.

I know one intern got reprimanded for wearing pajamas on a tape day — seriously.

Angie, I am very excited for the upcoming posts! I am in a conservative industry (insurance). While our dress code would normally be more on the formal side, many people in our office tend to dress on the casual side, unless they have client meetings. I agree with Shari, that job title tends to affect how formal women dress. When meeting with clients that dress business casual, I will dress in more formal conservative (slacks and non matching suit jacket). If I don’t have client meetings, I will usually dress more casual (cardigan) or creative (trendy dress with leggings).

My office is a little complicated, since I am the assistant for a mom-prenuer in her home office. My wardrobe is supposed to be “business casual” and I usually wear skirts or slacks and heels, but I can wear nice jeans if I’ve got on a dressy top. But then sometimes my boss wears her sweats if it was a long night with the baby or something. So I don’t feel so bad if I show up to work in jeans and a simple sweater. So, I’d say casual, but right in between conservative and creative, because either goes.

Being in the Salon we of course have the creative freedom to wear whatever we wish. In the 80’s and 90’s I was in a salon that was VERY dressy, I would say beyond Buisness Casual. We were encouraged to dress up, our salon was very exclusive back in the day.
Not uncommon to see denim now , but most stylists are into fashion and I rarely see sloppy or casual stylists. Most are very put together… Those covered in tatts and piercings are viewed more as accessories I think.

Those of us at my AT are definitly Buisness Casua and beyondl. I am only there a couple days a week, so it gives me a place to really dress up…and I enjoy that:)

My newsroom is not a dressy environment at all. Our editor apparently is the most casual guy in the place, and we don’t have a lot of on–camera work (most of our product is for print media or radio broadcast). I feel 100% comfortable wearing smart casual outfits to work, and routinely get complements when I do so. That said, business casual really suits my personality, which tends to favour dressier ensembles. I’ve been known to turn up in the sort of outfits I would have worn to my old job as a bank recruiter just because I feel like it, and I don’t feel out of place either. Mine is not the sort of office environment where people will judge you harshly for “dressing up.” I’ll be intrigued to see what formulae you come up with for business casual. I suspect I’ll find them useful and practical outside of the office environment, since it’s a dress code that’s appropriate for so many other functions from professional appointments to family dinners.

Angie, I love your two-dimensional model and the illustrating figure. This is useful and fun!

My workplace is in academic science. Definitely in the conservative & casual corner.

I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on workplace dressing. I work in the IT industry which is quite casual. However, I feel that in my role as an administrative assistant, visual to many people – both employees and guests, I feel the need to up the style quotient and represent my company well. Any tips you can give on the subject would be great.

I too am a teacher(early childhood) and wonder if I should err on the side of casual or smart casual maybe Angie could do a separate post for teachers.

I love this chart! I, like many who have posted, work in music education (private lessons). I work at a fairly large, expensive studio so a certain level of professional dress is expected, but not as formal as a suit, or anything that feels too much like office wear. I like to wear colors and accessories that show some artistic flair, as I feel more approachable to my students without being too stern or matronly. I need to be respected by my adult students as well, so it is a balancing act for sure. I am also one of the younger teachers, so I try not to look too young. It can be tough to figure out what to wear sometimes, but overall the style is very fitting with my personal style and I enjoy the creative side of dressing as well. I suppose I would fit the “dressy-creative” box. I love dresses, scarves, colorful pins, ruffled cardis in unexpected colors…….

This is a hard one for me because expectations and norms in my workplace aren’t really clear. I work at a university in a communications position–that’s print communications, and I have very little face-to-face contact with people outside the university, so no one seems to care much how I dress. There’s no defined dress code; if there’s an informal one it would probably be business casual in the conservative/casual block, although it’s one of those situations where when I dress up denim I look much smarter than many of the people who don’t ever wear denim. I meet regularly with faculty and I am usually dressed as well or better than they. Although I feel pretty good about dressing smart casual in my workplace, I think I’d like to move more toward business casual.

Hi All – I’ve been on hiatus for the past months and now I am back!

This is such a timely post as I just retired on 12/30 from a accounting type of office and will be looking to volunteer and hopefully work part time in a creative environment – think museum or marketing position. I am hoping to be able to incorporate some of my business work pieces to my new “chapter” wardrobe.

Thanks Angie and we’ll be “talking”

Angie, this is very useful to me! Thanks!! Because I sometimes find myself in different companies (as a consultant) it’s nice to have a mental model for what to where in which context. Of couse, I spend most my time in a business casual context so I have to think about it when I go elsewhere…

thanks!!

Great model Angie, I think you hit it on the head there. I work in medical offices and hospitals but have seen actually varied dress in other physicians, especially on weekends. There is a DEFINITE change in how you are perceived based on how you dress, especially as a female physician. That is quite true for probably most professions, for better or worse. Our dress code is “professional” which often is quite similar to conservative business casual unless we have interviews,talks etc. On weekends some docs round in jeans and I can see patients with raised eyebrows even though the person may be quite put together. I stick with conservative business casual/professional and it works for me. I am looking forward to reading your posts about this!

I love how I just purchased a leopard print lace mini dress for work, hehe. One must dress appropriately for Fashion Week

I’m just thrilled at this topic! Since I work in an elementary school setting, anything goes and while I understand the teacher who dresses with fingerpaint and crayons in mind, I also see so many who wear clothes I’d only garden in.

And then there’s that concept of clothing as communication. As the school’s psychologist, I need to simultaneously dress with authority and professionalism, appear welcoming and warm to children, and also fit in with the rest of the staff. It’s a tall order some days and it’s partially the reason I’ve ended up dressing in such a conservative and (yawn) boring way. I’m interested to hear what April has to say as she’s in the same situation.

Looking forward to this!

Great model to help simplify and visualize a complicated topic. I also appreciate your comments about the influence of your work culture and personal style/preferences on it.

I spent almost 20 years in a corporate IT world where business dress was the norm. The past 10+ years I have been in the education world (middle school thru high school, so no finger paint!) where business casual seems to mean an oversized hooded sweatshirt and ill-fitting denim or khaki.

I think sometimes I scare the faculty (and the kids!) if I dress too smart, but I also think how we dress can set the tone for taking learning seriously in the classroom. . .

Anyway, the world of educator style is like a parallel universe!!

Very cool chart!

I work for a non profit, and I see almost all four of these types of dress represented based on what someone’s role is.

For example, those on the development side (those in charge of raising money) tend to dress on the more conservative and dressy side, because they might have to step out at any minute to meet with an executive to talk about donations or a board position. Those on the program side of things tend to dress on the creative and casual side.

I tend to dress on the casual/creative end of the spectrum with bright colors, fun knits, and boots to work. I will wear denim to work, but only dark wash.

The model is very helpful! I’d say that my office is in the middle of the “Engineering company” square – somewhere in the lower left quadrant. We aren’t as casual as Microsoft or other similar tech companies (which have more of an all-out casual dress code), but most people who are not in management roles wear jeans or khakis on a daily basis, and most people tend to dress pretty conservatively. We are the corporate base for our company so most contact tends to be with internal employees via phone or email, so I don’t have to worry about dressing up quite as much as I did when I was working in more of a sales-oriented company.
My personal dress code is higher on the “dressy” end of the scale, although I am learning more and more how I can have fun making my dressy outfits more casual. I am also farther on the creative end of the scale than most of my colleagues and moving farther that way (greatly due to YouLookFab influence.) It’s nice to be able to know that I can pull a dressy, conservative, business casual outfit out of my closet when needed, but I also like that my company’s dress code gives me the flexibility to learn how to feel equally polished in more casual outfits.

Great writeup Angie, I work for a government law firm and dress almost exclusively business casual even though we do not have an official dress code (except on court days of course). I agree that what is business casual certainly depends on one’s work environment. Because we do not have an official dress code I feel that I can be more liberal with the business casualness of my dress on many days but I dress more conservatively on days that I have meetings.

This model makes a lot of sense to me. I feel fortunate that I do work in a creative marketing communications company. As the owner, I can dress as I choose and so can my staff. I have graphic designers who come to work in shorts or jeans…account reps who wear everything from jeans to skirts and dresses…and an uber-fashionable director of operations who looks like she just stepped out of an Anthropologie or J Crew (depending on the day) catalog. You’ve seen what I wear — it’s jeans, dresses, skirts — you name it, hopefully styled with a creative yet appropriate twist. As a business owner, I realize I am setting a tone or an example for the business, so I want to be professional, but I don’t want to be stuffy or uptight, as that is not me. Of course we all lean more toward traditional business attire when meeting with clients, but I still favor some creative flair. I think clients would actually be disappointed if we were all buttoned up in black suits, white shirts and traditional footwear. Our creativity needs to be on display, but, again, in an appropriate way.

I work for an Engineering Company and this model makes a lot of sense, of course it all depends on the Company and country culture also because I have already noticed that what we considered Business casual is far more casual then some of you: jeans are allowed and many co-workers dress in jeans almost everyday.

This would be a really handy post. I’ve moved from an ‘anything goes’ software company to a more conservative ‘no-jeans-or-trainers-smart-casual’ place and I’m really struggling after wearing jeans to the office for years. I’d love to dress up a bit more but I feel silly sometimes as I don’t know what looks good, so I tend to resort to black trousers and various t-shirts/jumpers/cardigans and I hate that it feels so frumpy. More ideas would be awesome!

I really like this model Angie. I think my work environment is more the conservative side and then varying up/down the casual/dressy spectrum depending on who you ask. I personally tend to veer more towards the creative side, but it hasn’t caused any problems yet!

The diagram seems accurate. I will be looking forward to outfit posts on this business attire series of some sort

That’s a good visual way of showing the different extremes of dressing. I also agree that it needs to be taken in consideration that it is a generalization, as sometimes even within the the same company, different departments may dress differently. I was a teacher before I chose to stay home with my children, but at school the gym teacher could “get away” with wearing certain things that other teachers couldn’t and the wood shop teacher needed to wear items that could withstand the grime and tear of the shop. And art teachers could wear more artsy outfits without raising too many eyebrows, but other teachers had to be a bit more subdued…so really, even with the same general job description, in the same place of work, people may dress differently…in my school, it was all over the place, specially on dress down Fridays.

Yet another commenter working firmly in engineering, on the conservative end of business casual. I’m in New Zealand, which means I’ve got colleagues in shorts and flip-flops, mostly in ho-hum shades of blue and gray. But at the same time, if I wear a skirt to the office, it’s a jarring aberration. What’s more, dressing up too much tips you over into the sartorial sense of our administrative/non-technical staff. They are much more stylish, but…I need to be associated with the technical side.

I like the rule Phoebe talked about “Dress for the job you want to have, not for the job you already have…”

It just doesn’t work for me. I’m a graphic designer, but most of the time I’m not just sitting behind a computer. Sometimes I’m a jack of all trades, including installing vinyl graphics… while kneeling. So dressing up really isn’t an option for me unless I intend to spend a ton on dry cleaning bills or a new wardrobe each month.

I’m guessing in the creative fields there are a lot of positions that merge into each other like design and production, so it just depends on how many and what kind of tasks you have to perform each day.

So if I were dressing like the job I want to have I’d probably get myself a Macbook Pro and an iPhone… and I’d wear all black (slacks or skirt, with a great button down) with that sexy turquoise purse I saw at Nine West the other day.

I’m an itinerant teacher. I’m in 3 to 4 different schools a day. My general observation is that in secondary schools the teachers try to dress up more probably business casual. The exceptions are the gym teachers, vocational teachers, and art teachers. They have their own dress code that is dictated by how physically active they are or or the materials they use are prone to ruin clothing. Middle school teachers seem to wear more suits but elementary school teachers are casual. Preschool teachers dress in jeans the most. I hate to say this but I think most of the dowdy dressers are teachers. I was in this group as well! I have tried to bust out of my ‘teacher dress” and broaden my horizens. People I used to meet in social situations would guess that I am a teacher that’s not happening as much any more. When I was younger I always tried to wear my clothing loose I was trying to never look sexy. Teachers are not to look sexy.. I d say that is the biggest mistake younger teachers can make. I think that is why teachers have the sterotype of being dowdy…

[...] We’re going to spend lots of time discussing business casual dressing, but here’s a quick fix for those of you who want to spice things up right now. Most of these ideas can be interpreted appropriately for any quadrant of the Business Casual Context Model: [...]

What a great topic to develop! I’m very excited. I have to admit, that being an upper level high school teacher, I really responded to the other teachers’ posts. Teachers can be some of the worst dressers around-and that is one reason why I was attracted to this site. We can be dowdy when we are trying to avoid being sexy. We can be too casual because of the movement and materials that our jobs require. (I still run around the room and bend over desks at the secondary level not to mention chalk/dry-erase marker/ and overhead marker all over myself.) But you also want to cut a somewhat “glamourous” figure because if you and your life don’t look attractive to the students, then they will not value what is important to you and what you have to say-not to mention also projecting an air of authority. It’s very tricky to navigate. I can’t wait to read more.

i am so excited for this new topic. feel sooo in the dark about “business casual” and so forth. i just ask that you please consider “ease of movement” when making recommendations; when seeing patients, you need to be able to move your arms around without the whole outfit shifting and bunching in unnecessary places!

Please do dressy conservitive. I work in a brokerage firm and expected to where suits…but so boring, for me at least. I need new ideas and fresh out look. Thank you for all your insight. You Rock Angie.

I work in a lab in the engineering part of my company. Some people dress a little (or a lot nicer), but I think the more time you spend in the lab, the less dressy you need to be.

I probably could dress up my casual outfits a bit more, but I’m limited to close-toed shoes, pants, and lighter tops to keep my lower half safe and my upper half cooled off (the lab coats can get pretty warm!)

I’ve found working in a lab environment makes it more difficult to dress nice, especially if you’re afraid of spilling things on your nice clothes. At the same time, I know I might hide behind my excuse of being a lab employee as to why I don’t always look fashionable.

[...] way to increase the variety in your business casual wardrobe is to add more skirts and dresses into the mix, especially if dress slacks are your staple. Skirts [...]

[...] Trouser jeans look exceptionally fab when matched with either conservative or creative dressy business separates. Note: it’s important that the separates are dressy. Match up trouser jeans with casual separates and you will look casual. For example, wear the bottoms you see below with a fitted knit top, silky blouse or button down shirt, blazer, a pair of heels, a few accessories, a smarter handbag and Bobs your Uncle. You’ll look professional, polished and pulled together in my book, even though you’re theoretically wearing denim, which isn’t part of the business casual dress code. [...]

Angie, Thanks for the distinction. Looks like I’ve been confused about smart casual vs. business casual. Most of my looks are smart casual I think, but I’m still confused about some of my jeans,e.g., Tuesday and the one I was planning to wear to give a seminar this Friday. I have a pair of wide legged jeans and I don’t know if they count for trouser jeans. Can old jeans still look formal? Tuesday is faded out a bit for instance… Apologies for the bombardment of questions. I’m afraid I’ll ask even more questions on my Friday summary.

[...] I wear this outfit on a normal work day, adding a coat, trench or jacket when it’s chilly outside. It might be too dressy for some, but it totally works for me. I guess it’s a smart casual outfit because of the denim element, but in my line of work I’m allowed to break the rules so it will pass for creative business casual. [...]