Bare legs in the summer? Business casual

Kristine

I thought I'd take an informal poll. If you work in a professional setting and wear skirts in the summer, do you wear bare legs? Microfishnets? Something else? I'm stlll trying to figure out what I'm most comfortable in. I've been avoiding skirts because of it. At work I've seen everything from bare legs to regular nylons.

15 years ago

Dressing

12 replies

Latest reply was from Lisa

Maya

Veteran

The place I work now has a range of dress codes. Account executives typically go biz casual and all the girls go bare legged with skirts and dresses (I guess I should call them women but they are close to my age so it seems weird...I still feel like a girl!). The designers and creative staff are mostly casual and going bare legged is not a problem. On casual Fridays, one of the account execs wore this oversized batwing t with bra straps sticking out. We really don't have high standards in terms of dress (I should say the outfit itself was cute, but probably not appropriate for most professional settings).

At the museum, I went bare legged all the time. Didn't even think twice about it.

I am wondering if it's a combination of WHERE I work and my line of work. I honestly never even realized hose is considered an issue of modesty and professionalism until it was mentioned on YLF. Maybe in NY we get away with more? I can't speak for what goes on at law firms and Wall Street, but it doesn't seem like I see too many be-hosed legs in summer or spring.

15 years ago

Kristen

(website)

Veteran

I wore nude hose or microfishnets when I worked in my old department, but this summer once it gets hot enough I will likely be bare-legged. I try to emulate what the higher-ranking women in my office wear, and my new bosses definitely wear cooler clothes in the summer. I have seen them in sheaths, bare legs and flat sandals plenty of times.

Follow the lead of the higher-ups and you should be fine.

15 years ago

Frances

Active Member

Kristine, I've recently begun to quietly bare-leg it at the office. I really want to wear skirts more, and I personally have an aversion to stockings, esp. in the heat of summer! Luckily, my office is less conservative than most, and I usually reserve this for days when it's expected to be quiet and I don't have meetings with outside colleagues. I know that skipping the stockings is unacceptable in ultra conservative places like law firms, but I was inspired by Angie's blog post on this a few weeks ago to give it a try. I feel like women in professional settings are never going to have the option to go bare-legged unless they start boldly marching into their workplaces with bare legs, and I'm hoping that if this starts with women who work in more creative, flexible or casual professional settings, it will become more of the norm.

15 years ago

Dusty

(website)

Active Member

When I worked at an insurance company pre-kids, our dress-code was business casual and hose were required. It was specified in the dress code as such, though, so I'd probably be okay with it in a similar environment where it was not specified.

15 years ago

Michelle

(website)

Veteran

Bare legs have always been ok where I've worked. Our summers get very warm and asking ladies to don hose would just be mean some days.

15 years ago

Losermom

Active Member

I work in a very casual setting. I do wear skirts without hose/stockings a couple of times a week. Mostly because I don't have very many summer appropriate bottoms. If I have a really important meeting, I would wear nude fishnets.

15 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

I would and absolutely do go bare legged when I'm dressed business casually. I also wear micro fishnets if it's chilly.

15 years ago

Kristine

Veteran

Thanks for the replies! You've given me the confidence to go bare legged!

15 years ago

Steph

Veteran

I worked in one of the biggest law firms in the world and our dress code did not require hose (if you went to court or met a client, however, it was expected that you would be dressed business formal and that would include hose). I was actually on the firm's dress code committee at one point, and I specifically joined because I wanted to make sure they didn't decide to require hose.

Seeing how the dress code decisions were made was so eye-opening. People (mostly men) who knew nothing about clothing would just propose things with absolutely no idea of how it would work in the real world. At one point they wanted to require hose but allow open-toed shoes (I told them that hose with sandals was not acceptable, so we simply couldn't mandate hose). At another point someone suggested allowing open-toed shoes but banning "toe cleavage." They had zero idea what toe cleavage was but thought that it sounded cool and wanted to include it in the dress code. I showed them what toe cleavage was and was successful in keeping it out of the code.

15 years ago

Maya

Veteran

That is so funny Steph! Open toed shoes without toe cleavage. I guess they think they don't have to know what it is. Knowing it was some form of cleavage was provocative enough to ban it!

15 years ago

Katja

(website)

Active Member

I work in aerospace engineering. I go barelegged to the office, but what's around my legs (shoes, skirt) errs on the side of formal (pumps, tailored skirts), because that makes me feel more comfortable about omitting hose.

I'm racking my brain about the (very few) other women at work - I don't think I've seen a female engineer at work in anything other than pants in forever. So I guess I'm an outlier. I know I come across as more formally dressed than the other females engineers.

15 years ago

Lisa

Veteran

I go barelegged in the summer. I currently work in an extremely business casual setting. Previously it was more formal and I would wear very sheer nude hose instead.

15 years ago

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