Business Casual men's styling: to tuck...or not

My husband has a question for the forum. Although we live in Seattle area, my husband has been working from home for a San Diego company the past 6 years. He would jet down to corporate once a month for face to face meetings. Dress code in the office was casual and the uniform was generally jeans with a button-front shirt: untucked. Shoes were more casual dress shoes (not sneakers). In general, this has been my husband's uniform for MOST of his outings: most work meetings, dinners out, church, etc. Well, yesterday he started a new job. Its an office job about 15 minutes from home. It's in a different industry....and a different city than where he's been the past 6 years. But he said that all the men wore basically the same thing....just the shirt is tucked in. So now he's worried he missed the memo on what is current in men's styling these days. So what do you lovely ladies know? This is the first I've heard of it. Are men tucking these days? I know that they tucked back in the 90's. But with my husband working from home the past 6 years, maybe something changed.

11 years ago

Meredith

Veteran

My husband's office is on the more formal side of business casual and he wears button front shirts and polos tucked. We're in the Midwest. Curious about the results of this thread!

milehighstyle (Linda)

In my and my husband's offices (business casual in Denver, CO), the men all tuck both button front shirts and golf style collared shirts into their belted khaki's, jeans, or dress pants. For more casual, non-work occasions, they usually don't tuck. I don't know if this is necessarily fashion forward or in style, just what I see here.

amiable

Men around here (midwest) are tucking.

Echo

In my DH's industry, men tuck while in meetings or in the office; they do not tuck while in the field or on site. It is always safer to tuck when in doubt.

kellygirl

In the Bay Area it seems like tucking is the norm (polos and button downs.) DH is a golfer though so I think it is mostly habit for him. I did notice many men with button downs untucked when we were in So Cal. I think tucking is always safer when in doubt.

Marlene

Hmmm. Maybe the not-tucking is a SoCal thing and the rest of the country is tucking. I'm curious if anyone else knows anything.

He did say that all the shirts that were "tucked" were puffing out all over and looking awkward, requiring a lot of fussing throughout the day.

Laura (rhubarbgirl)

(website)

My DH tucks his woven shirts and polo shirts, but when he's wearing t-shirts on more casual days he doesn't tuck. That's what I've seen most guys do, unless they're wearing a t-shirt under a sport coat in which case they tuck. Marlene, does your DH wear a belt? That seems to help somewhat with keeping everything in place.

Suz

The young men I work with (20s, 30s, and early 40s) dress very, very casually. This is a fitness/ technology company.

But when they do step it up a notch and wear a dress shirt, they wear it either way. Tucked and belted for a more formal event, and untucked for internal meetings or lunches, especially in warmer weather. (This is in Toronto).

kkards

my office is more on the business side of business casual....and tucking is both the normal and part of the actual dress code.

tam

Active Member

My DH tucks and belts for business casual at work but untucks after work for any occasion that doesn't require a sport coat. I rarely see guys under the age of 40 tucking unless required by job. We live in north Alabama.

Elly

I see tucking as more of a formality thing--- I usually see young guys tucked only in situations that might have once required a sports' coat or tie. Basically as a way to show off an accessory (a belt-- making it more of an outfit) or to add structure (in replacement of tie or coat). My male students will wear dress shoes, a button down, a leather belt, and slacks and tuck for a very casual interview but if they later wear that shirt to work with chino-type pants they will have it untucked.

Men over 40 that aren't particularly stylish are much more likely to tuck in all situations when wearing a button down or polo as a button down replacement.

Unless someone at his work place objects, generally I think in smart casual workplaces it is acceptable for men to go either way so long as they are overall dressed as nicely or more nicely than co-workers --- men who prefer not to tuck in a largely tucking environment might compensate by wearing crisper shirts, more accessories and overall presenting a more stylish appearance that those that prefer to go very classic and tuck.

unfrumped

Wow, I think of untucked button-front shirts as uber-casual for men for work, even business casual--the way I'd think of tech non-office or something. Which shows I don't know much, since for that, people would be wearing T-shirts and the like.
I can see also its being an age thing, meaning, I think a lot of middle-aged men would not go untucked even if "allowed".
I guess sort it out by watching and absorbing.

Anonymous

Hmmm, things seemed to have change from not tucking to tucking in the past few years in my husbands industry, SF Bay Area biotech. DH has generally been a tucker even during the untuck trend but that was more do to untucked shirts looked really wrong on him. A few years ago there was a lot of premium denim with very nice, slightly patterned button downs untucked and jacket being sported at nice restaurants and such. I don't see to much of that anymore.

I just don't follow men's fashion or dress codes that much--my DH is in a suit-and-tie workplace. But, I do wonder if it's a "style" thing. Meaning, shirttail shirts were originally designed to be worn tucked in and were for years. Then it became kind of a young man/Hollywood thing (that's just how I envision it!) to wear them untucked with a jacket. Whereas if the past, if men were to wear shirts untucked, they had some straight-bottom shirts (not that those were great!).
Sort of like wearing shirttails out under sweaters, for women. It's more of a fashion statement, to me but also for more casual environments.
And then coming around circle again, for women now we have knits with shirt-tail hems when also in the past the shirttail was for tucking and the straight-bottom blouse was considered something you might wear untucked.

So I did some surfing around pinterest about men's smart casual styles and the pictures generally showed tucked shirts. However, I did find this info graphic which had this interesting tidbit: "you can tell by the length of the shirt if its meant to be tucked. Is it hitting your mid thigh? Yeah keep it in your pants" So tonight I will inspect hubby's shirts and determine which should stay in his pants.

http://www.infographicsarchive.....g-dressed/

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