Can skinny cargos work in business casual?

annagybe

I have two day training course at the end of the week. I was going to wear my Club Monaco microchecks this first day.
I was wondering if I can wear my JBrand Houlihans the second day. I have them in two colors, a tan/khaki sateen and a weathered olively green. The sateen ones are a bit dressier.
This will be hands-on in healthcare, so no jacket unfortunately. A cardigan might work because I can push up the sleeves.
I normally wear hospital issued scrubs, and have had no need up to this point for anything remotely business casual.

15 years ago

Dressing

11 replies

Latest reply was from lynne

Tanya

Veteran

Hmm, that's a tough one. I could definitely see them dressed up with white loose silk blouse and black BF cardi, but I don't know if that would qualify as business casual. A pair of pinstripe pants would be a good thing to have for such occasions.

15 years ago

Kristine

Veteran

Do you have dark jeans? I think they might work better. The combination of cargo and capri seems pretty casual especially if you can't wear a jacket. If you have jeans you could dress them up.

15 years ago

taylor

Veteran

I agree "IF" you can dress them up.
I am usually clueless on what is acceptable outside my own fields of expertise, so I am not much help:)

15 years ago

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

Trolling my shirt collection. I do have a black tuxedo button down shirt.
Mind you I had an interview with this group years ago, and the interviewer was wearing a Hawaiian shirt. I might be overstressing.

15 years ago

Anonymous

Without knowing the environment, cargo pants are a bit of a wild card. There are many gradients of business casual, IMO. Cargos might be ok, if we are at the more relaxed end of business casual. I think the safest choice would be a pair of trousers. Dark wash jeans might work too, but that could be pushing it as well.

You can always feel it out on day #1, since the cargos are intended for day #2.

ETA: Are these pants or capris?

15 years ago

annagybe

(website)

Veteran

They're longer on me, but these are the cargos.

http://www.barneys.com/Houliha.....lt,pd.html

If all else fails I do have a fancy pair of black Burberry pants with military buttoning I could dress down. I do have ponte knit pants as well.

15 years ago

Maya

Veteran

Eh, so much depends on industry, location, age, and office culture.

I wore short shorts to work on Friday, which I'm sure sends the conservative ladies of YLF into fits of horror, but where I work very little aside from pajamas, underwear, and swimwear is off the table. They describe their dress code as "business casual" but it's not. Most people are not style or fashion experts so they are not the best at describing their own dress codes.

As a general rule I think silky cargos could work in a creative business casual environment...but I don't know what quadrant of the biz casual square your dress code falls into.

15 years ago

Jonesy

Veteran

I'm no expert in healthcare settings and attire, but it sounds like cargos would be fine, given it's a hands-on training and in the previous encounter you had the guy was wearing a Hawaiian shirt!

15 years ago

Angie

(website)

Fashion Stylist

They won't cut it for business casual, but could work for smart casual. I bet you'd be fine sporting the combination you've described for your work environment, Anna.

15 years ago

April

Veteran

I think we're back to the confusion (on the part of businesses) over "business casual" versus "casual clothing worn in the business environment." Sounds like Maya's office is the latter, which in my experience is true of most places claiming to be "BC."

Before reading any of the other posts, I was going to say that I don't think any type of cargo pant can be considered BC, but that that might be just fine since most BC isn't BC either.

15 years ago

lynne

Veteran

I'd err on the side of overdressing. Cargo pants are tricky. To me they are casual, not business casual. Add "skinny" to the mix and its just too blurry. The black pants sound better.

15 years ago

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