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Corporette recently posted a letter from a reader asking about comments from an of counsel that she “dresses too well.”  She says that her young face and sense of style lead people to mistake her for an intern and not an attorney.  She used the picture to the right as an example of what she wears.

Corporette considers whether maybe her clothes are too tight, too low cut, or generally too sexy.  They’ve missed the mark.  It’s not about dressing too sexy, but dressing too casually.  The of counsel said “dressing too well” either because he couldn’t put his finger on the problem, or because he wanted to avoid saying flat out that she didn’t dress like a serious professional.

At many law firms the dress code for attorneys is a notch higher than the dress code for paralegals and secretaries.  Attorneys often wear suits, especially when they have court dates, client meetings, or have reason to think either one might be sprung on them.  On other days they wear business casual, while the staff typically wears dressy casual.

The difference between the two is that business casual incorporates building blocks of business formal.  For instance, you’re not just wearing a nice pair of slacks, you’re wear suit pants.  To get business casual you essentially start at business formal and then strip away the jacket, and for men you may also lose the tie.  The difference between suit pants and just a nice pair of slacks is that the suit pants have a matching jacket somewhere.

With dressy casual you’re starting from a whole different set of clothes, and while they may look very similar, they are two completely different species.  Dressy casual is Pepsi and business casual is Coke.  They’re pretty similar drinks, but the difference is that you can add Jack Daniel’s to Coke.  Jack and Pepsi is disgusting.  If you drink Pepsi at work, people will think you’re part of the staff, because any serious attorney is sneaking in few nips during the day, and that means drinking Coke.

| | | | | | Tags: Business Casual, Corporette, Dressy Casual, Workplace Attire

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