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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3841 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for May 14, 2023

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I’d like to put forward a very informal survey, as I’m curious about one aspect about the demographics here.

I’d like to know how many people who post here;

1.) Own one set of formal wear or something considered appropriate for business or formal social occasions. IE A suit, a tuxedo, dress pants combined with a Hawaiian shirt, a Guyabara / Yucatán shirt, a thawb & keffiyeh, etc.

2.) Wear it at least once a quarter, or at least four times a year.

I think I got my greatest pushback here & in the old place and it was specifically about a fashion related issue, so my sociology sense is tingling. I’d like to know how much of an outlier I am here.

Show of hands, please.

1.) Yes, one suit. Plus two non-suit, more sport-ish jackets. None of them fit very well since I have progressively lost weight after every time I bought the item, but one of the jackets is not outright ridiculous. But I have several trousers / jeans / shirts / sweaters / shoes that make possible all many combinations from casual to smart casual and business casual; they do fit okay and the best ones very well. I pay attention that the quality of material; generally, good quality natural fabrics look better than any synthetics.

2.) Not quite. Suit has not been worn for several years; I am too lazy to sell it. The one jacket that is not bad gets out approximately twice a year for important but non-formal family events (birthdays, Christmas). I get invited and accept invite to weddings or otherwise formal events once per decade (that is why the suit is out-of-date). At work, most people below the senior level are very casual, so usually the casual must come before the smart in "smart casual". In most situations I find myself, the well-fitting shirt or sweater and pants alone puts me in the upper quintile.

Yes (suit) and no (haven't had a funeral or an in-person interview in a few years). I'd like to dress sharp more often but don't really have cause to, so I wear a lot of button-down shirts since the minimal effort still feels nice. I have a few ties I wouldn't mind pulling out, but I'm terrible at tying them so I don't bother - not enough time in the mornings to give a damn.

I own one suit and one tuxedo but about 7 blazers and sport coats. I wear the blazers and sport coats frequently but the suit only a few times a year .

Yes and maybe. Pretty similar to Duplex. It certainly fit better when I was in school!

Yes and no, the jacket barely fits and occasions are rare.

No, and no.

Suits are a soul death and the enemy of everything I see as good about myself.

2 suits; one seersucker which is probably too large now, and another which is very old and out of date. But most workdays I wear trousers and a button-down shirt with a sweater vest, cardigan, or (less frequently) a sport coat. I have a variety of knit ties which seem much more casual but are still a tie and look nicer than an open collar and unadorned shirt.

I own several suits for a number of reasons.

One because my wife demanded I wear a suit to a funeral so I went and bought a cheap suit.

One because I'm almost exactly the same size as my Dad and he gave me one of his Brooks Bros. suits which I then had tailored.

One because my brother had me in his wedding party so we all had identical suits made and tailored.

I wear a suit on average 3-6 times a year depending on who dies and who gets married.

I'm not big on wearing a suit but I can do it easily if required by circumstance or my wife.

I have a few suits, including one nice bespoke suit. The nice one is a light grey that isn't necessarily the best look for highly formal occasions, but it's great for weddings, going to be a play, or anywhere that I just want to look my best. I'd probably just do something like Indochino in the future, knowing what I know now, but in any case it's worth paying for made-to-fit rather than adjusting off the rack.

That said, I don't dress up often. My normal everyday attire is shorts, T-shirt, and flip-flops with a Garmin running watch. When I do dress up, I want to look excellent though.

One dark pinstripe suit. I wear it to solemn Masses and big social events (funerals, ceremonies). So at least once a quarter.

Glancing in my closet I also have a tweed blazer and a thin white summer blazer that sadly no longer fits since I've started lifting. : (

I've been meaning to buy a casual suit to wear for fun. Probably a navy one.

One nice suit. Wore it once for a wedding 2 years ago. Where do you guys find the occasion to wear a suit ?

I do care about fashion, but all my clothes are casuals. To the first approximation, I look like someone who purchased the basicBastard and then stepped into a Uniqlo for the rest.

Where do you guys find the occasion to wear a suit ?

Weddings are the canonical spot, but I've also worn suits to plays, for a fancy New Year's Eve party, for a fancy night out at a Michelin restaurant and trendy cocktail places, and a few other things like that. If you have a light-colored suit and skip the tie, you don't really need all that formal of an occasion to dress up a bit.

Makes sense why I never wear one.

I never go to plays, and when I do it's improv-ish. I love jazz, but the underground kind. My NYE parties are house parties with a bunch of 20 somethings. And I have been to a $$$$ restaurant just once, on vacation, so I didn't have a suit. If I ever wore a suit to a work party, I'd look really out of place. Hell, I already look out of place for not just wearing swag tshirts and baggy jeans in my tech workplace.

I love layering with bombers, work jackets, heavy shirts & corduroy..... but all of them fall on the wrong side of dressed up. I think there is some truth to this scene, but I could never dress as douchey. Not rich enough to pull it off either ahahaha.

One suit. Will have worn it five times by June.

I own 1 suit I've worn twice in ten years (weddings). And I feel a sense of mistrust for people who spend more than a de minimus amount of time thinking about their clothing.

I own two suits, but haven't worn them for a long time. I should buy a new one, but I'm not in a hurry, as I work remotely and am currently recomping.

I also have a slubby WSL sport coat that I wear with dress pants about every month. This is my gallery/theatre/restaurant outfit.

I wear either a suit or a sportjacket with tie and some sort of trousers to match that five days a week.

I do own a few Hawai'ian shirts but only because I used to travel there frequently. I also own a dashiki given me as a gift, though that may have been tossed out by hands other than my own.

Edit： I live in Japan, and work in a city, where wearing suits is commonplace.

I don't. My clothes are all casual and either cheap or homemade or second-hand, and I wear them until they're frayed and tattered.

4 suits, 1 odd pair of trousers and 2 sports jackets. Planning to expand a bit, actually.

I wear the suits for conferences and night outs and of course for formal events like weddings, etc. at least once a quarter and often wear odd trouser/jacket combinations to work. I would like to wear them more but everybody around me is super casual and I don't want to stick out too much.

I quite like men's classic attire. It's very comfortable and practical. I wish people would wear it more.

  1. Your standard seems very loose, so probably? I wear perfectly respectable dresses approximately daily, which I would be willing to wear them to weddings and funerals (but just went to a funeral and saw a relative wearing a lobster print Hawaiian shirt, so this is not saying much), or in a court.

I feel like I should probably have some kind of cardigan or blazer and shoes that are not sandals or hiking shoes, but seem somehow unable to figure this out, and mostly just wear a denim jacket or blouse as outerwear. I accidentally ordered a discount tuxedo blazer during lockdowns, which fit very well, but I ended up actually throwing it in the trash because neither I nor anyone I knew had any chance of wearing it, as far as I could tell, and it seemed to much work to mail it to a stranger. Really, I'm unwilling to own something that ought to be dry cleaned and/or ironed, but do not like cardigans. I am unprepared for an event that is both formal and chilly.

  1. Depending, again, on specific criteria, yes? I wear these dresses to church, work, dinner, and events. I once met the head of state of a small European country in one of these dresses, but I looked sort of frumpy by "meeting a head of state" standards.

Own two suits, only wear them at weddings.

Once a year on average.

I own precisely one suit that no longer fits me and haven't worn it for years at this point. Frankly I wouldn't consider the later stuff you list as appropriate for a business/formal social occasion, that's what I'd consider to be casual clothes for going about town (maybe not the thawb and keffiyeh, depends on the town at that point).

I would say I'm generally well dressed, in the sense that I wear clothes that fit and have a coherent "look" to them, I just tend to prefer a more casual style. These days I mostly wear a jeans, shirt and wifebeater combo. I strive to look like I've just stepped out of 1980s Miami, although if I'm being honest it's more often 1970s surfer.

I do own a good suit along with a modest number of ties and dress shirts. I definitely don't wear them 4 times a year. Maybe single-digit number of times in the last 5 years.

I work in tech, so nobody dresses that formally, including in job interviews. I don't really do any regular activities that would involve or benefit from dressing that well. Only the occasional wedding or other similar event.

I own a suit (including vest), as well as a few different dress shirts to go with it. I wear it... not even once a year. I actually like dressing up, but the number of occasions where it's appropriate are almost nil. Basically just weddings and funerals.

I have many suits and a single tuxedo. I probably averaged 4 formal occasions a year pre-COVID. I bought the formal clothes when I worked in a job that required far more dressing up than my current position, so their fairly dated now.

1.) Own [at least] one set of formal wear or something considered appropriate for business or formal social occasions. IE A suit, a tuxedo, dress pants combined with a Hawaiian shirt, a Guyabara / Yucatán shirt, a thawb & keffiyeh, etc.

Yes. I own two tuxedo jackets, though no tuxedo pants I just wear them with formal Black or Grey trousers, or less frequently with jeans when the dress code calls for "Creative Cocktail" or whatever the fuck. And several suits, along with numerous blazers and sportcoats that I honestly wear less than I ought to given how many I own.

If the question was meant to be [exactly] rather than [at least] one, than the answer is distinctly no.

2.) Wear it at least once a quarter, or at least four times a year.

Yes. A suit at least once a week. I could probably avoid wearing a tuxedo ever, most places today you can get away with a black suit, especially if you're either young and good looking enough to look better than everyone else to begin with. But I like it.

I own a suit I got for my highschool graduation, I don't think I've worn it since.

  1. Yes

  2. Yes, but if we exclude purely religious functions(which seems like a major confounder as the motte is 90% irreligious) then probably no.

I wear a (casual?) business suit (no tie) most days. Also I have I guess what you would call casual formal wear.

I don't have anything super formal as a tuxedo.

For myself, I own 3 suits plus a handful of dress shirts / pants / jackets that are not paired together, just mixed items.

I also own a handful of Guyaberas which I use as business wear during the warmest months.

I wear these basically every work day, sometimes on the weekends if I have a party, and I wear a jacket during the cool months and if the occasion requires.

Guyaberas

Yo, where do you find a good one? I really want a good white linen/cotton shirt with pockets, seems neat for summer, but I have no idea where to get one.

I have 20+ guyaberas. I'm wearing one with dress slacks and oxfords right now. I've gotten 90% of them on Ebay. Look for ones with zippers instead of buttons. Haband brand is pretty reliable and they make 2 general qualities or shirt. The zipper is a sign of a higher quality one (in addition to textile type and thread count).

Thanks for the recommendation!

It's easy to find men's linen shirts online.

I have a connection to Latin America so I just buy them when I’m abroad and/or someone from Latina America comes to visit me.

Not particularly helpful, I know, but if you visit down there and you either speak fluent Spanish or know someone personally who does you can get good prices on them in the markets, I usually only pay $20-$25 a piece for beautiful shirts.

The best ones are made in Central America, Columbia & Ecuador. Also if you’re American they are very popular in Miami.

I’m sure in Latino neighborhoods in other big metropolitan areas of the USA you can probably find them as well, I’m sure if you were in NYC in queens you could find some.

This is going to lead to hilariously inept adventures.

I have a few suits for when I have to go to court but that isn't very often. I also have a few optimistic suits I hang onto in the event I lose weight. Meeting with clients is generally business casual for the first meeting but after I establish a rapport I wear my usual office getup which is just jeans and a collared shirt. I also wear dress socks almost exclusively, and every pair has a unique pattern, and I don't match them together before I put them in the drawer. The main reason for this is that rolling them up keeps the elastic in a nearly permanent stretched-out manner and causes them to wear faster. Stacking them together is better on this front but ultimately pointless as they'll make their way apart in the course of normal rummaging. Folding them up like they do in stores avoids this, but is also a lot more work.

  1. That depends a lot on a type of "formal occasion". I own some "more upscale then jeans" clothes, but I haven't been in any occasion where khakis + nice shirt would make me under-dressed for years, and I do not expect to find myself in one anytime soon, so I don't own any clothes for that. Never owned a suit or tuxedo. Usually I wear jeans (or some other informal pants) + t-shirt, and that's completely enough for 99% of places I'll find myself in (excluding special occasion like gym or ski slopes, of course).

  2. Yes, about once a quarter, on average, would be an accurate estimate. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

I own a suit, and I wear it 3-4 times a year. Usually for "occasions" but sometimes just for fun.

1.) Yes.

2.) No. I currently only wear a suit for weddings and funerals only, but I'm not anti formalwear either.

Hawaiian shirt

?

It's kosher in Hawaii, kind of like Bermuda Shorts are business attire in Bermuda.

Hawaiian shirts are actually used as formal wear in Hawaii and as far as I know similar garments are used as formal wear in other Polynesian countries.

They can be super nice, actually. Really beautiful and well made.

I own a tailor made suit bought in Thailand that I don't wear more than once a year.

leather shoes, shirt and pants is basically something I wear every time I have a meeting which is 1-5 times a week.

I look roughly like this in public

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