Outvoices

  • Style
  • Personal Care
  • Food and Drink
  • Home and Decor
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Politics
  • Shopping
menu icon
go to homepage
  • Style
  • Personal Care
  • Food and Drink
  • Home and Decor
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Politics
  • Shopping
search icon
Homepage link
  • Style
  • Personal Care
  • Food and Drink
  • Home and Decor
  • Travel
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Politics
  • Shopping
×
  • aerial view of Chicago, Illinois
    The Case for a Chicago City Charter — and How Voters Can Make It Happen
  • activists on the capitol lawn on a gray cloudy day.
    CDC Layoffs Include HIV/AIDS Policy Staff, Prompting Concern from Public Health Advocates
  • WhistlePig and Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake Wind Tunnel-Trialed Whiskey Is a Ryed You Don’t Want to Miss
  • 5 Things You Need to Know About Hormone Therapy From an Lgbtq+ Nurse Practitioner
  • Descanso Resort Awarded 2023 Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best
  • 4 Reasons LGBTQ+ Communities Are Getting Involved in Abortion Rights
  • HIV Progress in Treatment, but Stigma Remains a Barrier
  • The National Pride Grant for LGBTQIA+ Small Businesses
  • I Tested The Perfect Jeans and Here's What I Thought
  • 3 Tips for Protecting Your Medical Information as an LGBTQ+ Patient
  • four frozen cocktails lined up on a railing.
    The Best Margarita Recipes to Make This Year
  • Gender-Inclusive Universities and Student Privacy
Home » Style

Why Every Day Can Be Casual Friday and You Can Still Look Sharp

Updated February 24, 2022 by Buddy Early

I’ve been told on occasion I clean up well. That usually means a person is so surprised to see me wearing a dress shirt and/or tie they have no control over projectile vomiting that nonsense phrase in my direction. What does that even mean? Is it an implication that I go through life “unclean” most of the time? Does it assert that I forgo washing my shorts and t-shirts regularly, in favor of simply pulling them out of the pile and Febreze-ing them for re-wear? Does it I suggest that I don’t regularly shower in favor of having B.O.?

Wait — do I have B.O.? You guys would tell me, right?

I’ve decided to just file this with “Things White People Say” and move on. (Send your letters of complaint to Mary, P.O. Box Calm Down, Snowflake, AZ.)


Photo by Royal Anwar on Unsplash

Over the last decade, my policy has been to wear a tie to job interviews and funerals. And I haven’t been to any funerals. My hesitation to “clean up” is not because I don’t like looking sharp — a word my father used to use and I’ve come to accept as a perfectly fine descriptive word but I also have started using the word “slacks” so that may tell you something. Rather, I don’t like getting dressed up. Perhaps if Rosie from The Jetsons could drop-kick me into a suit every morning, I wouldn’t mind walking around looking like I am someone who lives to work rather than works to live.

So, bypassing the process would make a difference … temporarily. However, after two hours of being dressed up, I will undoubtedly be thinking about when I can get out of this clown suit. I mean, that’s plenty of time for enough people to see how nice I can look and maybe even capture a few pictures for posterity (or, perhaps a better word would be proof).

I’ve been lucky enough that for my entire professional career I’ve had the luxury of being able to wear whatever I want to the office. (I understand this policy can be a slippery slope. For example; I once worked at a place that had to include “No Chaps” in the dress code section of its employee handbook. Now, why do you suppose they put that in there?) I’m not one to push that envelope too far, although the flip-flop of my flip-flops as I ascended the stairs at Echo when I worked here full-time was a signal to everyone that I was approaching.


Photo by Hamza Baig on Unsplash

Let’s just say, I like to be comfortable. A lot of folks advise you should dress for the job you want, not for the job you have. That’s why I always dress like a lottery winner. And, honestly, I think all of us should.

It’s certainly not my place to tell people they shouldn’t wear a suit to work every day. But how many people stop to ask themselves why they are doing it? Does it make them more effective? Does it recharge Kevin’s brain so he can crunch those numbers better, or provide

Steve with the inspiration to draw sketches of houses?

The simplest answer is that it is “professional.” But what is dressing professionally, other than what society has deemed as such? People adhere to that notion of dressing like a Stepford employee because that’s what their father did, and his father and his father. Some of the most unprofessional people I’ve met were wearing Armani, and some of the most professional were wearing Adidas.

My work-attire choices may have cost me in the past, sure. There’s no question it is the main reason I never became a lawyer or a captain of industry.

Still, I think our country would be much more chill (a word I am using to counterbalance “sharp” and “slacks”) if we all just did business in casual attire.

I understand many of you won’t or can’t join me in this, but I’ll still be dressing like I’m always headed to a BBQ.

More Style

  • people wearing biodegradable shoes.
    This is the World's First Biodegradable Shoe
  • Alchemy, an LGBTQ+ Owned Tattoo Shop, Has a Formula for Success
  • Men and Makeup: The Perfect Glow-up To Start 2022
  • House of Colour Phoenix Wants to Empower You

The Latest

  • José Cuervo Reserva agave fields.
    Visiting Mexico with José Cuervo Reserva de la Familia

  • Coming Out for Love Launches with Live Valentine's Event

  • Jose Cuervo Releases its 2023 Reserva de la Familia

  • Financial Planning When You’re LGBTQ+ and Childfree

  • Slane Irish Whiskey bottles on the table.
    Slane Irish Whiskey Meets Atlanta Georgia

  • 3 Mental Health Considerations for Queer Elders


Footer

The Best of OUTvoices, Delivered to You

Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Magazines
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms
  • Accessibility Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Archives
  • ↑ back to top

This website contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on a product link, we may receive a commission in return. OUTvoices is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright © 2021 - 2025 OUTvoices