Hello, friends, and happy Friday! ‘Tis the time for summer social events, and a lot of them are formally or informally dress-coded. Business casual. White tie. Black tie. Creative black tie. Semiformal. Festive. Elegant. Dressy casual. Whisky-tango-fox, over? Okay, there are a lot of decisions. But for the guys out there, most of these involve limited choices – tux/no tux, sport coat with khakis/sport coat with jeans, and if they’re in the Army, a collared shirt is going to make its fashion backward appearance {seriously, boys, you do have options other than polo shirts, I promise!}. So what do all those mean for women?
Most of the functions I’m hitting this summer before skating out of Virginia are some variety of business casual. I want to tackle this one today, because “business casual” is the biggest lie in the fashion world, especially if the event is held in the late afternoon or evening. It isn’t what we’d consider “casual” at all. It’s right there with the “casual elegant” that’s been cropping up lately. Unless you’re Richard Branson or rich enough to buck the rules, for the guys, it’s sport jacket and slacks. Maybe for a business casual lunch, they can get away with khakis, but not after that. Granted, there are no set “rules” and you might not necessarily get tossed out of the country club, but it’s easier to explain away being overdressed than it is being underdressed.
So what does this translate to for ladies? I’ve pulled together three different evening business casual options for this iteration of Friday Style, all of which are geared toward events I have coming up.
Let’s start with option 1.
Masculine styles with a feminine twist are still pretty hot right now, so a fitted blazer and slacks does the trick, but let’s stay away from the button-down blouse or the polo shirt. A knit shirt or shell with a nice neckline does the trick and leaves you some room to show off jewelry. And you can go either with flats or with a nice wedge to dress it up.
Now for option 2.
Sometimes, you really don’t want to be wearing a jacket, and I’m not a cardigan person, no matter how light, so layered shirts and light summer scarves are my options for a warm-day-gone-to-summer-evening. You can mix up this option with pants or a skirt. I went for a pencil skirt this time and with those, you’re just going to want some tall shoes – but make sure those tall shoes have enough class for you to be taken seriously.
And finally, option 3.
This one is probably a little, ahem, saucier than I’d go, but I do love the look of a dressy shirt-dress with pops of color in the belt and shoes. This is one that could easily transition from a business casual event to a night out – I’d save this one for a function I dragged my husband to and we wanted to go out afterward.
Dressing for business events is always tricky – the way you choose to present yourself says a lot about you and the impression you want to make, so you want to be fun but not floozy, dressed appropriately but not frumpy, polished and poised, and when the occasion calls for it, a little bit of glamour. Most business casual evenings are social occasions, where networking is the order of the day and charm is called for, so the polish should still be there, but less severely than in other events.
Then again, that’s just my take on things. I’d love to hear what you think! What would you break out for an evening business casual event, be it a networking social, an upscale dinner, or power get-together?
Here’s hoping everyone has a wonderful Friday!