8 Things Men Should NEVER Wear to the Office

How we present ourselves at work sends an important message to our peers, employers, and clients about how we view our company and how we view ourselves. This guide is especially significant in office environments, both for your own benefit and the benefit of those around you. It pays literally and figuratively to dress well.

We already have a number of videos on how to dress to impress in work environments, with everything from making a good style impression during an initial interview to standing out as a sartorial, superlative solicitor, and what you should generally wear to the office. So, now, we’re taking a different approach by emphasizing how you should not dress at the office.

Obviously, we understand that every office is different and that you might very well work at an establishment where flip-flops and pajama bottoms or, perhaps, no bottoms are the normal uniform. And while our tips will apply to most corporate offices, you know your own office environment and norms best, so identify the clothing culture where you work by observing how others dress, and follow their lead when determining overall guidelines. But, it certainly won’t hurt to be familiar with the standards that we’re going to reveal today.

1. Wrinkled Clothes

It should go without saying that you should not wear stained or dirty clothes at the office, but while a wrinkled or uncapped shirt might not be as stinky as a soiled shirt, it can send almost as bad of a message. Unkempt clothing can give the impression that you can’t handle the finer points of your appearance, aren’t detail-oriented, and perhaps aren’t good at time management. 

Is your shirt wrinkled because you didn’t give yourself sufficient time to press it before you left, or because you don’t just have ten minutes to set up the ironing board? Because, believe it or not, that really is all it takes to iron a shirt when you employ the tips that Raphael shows you in this video. So, invest time in your appearance by carefully ironing your shirt and trousers, and ironing or steaming your jacket.

Following these simple steps to achieve a neat overall appearance will not only make your clothes exponentially more elegant. Still, it will also highlight your dedication to a neat personal Image and boost your own self-confidence. And what better way to feel like a Madison Avenue magnet than a sharply-pressed white shirt like those worn by Don Draper in Mad Men.

2. Excessively Casual Clothing

In many fields, the overall formality of dress in many offices has declined significantly. The staff in the 2010 season of The Office certainly doesn’t dress to the same standard scene in the 1960 film The Apartment. But, even the staff had Dunder Mifflin suited up sometimes.

There are some outfits that are even too casual for Jim Halpert. Excessively casual clothing can imply that you don’t take your job too seriously and that you, yourself, are not a serious person. It also implies that you lack the common sense to understand basic dress codes and standards of dress.

On that note, we want to be clear that degrees of formality do vary from office to office, so what might be acceptable in one business environment might not be acceptable in another. For instance, you could probably never wear a polo shirt while working at a high-end financial firm, unless you’re wearing it while actually on the racquetball court.

Although, a polo might be just right in a customer support office; but, in that same customer support office, jeans and a T-shirt might be too informal. And while jeans and a T-shirt might fly in various casual, creative, or tech firms, we suspect that even notoriously casual Silicon Valley executive, Mark Zuckerberg, might frown on an employee running around in running shorts and a T-shirt.

We have a guide covering the particulars of all the basic dress codes – from business formal to business casual. But, generally speaking, we believe that the following garments are just too casual for all. These include T-shirts, especially graphic tees; shorts, especially cargo shorts; casual jeans, and more formal jeans should only be worn in relatively casual offices; pajamas and other sleepwear; athletic apparel, such as tracksuits, tank tops, exercise shoes, and jerseys; and beachwear, for example, sandals, flip-flops, and Hawaiian shirts, unless your company still practices Aloha Friday.

It is also possible to be overdressed at work, and while that is better than being underdressed, it could cause others to act defensively around you if they see that you’re trying to show off or act snobby. But, most of the time, if you make it clear that you’re dressing up because you liked to and not because you think you’re better than anybody else, your stylish dressing habits will be accepted. Raphael has, even more, to say on the topic of how to dress up when others don’t. 

3. Anything Divisive or Vulgar

While working in an office, you’re part of a team, and working as a team means avoiding unnecessary conflict or division. Sporting clothing that features divisive language or obscenities can unnecessarily turn people against you, potentially alienating your bosses and co-workers or upsetting clients.

Strident mantras could imply that you’re confrontational or perhaps hard to work with. And while you’re on company time, you’re the public face of your company, so any extreme opinions or off-color jokes will reflect on your employers. That’s why we recommend that you refrain from wearing any clothing that could be seen as divisive or vulgar while at work. 

So, unless you’re employed by a political campaign, avoid political paraphernalia or slogans, and be mindful of incendiary phrases. We suspect that your wealthy client won’t find the “Eat the Rich” T-shirt very clever.

You should also avoid any items intentionally worn to annoy others, like that time I wore a St. Olaf lapel pin to wrinkle Preston. In fact, in most cases, we feel pretty secure in saying that, other than company branding, words and phrases really don’t belong in office attire. Instead, tell people about yourself and your personality with a unique and memorable accessory like a tasteful and totally work-appropriate necktie.

4. Anything That Impedes your Work (or Others’)

Clothing that gets in the way of work should also not – surprise, surprise – be worn at work. By this, we mean clothing or accessories that make it difficult for you or others to get things done. Fussy clothing would be an obvious offender.

If you’re constantly fiddling with an errant tie tail or unable to type easily lest you scratch your delicate cufflinks, you’re not going to be very useful. Likewise, if you’re an architect that has to tour muddy construction sites, calfskin loafers with cashmere socks aren’t going to be work appropriate in this situation.

You should be very aware of anything that might annoy or distract your co-workers, like obnoxiously loud taps in your shoes or jangling bracelets. The office is a communal space, so be courteous and avoid wearing anything that makes it harder for you or anyone else to get their job done.

5. Excessive Fragrance

This point is actually very closely related to our previous point, but it is important enough to cover on its own. While you may wish that you could bathe in Creed Aventus, strong odors can be very distracting and perhaps irritating or nauseating to others.

Some offices have even declared themselves fragrance-free zones, and you don’t want anyone wondering what kind of smells you’re trying to mask with an overpowering fragrance.

So, fragrances that you wear at work should be subtle, which is one of the most important fragrance hacks that I cover in another guide. Suffice it to say, if you left the meeting room at 11AM, and it still smells like you at 3PM, you’re wearing too much fragrance.

6. Excessively Trendy or Flashy Clothing

We’re not the biggest fans of trendy or flashy clothing care at the Gentleman’s Gazette. But, we think that most of us can agree that unless you work in high fashion, over-the-top clothing does not belong at the office.

Modish garments or accessories could give the impression that you’re compensating for something, and contemporary fashion, in particular, tends to be very distracting. A walk to the water cooler shouldn’t look like you’re strutting on the catwalk. So, save your ripped or skinny jeans for another time and avoid blinged-out watches, chunky chains, bulky rings, and similarly flashy jewelry before 5 PM. Raphael explains why in the Do’s and Don’ts of Men’s Jewelry.

To make a big impact without being in your face, consider tasteful cufflinks in a classic, timeless design like a monkey’s fist or an eagle’s claw.

The corporate office is also no place for evening wear – by which, we mean, figuratively, any clothing that is better suited for an after-work excursion, like a jewel-tone shirt or shark skin suit or literal evening clothes like Black or White Tie, unless you’re attending a formal company gala or your Jack Donoghue.

7. Style Blunders

While it isn’t fair, people will almost invariably always judge you on how you dress and any mistakes that you might make while dressing. So, it’s essential that you avoid making style errors that could diminish others’ opinions of you and contribute to the assumption that someone who can’t avoid style mistakes is also likely to mess up somewhere else.

Obviously, how you dress doesn’t inherently indicate how good you are at your job, but helping you avoid style faux pas will help you make the best possible impression, and it doesn’t hurt that you’ll look more stylish, too. So, ensure that all of your clothing is perfectly fitted, so no one mistakes baggy or sagging trousers or overly-long sleeves for a clown’s costume.

While on the subject of your lower half, there’s a whole category of fashion faux pas we’ve dubbed “sock slip-ups” that could make you wish you’d never set foot in an office before. These include wearing glaringly high-contrast, white socks with dark shoes or any kind of athletic socks with dress shoes; and wearing the wrong types of socks, like short socks that constantly fall down; or boring plain black or navy socks.

These do nothing to enliven the rest of your outfit, unlike the seven essential socks here. Most of these mistakes can be avoided by learning how to properly pair trousers, socks, and shoes, and we have a free E-book that teaches you exactly how to do that.

We’ll also mention belt blunders – which can range from unnecessarily wearing both suspenders and a belt to keeping up your pants to wearing a belt with a waistcoat. A character actually does this in Mad Men. Find out how Raphael breaks down what the show got wrong about 1960s menswear.

We hope that wearing hats indoors can go without saying, and we don’t want you to get the false impression that you’re inexperienced or juvenile by wearing a clip-on or pre-tied necktie or bow tie. So, we have easy-to-follow guides that explain how to tie each yourself; just like we have. One is a guide that explains how to complement, not exactly match, your necktie to your pocket square so it doesn’t look like you buy all of your accessories as cheap, fixed sets.

Avoiding these style faux pas will help you to put your best foot forward in the office and ensure that no one makes snap judgments about you based on errors in your clothing. After all, helping you to avoid style mistakes is one of the many things we love to do here at Gentleman’s Gazette.

8. Anything that Doesn’t Help You Look Your Best

Let’s take the cumulative total of everything we’ve discussed here today, and combine it into one catch-all category – never wear anything to the office that doesn’t help you look your best.

Yes, we realize that could be a pretty broad category, but how you dress directly impacts how you feel at work and how others perceive you, so it only makes sense to invest time and energy to build a work wardrobe that works for you while at work. That means ditching unnecessary garments that have no place in your wardrobe, not getting caught up in bad style rules that you can safely avoid, and ignoring these menswear gimmicks that you just don’t need. And for more useful information about what you should or should not wear to look great in classic style, just stick around here at the Gentleman’s Gazette.

Helping you look your best both at and away from the office, it’s sort of our specialty and one of our other favorite things to do.

Conclusion

Now that you know what we think should never be worn at work. Let us know what you think. Tell us in the comments if you agree or disagree with our list, and share any big no-no’s that we might have missed.

Would my outfit today fit in at a prestigious Wall Street firm, or would Gordon Gecko tell me to go buy a new suit?

Outfit Rundown

Today, I’m wearing a navy blue, single-breasted suit with black dress shoes, shadow-stripe Fort Belvedere socks, and, of course, a Fort Belvedere pocket square to finish things off. Check out the Fort Belvedere shop for socks like these.