Associate Advice, Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Summer Associates

Summer Fashion Tips

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This month’s heat wave forced professional types to start desperately thinking about whether spaghetti straps and speedos are appropriate attire for the office. (Hint: they’re not.)

Many offices do go casual over the summer, though. At Weil Gotshal, for example, you can buy your way into a pair of jeans on Friday. Says a tipster (with some high-rise excitement):

did you hear that weil is starting jeans fridays for july and august as a test run and potentially forever! in order to participate, we must pay $5 to go to a designated charity each month. we have had these $5 jeans fridays in the past maybe every other month… but now it’s every friday!

The downside: Those who don’t turn up in jeans on Fridays are revealed as either ridiculously stuffy or too cheap to give to charity.

Need help with clothing choices this summer? A recent career newsletter from The Ladders had a useful feature on summer fashion, including dos and don’ts. The photo at right is among those featured. Is it a fashion do or a don’t?

It’s a fashion disaster do. From The Ladders [pdf]:

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Two Summer Wardrobe Essentials: Perfect Khakis, Perfect Dress Shoes

What makes them so perfect? The khakis would look just as good dressed down with tennis sneakers or sandals, and the shoes would look equally great with a navy suit or blue jeans. Bottom line: You get your money’s worth. Note the way the khakis break at the bottom? This is how every pair of trousers should fit.

Really? Every pair of pants should fit like that — hugging an associate’s gavel? Perhaps Corporette should give him a heads up.

This outfit struck us more as an actual do:

Cool and confident… and gonna beat out cocky khakis man for a law firm job offer.

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The article suggests five items that every professional male and female should be packing this summer:

Five things every man needs:

  • An unlined wool suit jacket
  • A handkerchief
  • Breath strips
  • A shoe shine
  • A proper, structured leather briefcase with handles

Wool in the summer…. *shudder*.

Men need to tame their breath; women have to tame their hair:

Five things every woman needs:

  • A medium-size canvas or leather tote bag
  • A statement necklace
  • Ballet flats
  • Frizz-reducing hair product
  • A structured, sleeveless, belted dress

Full article can be found here [PDF], with useful tips on how not to look sweaty and unpolished this summer.

Are there any colleagues you’ll be forwarding this to, stat? Have there been any fashion disasters at your firm this summer?

What to Wear to Summer Job Interviews [The Ladders]
Can You Give Unsolicited Fashion Advice to Interns? [Corporette]

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