Vintage clothing might lose you that job interview!!

[Lincsong]

The anti-brown suit bias is much stronger on the East Coast than the West. I think it is due largely to the lingering influence of the British style. Anything other than greys or navies were/are considered country clothes... "Brown not in Town". Brown suits are much more accepted on the West Coast. Remember the sound of ruffled feathers in 1981 when Reagan took office and wore brown suits? I've also heard it said the greys and navies reflect better the urban environment where browns and olives would be out of place. Not that that really applies with the advent of office parks and extensive landscaping.

Haversack.

and brown just goes better with some people's complexion.
Bush St. and Jr. and Clinton have a complexion that goes with darker colors. Reagan could pull of both looks. (Must be that black Irish thing)

Way to go Reagan and the brown suits!:eusa_clap

 

[LizzieMaine]

The full length fur overcoat and spectator shoes might be a tough sell though...
[/COLOR]

I worked with a guy in radio who sometimes came to work on cold winter days in a spectacular full-length Freddy-the-Freshman-style raccoon coat. And he was a *salesman* to boot. The coat was always a good conversation starter with clients...

 

[Elaina]

When I worked at McD's I HAD to wear a uniform. Didn't stop me from wearing vintage slacks/skirts and even vintage ties (one of the corp guys gave me 4 of them from 1959-1962).

I think it depends. I went to my job interview in jeans, heeled boots and a sweater, and they STILL hired me as a manager.

 

[Jay]

If I had to go to a job interview I'd dress in vintage. Is the business world really still against individualism still? Perhaps a gray flannel suit would be more appropriate? This is kind of lame. I don't like to be told how to dress, let alone to dress like everyone else. Maybe it's just me..

 

[koopkooper]

I recently went to an interview and it seemed like disapointment after disapointment. First I turned up at the business which was located in the worst part of town. Had trouble finding their door upstairs, went inside to get into a rickety old elevator that had seen better days and better smells.

Went upstairs to the biggest dive of an office for the interview.Ofcourse I am wearing a nice forties suit, hat in hand, met the panel who were wearing dirty tshirts, jeans and dirty sneakers. One of the panel nervously giggled "we're a bit casual around here" I replied "yes I couldn't help but notice"

Suffice to say I didn't get the job, nor actually want the job after that experience. Besides the fact the job description was actually nothing like how they explained it to me. I was actually more qualified than any of them.
Oh well, would've hated it anyway.

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

The person who wrote this article is speaking in a generalized way, like warbird had said. They can't speak for any employeer. How many interviewers would actually know that what you are wearing is out of date? What do they consider out of date? I have a suit from JC Pennies that was bought 2 years ago. Does that make it out of date?

 

[Orgetorix]

Reagan was also the last U.S. president to wear a morning coat to his (first) inauguration, and to wear white tie and tails to his inaugural ball in D.C..

Reagan wore a stroller to his first inauguration, not a morning coat. The last President to wear a full-on morning coat to his inauguration may have been Kennedy.

 

[Fletch]

Went upstairs to the biggest dive of an office for the interview.Ofcourse I am wearing a nice forties suit, hat in hand, met the panel who were wearing dirty tshirts, jeans and dirty sneakers. One of the panel nervously giggled "we're a bit casual around here" I replied "yes I couldn't help but notice"

Suffice to say I didn't get the job, nor actually want the job after that experience.

Seems as tho mere cleanliness would have disqualified you in that shop.

Was this a "new media" or IT gig? That industry has a dress code as strict as any: look cazh' at all times or get treated like an uptight "suit."

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Reagan wore a stroller to his first inauguration, not a morning coat.

Quite right. Thanks!

.

 

[Fletch]

Reagan wore a stroller to his first inauguration

...and a walker to his last one!! HEE HEE HAW HAW HYUK HYUK HEE lol *COUGH* *CHOKE*

 

[Twitch]

While most of us can wear any nice and neat combo of clothing and land a job make note there are some high powered compaines that have an unwritten dress code for the upper echelon. You may be told that only dark colors are appropriate when interacting with your client base. No colored shirts- white only. Don't even think about 2-tone shoes. Black and dark brown conservative footwear only. No colored hankies protruding from breast pockets. No off color socks either. Black, navy or dark brown.

Even double breated suits can be a stretch in some corporations due to the fact, as it was once put to me, that they represent old fashioned outlooks when a dynamic, modern, yet conservative, portrayal is what is desired to project to clients. A tan or powder blue suit won't fit where a light gray or medium blue will. Brown in any most any tone is considered a low class color. "Sports" combinations might require absolutely no plaids where the gray slacks an navy blazer is the norm.

That's the reality of the ivory tower. Anyone waltzing into a Fortune 500 company expecting to be considered as a serious applicant had better not wear their 1940s costume and expect to be hired.

 

[Senator Jack]

While most of us can wear any nice and neat combo of clothing and land a job make note there are some high powered compaines that have an unwritten dress code for the upper echelon. You may be told that only dark colors are appropriate when interacting with your client base. No colored shirts- white only. Don't even think about 2-tone shoes. Black and dark brown conservative footwear only. No colored hankies protruding from breast pockets. No off color socks either. Black, navy or dark brown.

Even double breated suits can be a stretch in some corporations due to the fact, as it was once put to me, that they represent old fashioned outlooks when a dynamic, modern, yet conservative, portrayal is what is desired to project to clients. A tan or powder blue suit won't fit where a light gray or medium blue will. Brown in any most any tone is considered a low class color. "Sports" combinations might require absolutely no plaids where the gray slacks an navy blazer is the norm.

That's the reality of the ivory tower. Anyone waltzing into a Fortune 500 company expecting to be considered as a serious applicant had better not wear their 1940s costume and expect to be hired.

This is why we live in a pit of mediocrity.

 

[AlanC]

I recently went to an interview and it seemed like disapointment after disapointment. First I turned up at the business which was located in the worst part of town. Had trouble finding their door upstairs, went inside to get into a rickety old elevator that had seen better days and better smells.

Went upstairs to the biggest dive of an office for the interview.Ofcourse I am wearing a nice forties suit, hat in hand, met the panel who were wearing dirty tshirts, jeans and dirty sneakers. One of the panel nervously giggled "we're a bit casual around here" I replied "yes I couldn't help but notice"

Suffice to say I didn't get the job, nor actually want the job after that experience. Besides the fact the job description was actually nothing like how they explained it to me. I was actually more qualified than any of them.
Oh well, would've hated it anyway.

And this is the other end of the spectrum: slobwear. But you can't really expect that showing up for a business interview in spectators and a raccoon coat is appropriate, either. I suspect that back in the day that wouldn't have been viewed as the right thing for, say, a banking job. A lot of the more flamboyant things were country or resort wear, not business wear. Remember the old 'no brown in town' rule. That's not a modern rule. I've seen a number of members post pictures of themselves in very classic vintage suits that look appropriate for business. The wonderful thing about the Golden Era clothes is that they are classic in their styling. I'd rather show up in a well proportioned 30s suit than a 70s monstrosity.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Anyone waltzing into a Fortune 500 company expecting to be considered as a serious applicant had better not wear their 1940s costume and expect to be hired.

Absolutely right. Those company boys and girls may not be able to identify your suit's decade (let alone year), but they will detect the little details that make it "odd": lapel size and shape, trouser bagginess, etc. If you must make a statement in a corporation, don't do it with your clothes. Work hard; network intelligently; smile often; don't pass on gossip but keep your ears wide open to it. Leave your '40s suits for the evenings and weekends.


.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Even double breated suits can be a stretch in some corporations due to the fact, as it was once put to me, that they represent old fashioned outlooks when a dynamic, modern, yet conservative, portrayal is what is desired to project to clients.

This is why we live in a pit of mediocrity.

It has always been this way. In the '30s, a young man or woman couldn't go to a company job interview wearing a Victorian suit or dress, no matter how elegant and appropriate those clothes were in the 1880s.

.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Add another thing to the list of why humanity sucks.

I always said i'd end up a hermit in a cave. I actively want that life if it means i don't have to deal with humans who think it matters how you dress. (And no, i don't care if someone is naked on the street or wearing their pyjamas. It just doesn't make a big dot on my radar.)

bk

 

[Marc Chevalier]

(And no, i don't care if someone is naked on the street or wearing their pyjamas. It just doesn't make a big dot on my radar.)

Bless you!!!! I thought that Denise, Lauren and I were the only ones here who felt this way!


Chevalier's personal philosophy: I try to dress as well as I can, but I don't give a hoot whether others do the same or not. Make the knowledge available; whether folks use it or not is their own business. Don't get in a huff if they don't. There are lots more important things in life to really worry about.

.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Bless you!!!! I thought that Denise, Lauren and I were the only ones here who felt this way!


Chevalier's personal philosophy: I try to dress as well as I can, but I don't give a hoot whether others do the same or not. Make the knowledge available; whether folks use it or not is their own business. Don't get in a huff if they don't. There are lots more important things in life to really worry about.

.

precis: i may think it looks bad (and probably i do, if it looks slobby), but i just don't care enough to worry about it.

[Passes someone on street] "god that looks terrible"

Were i to annunciate such an opinion to the person i was walking with, i would have to look again to remind myself what was bad about it. A similar notion used to be described as "in one ear and out the other" when one was hearing something that didn't matter. This is something like it (the clashing ensemble, let's say) making the image on the retina, but it isn't really being transmitted to the brain. I think there was something in A Study in Scarlet where Watson has just read to Holmes his list of Holmes' abilities, and lack of:

Knowledge of Literature - Nil

. . .

Knowledge of Sensational Literature - profound, he appears to know every detail of every horror perpetrated in the century

etc etc etc

Holmes then propounds his theory that the brain is a limited vessel and that everything you put in takes space up, leaving less space for other more important things. (I may, in fact, be conflating two stories but the point remains valid.) How someone else dresses would fall into the category of "not important" for me. It may look bad but it certainly doesn't offend me.

bk

 

[happyfilmluvguy]

Bless you!!!! I thought that Denise, Lauren and I were the only ones here who felt this way!


Chevalier's personal philosophy: I try to dress as well as I can, but I don't give a hoot whether others do the same or not. Make the knowledge available; whether folks use it or not is their own business. Don't get in a huff if they don't. There are lots more important things in life to really worry about.

.

:eusa_clap

I wish this writer could say the same about old clothes

The next job interview I go to, I'll wear pajamas. They must conform to the likes of itchy pants with Pink Floyd written all over it (literally).

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Chevalier's personal philosophy: I try to dress as well as I can, but I don't give a hoot whether others do the same or not. Make the knowledge available; whether folks use it or not is their own business.

You know, there are many who follow this exact philosophy.

I've lived under this banner for a number of years, and was largely driven to it by the kind of drivel that says "no tweed in town" "no brown for business" etc etc tsetse

(of course, i fully understand that if i want a job i need to follow "their rules" but i do it under sufferance, and will argue to the day i die that the "rules" are merely a pile of garbage designed to homogenise the workforce and therby make them malleable to the machinations of the ruling classes - bring on my cave!)

bk