Casual Cocktail Attire for men is what?

[Anonymous]

We're invited to an "Evening Garden Party" given by a partner in my husband's firm and the invites says Casual Cocktail Attire. It's tomorrow and of course he only remembered to tell me about it on Monday. I've got a dress that will work fine ($20 at Ross, whoo-hoo!), but my husband is another story. He wears not very stylish dress pants with shirt and tie to work, and slobby jeans or shorts and t-shirts, maybe a polo when he's not at work.

Suggestions for him? I was thinking khakis (which we will have to run out and buy if the ones I bought him today don't fit) and a less formal buttoned shirt, something with fun stripes maybe?

[Anonymous]

I would go with khakis and either a nice button down shirt - stripes are fine or a "hip" short sleeve shirt - maybe black?

[Anonymous]

If your husband is a summer associate at the firm, or if the partner is fairly senior, I'd consider adding a summer-weight blazer to the khakis and striped shirt, if you can find one that fits before the event. If not, it's not a huge deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your husband is a summer associate at the firm, or if the partner is fairly senior, I'd consider adding a summer-weight blazer to the khakis and striped shirt, if you can find one that fits before the event. If not, it's not a huge deal.

Ditto. If upwardly aspiring, it's far better to be overdressed rather than underdressed, and he can take the blazer off if he wants. I would not go with a short-sleeved shirt or anything too "fun" - it's better to be on the more conservative side in this situation. Partners can wear what they want, but your husband can't.

Basically "casual cocktail attire" means no tie - it doesn't actually mean casual, imho.

[Anonymous]

OP here, I should have added that we're out west, not in DC anymore, so it's probably a little more lax. Cowboy boots are not unusual in his office! He's not a summer associate, but the host is a senior guy and this is a networking thing because people from multiple offices will be there.

I'd love to see him wear a blazer but it might be a struggle to talk him into it. We're in the middle of a lot of home renovations and so no time to go shopping, and not sure if what he has is summer enough, I'll have to look. And we need to clean the drywall dust off his shoes (he has managed to wear every pair of shoes into the debris from scraping off popcorn ceilings this week somehow!)

Thankfully the khaki's I picked up fit! We'll do that with a long sleeve dress shirt.

Thanks for all the advice/reassurances--I think he'll look fine--I will work on talking him into the Blazer, even if it comes off pretty quickly once we're there. And once we've finished our renovations and moved in I'm going to get a babysitter and drag him to a department store, because the lack of wardrobe is ridiculous.