would you rather be overdressed or underdressed>

[Anonymous]

Can OP give us some more parameters? Overdressed, as in I'm wearing my Brooks Brothers linen suit and leather slingback pumps to a work conference and everyone else is wearing souvenir t-shirts from the Women's March, jeans and Tevas? That's happened to me. Since I can't imagine anyone would wear a floor-length gown unless the invitation said Black Tie, that seems out of the question. I do see lots of women who clearly styled their hair for the occasion, have a full face of makeup, heels, jewelry, and a snazzy outfit for a lunch get together with friends while all the others showed up in something they probably wear for light gardening. In that situation I'd be bummed out that I was wearing Spanx unnecessarily, but fine with the fact that I look more put together than my peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can OP give us some more parameters? Overdressed, as in I'm wearing my Brooks Brothers linen suit and leather slingback pumps to a work conference and everyone else is wearing souvenir t-shirts from the Women's March, jeans and Tevas? That's happened to me. Since I can't imagine anyone would wear a floor-length gown unless the invitation said Black Tie, that seems out of the question. I do see lots of women who clearly styled their hair for the occasion, have a full face of makeup, heels, jewelry, and a snazzy outfit for a lunch get together with friends while all the others showed up in something they probably wear for light gardening. In that situation I'd be bummed out that I was wearing Spanx unnecessarily, but fine with the fact that I look more put together than my peers.

This is OP - and it sounds like you set the parameters properly! You prefer to be overdressed - except that given the option of not wearing Spanx you'd (correctly) take it.

I guess I was thinking that you are either slightly more dressed up or slightly more dressed down than those you are with - either for a social event, work, or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Depends. For dinner at someone's house or something, I'd rather be overdressed. For a casual thing or one that might involve physical activity, I'd rather be underdressed.

[Anonymous]

Overdressed all the way

Daywear: I often include multiple layers or elements to my outfit so i can simplify and fit in if I need to

Formal wear: Overdressed 100%. Id never want to be the person in a cocktail dress at a black tie event even if 90% of the women are wearing dresses above their knee bc they dont know what "black tie" means.

[Anonymous]

Overdressed, but properly/appropriately dressed for the occasion, if that makes sense. As in, I’d rather wear a suit to a meeting where everyone else is business casual, but not a ball gown to the same meeting.

[Anonymous]

If there is a range of what I think would be acceptable, I tend to be on the dressier side of that range.

[Anonymous]

Overdressed. I often dress up just because I like clothes and fashion. I am the one at the girls brunch or moms night out that really looks dressed up and I don’t mind. I’m not insecure, I just really like having someplace to wear fun clothes!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Overdressed if I had to choose. And I’m not an overdresser normally. In the US any more you have to try pretty hard to underdress.

+1 to all of the above.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:An interesting corollary question would be what is your ethnicity and HHI/net worth.

My suspicion is that white rich people would rather be under dressed than over. They don’t like to show their hand (I.e. show that they care).

Moderately rich white woman here. My natural instinct is to overdress, and that's what I generally prefer, but I force myself to underdress sometimes so that I don't appear to be high maintenance (which I'm not, really, I just like dressing up when the opportunity presents itself - perfectly happy to dress rugged for camping/hiking/fishing/etc). Ironically, I underdress to fit in.

This is a white woman thing, for sure. I am *never* thinking about that, ever.

[Anonymous]

I'm bi coastal and often feel overdressed on the west coast and underdressed on the east coast wearing the same clothes. In these cases, the California casual folks seem more accepting that I'm dressed differently than the east coast society folks. So I guess I'll pick overdressed, but have a hard time doing it here in the east.

[Anonymous]

Apparently, EVERYONE is overdressed. How do we explain capri pants then? Somebody is not telling the truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently, EVERYONE is overdressed. How do we explain capri pants then? Somebody is not telling the truth.

LOLLLLLLL and all the ugly shoes that show up here and all the people saying "I don't care how I look" and so on

[Anonymous]

It depends. I don’t want to be the one wearing jeans when everyone else is in business attire. However, I am totally OK wearing a business like dress where most other women are in cocktail dresses.

[Anonymous]

It depends entirely on the situation.

I wouldn't want to be the only one wearing business casual at a formal business event where everyone else is wearing suits.

I also wouldn't want to be the only one showing up in a formal evening gown where everyone else is in tee shirts and jeans.

I think the best strategy is to aim for a little bit nicer than you really need.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under for sure

Over is embarrassing

It shows you care too much what other people think.

What if it's more of a "oh i'm excited that I have an event to dress up for!" and not "oh i am wearing this because I care too much about what others think!". Do you assume the latter?