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.

Highly embarrassing overdressing incident: floor length gown on Sunday morning sneaking back to my dorm and NOT early enough in the morning. It was a small college too.

Anonymous wrote:I look underdressed no matter what I wear because of my middle aged body

Buy clothes that fit

Over

It really, really depends. I think either extreme would make me uncomfortable. Would wearing a floor length gown when everyone else is in a cocktail dress make me more or less uncomfortable than if I were wearing a casual sun dress in the same situation? Assuming it’s an evening event, I would probably feel more embarrassed in the sun dress, honestly.

Or showing up to a meeting in a suit when everyone else is business casual would make me less uncomfortable than if I had shown up in jeans and a T-shirt.

Ugh last night I had a choice. I accidentally went underdressed (the difference was a pair of shoes. I decided to bring both pairs in the car with me and decide last minute. But when I arrived, I had not brought the second pair!)

So I was borderline underdressed last night. Totally regret it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess overdressed if I had to pick. Though I’m probably usually underdressed in actuality.

Do you know that Harry Potter “pop up” bar in Octobers in Adams Morgan? Well I went there as a 35 year old mother of 3 with my single sister who wanted to go. Anyway I thought EVERYONE there would be dressed in costume. Naturally, I went in full on Hermoine. Anyway only about 5% of people were dressed up!!! WTF. Lol. Then when we left I was just straight up walking down 18th street in costume in early October and someone across the street yelled: 10 points to Gryffindor! Lol.

Exhibit A under "why DCUM needs like buttons." Love your story!

Back to the question: overdressed, but just a little.

That is a GREAT story!!!! AW

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).

+ 1

Like Mark Zuckerberg and his hoodies

The main character on Billions is like this too - wears tee shirts and jeans in every episode

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).

+ 1

Like Mark Zuckerberg and his hoodies

This is OP - and I am the one who talked in a previous thread about slob privilege (no one liked when I said that - sorry). So I think you are def onto something.

I'm white and in my 40s. We aren't rich in terms of net worth - I am still paying off ridiculous student loans, and we are WAY behind on retirement savings, etc - but we would be real a******* if we complained about our HHI, which these days is around $190k. (I usually describe us, in my head, as broke UMC people.) I do think that being a "comfortable" white person contributes to me feeling good about being underdressed, for sure.

Mostly I just don't feel like myself when I am very dressed up. Though last night I attended a meeting where lots of people were dressed way down, and I wore a dress - and did feel like it was nice to have that bit of sartorial authority. So maybe I only think of myself as enjoying being underdressed but actually I don't. HM.

Anonymous wrote:I guess overdressed if I had to pick. Though I’m probably usually underdressed in actuality.

Do you know that Harry Potter “pop up” bar in Octobers in Adams Morgan? Well I went there as a 35 year old mother of 3 with my single sister who wanted to go. Anyway I thought EVERYONE there would be dressed in costume. Naturally, I went in full on Hermoine. Anyway only about 5% of people were dressed up!!! WTF. Lol. Then when we left I was just straight up walking down 18th street in costume in early October and someone across the street yelled: 10 points to Gryffindor! Lol.

Exhibit A under "why DCUM needs like buttons." Love your story!

Back to the question: overdressed, but just a little.

Overdressed.

Being underdressed for an occasion sucks.

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).

+ 1

Like Mark Zuckerberg and his hoodies

Anonymous wrote:Under for sure

Over = tring too hard

Better to look like you don’t care

This

Anonymous wrote:
I'm European and think I am always appropriately dressed, but then I see Americans going to the opera in jeans and T-shirts and feel like an alien.

Americans are definitely underdressed compared to some other countries. I recently went to Japan and they are quite formal compared to the US. The only people I saw wearing athleisure were American tourists.

I guess overdressed if I had to pick. Though I’m probably usually underdressed in actuality.

Do you know that Harry Potter “pop up” bar in Octobers in Adams Morgan? Well I went there as a 35 year old mother of 3 with my single sister who wanted to go. Anyway I thought EVERYONE there would be dressed in costume. Naturally, I went in full on Hermoine. Anyway only about 5% of people were dressed up!!! WTF. Lol. Then when we left I was just straight up walking down 18th street in costume in early October and someone across the street yelled: 10 points to Gryffindor! Lol.