Anonymous wrote:Everyone I know who dresses well is financially well off. Unless they are young! Everyone I know who looks shlumpy or blah just doesn’t have the budget for knock out clothes. Fabrics are crap these days. It costs a fortune to buy well tailored pieces. So I hold no judgement. As long as you are neat and have good hygiene.

You're wrong. I know TONS of people with tons of disposable cash that dress blah. They just don't care. And I know tons of people who have way less money that dress great.

Everyone I know who dresses well is financially well off. Unless they are young! Everyone I know who looks shlumpy or blah just doesn’t have the budget for knock out clothes. Fabrics are crap these days. It costs a fortune to buy well tailored pieces. So I hold no judgement. As long as you are neat and have good hygiene.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read through this thread, in my cube, wearing my loft sheath dress topped by a loft draped blazer and my couple of year old tory burch knee high two-toned boots.

Basic as charged.

You wore a dress to work. That ain't basic. That took some effort. Yoga pants and uggs with a t-shirt, however...

Does anyone wear that to work unless they are a SAHM or yoga teacher?

Anonymous wrote:


You can wear Hermes to a government office. I do it all the time--have been asked a time or two if I was wearing Tommy Hilfiger.

Doesn’t that sort of encapsulate the point? Overall, greater DC doesn’t recognize or care much about high fashion. It is not a high fashion city, and for the most part is fine with that. Other than OP I guess.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You dress for your audience. Know your audience. If you are going to a government office to present, leave the Hermes at home. If you are going to Wall Street to present, take the Hermes.

You can wear Hermes to a government office. I do it all the time--have been asked a time or two if I was wearing Tommy Hilfiger.

Bet that took the wind out of your sails. (Who mistakes Hermes for Hilfiger?)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just read through this thread, in my cube, wearing my loft sheath dress topped by a loft draped blazer and my couple of year old tory burch knee high two-toned boots.

Basic as charged.

You wore a dress to work. That ain't basic. That took some effort. Yoga pants and uggs with a t-shirt, however...

No, no, no! Why do people think wearing a dress takes effort? A dress is the adult female equivalent of a onesie--it takes no effort whatsoever. I wear exclusively dresses and always get compliments on the "effort" I make, fashionwise. It bemuses me. Separates are much more complicated.

Anonymous wrote:I just read through this thread, in my cube, wearing my loft sheath dress topped by a loft draped blazer and my couple of year old tory burch knee high two-toned boots.

Basic as charged.

You wore a dress to work. That ain't basic. That took some effort. Yoga pants and uggs with a t-shirt, however...

I just read through this thread, in my cube, wearing my loft sheath dress topped by a loft draped blazer and my couple of year old tory burch knee high two-toned boots.

Basic as charged.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You dress for your audience. Know your audience. If you are going to a government office to present, leave the Hermes at home. If you are going to Wall Street to present, take the Hermes.

You can wear Hermes to a government office. I do it all the time--have been asked a time or two if I was wearing Tommy Hilfiger.

I feel your pain

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why posters are SO MAD about it. Just look better than everyone else and feel superior about it. If everyone looked great, you'd have no one to feel superior to. Be glad.

+1 I'm like an 8 in DC but if everyone upped their game I'd be a 4. I love it when a tailored blazer makes me a knock out because of fit and fabric. Looking relatively amazing is so simple in DC.

Clothes don’t make you look 8. Skin, hair and body does, as well as facial features. Don’t kid yourself, 4 is a 4 even in a Valentino dress.

If you're a 4 in a Valentino dress, you're doing something wrong

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why posters are SO MAD about it. Just look better than everyone else and feel superior about it. If everyone looked great, you'd have no one to feel superior to. Be glad.

+1 I'm like an 8 in DC but if everyone upped their game I'd be a 4. I love it when a tailored blazer makes me a knock out because of fit and fabric. Looking relatively amazing is so simple in DC.

Clothes don’t make you look 8. Skin, hair and body does, as well as facial features. Don’t kid yourself, 4 is a 4 even in a Valentino dress.

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why posters are SO MAD about it. Just look better than everyone else and feel superior about it. If everyone looked great, you'd have no one to feel superior to. Be glad.

+1 I'm like an 8 in DC but if everyone upped their game I'd be a 4. I love it when a tailored blazer makes me a knock out because of fit and fabric. Looking relatively amazing is so simple in DC.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In DC, we prioritize elegance over stylish. Simple, basic, clean, effecient. Depending on your job, overly stylized can be seen as frivolous. People who are mission focused are attracted to this city. It’s about the power, less about what you look like and how much you make. Also, so many of the jobs in town center around politics...I’m not going to go visit government staff in an Armani suit. I’d look like an out of touch ass.

Come on, now. We recently heard from a DC transplant that was concerned about wearing lipstick to work, because the women in her office are so incredibly basic. This isn't about wearing Armani suits. This is about women feeling pressured to cease taking pride in their appearance.

This was an isolated incident - based on the number of women I see across DC wearing lipstick and makeup, I can’t believe that it’s widespread. I work in one of the crunchiest divisions of a science agency, and even in my division, many of the women wear some makeup. No one would give someone else a hard time for wearing lipstick or heels to the office (though you obviously wouldn’t wear heels out in the field). We also wouldn’t give anyone a hard time about wearing Armani or having high end purses....to be honest, most of us wouldn’t ever recognize a super high end good when we see it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What other city has highly fashionable women walking around? NYC? Where else? I don't think DC is unique in this regard. Find me super fashion forward HOARDES of working women in another city please. Sure, the fashion magazines and art careers are most likely more fashion forward. Outside of those, show me a city where office drones dress fashion forward. I'll wait.

Tokyo, Copenhagen

Bullshit on Tokyo and Copenhagen. I grew up in Tokyo (although I'm German). Tokyo is the land of the uniform--first all through school, then the "uniform" of the workplace. Navy if you're middle management, grey for upper. The women adhere to it as well. I do a lot of business there, still. The difference is that Japanese women are almost all very slim and their suits are very tailored/slim cut. There is some street fashion, sure. But it's not the average person. Just look at the pics of the Metro, just a sea of suits on everyone.

I now work for a Danish company, so am in Copenhagen every other month. They aren't particularly fashionable in Copenhagen, either. How fashionable are you going to be when half of you are riding your bike to work in the grey drizzling rain? Most offices don't require very formal wear. I'm sure there are fashionable Danes walking around the higher end shopping streets and they are out in the evenings at nicer restaurants, but the same is true of most cities. The masses are not that fashionable there.

Anonymous wrote:You dress for your audience. Know your audience. If you are going to a government office to present, leave the Hermes at home. If you are going to Wall Street to present, take the Hermes.

You can wear Hermes to a government office. I do it all the time--have been asked a time or two if I was wearing Tommy Hilfiger.