Dresscodes: Geek vs Non-Geek
I’m working on an article on semi-formal dress for events like my work’s upcoming conference dinner. But when I told some local geeks about it, they pointed out that they never really dressed up for that kind of thing.
Paul Fenwick said to me, on IRC:
In my social circles, “Formal” means tie, and “Very Formal” means tux… The conference dinners I’ve been to have all been technical conferences. SAGE-AU, OSDC, Linux.conf, CMGA, and similar things. They’re filled with geeks, so while the standard of dress may be higher than the conference technical program, it’s not much higher.
The thing is, geek dresscodes don’t really match what the rest of the world thinks. So, here’s an attempt to clarify:
| Dresscode | Geek version | The rest of the world |
|---|---|---|
| None | Dressing gown; underwear; nothing; |
Trackpants, tshirt, and sneakers |
| Casual | Trackpants, tshirt | Jeans, tshirt or collared shirt |
| Business casual | Jeans, tshirt | Chinos, collared shirt |
| Business | Chinos, collared shirt | Suit and tie |
| Semi-formal | Nice pants, nice shirt | Dark suit and tie |
| Formal | Suit and tie | Tux (”black tie”) or tails (”white tie”) |
If someone tells you a workplace is “business casual”, or you get an invitation to a “semi-formal” party, you need to look at whether it’s a geek environment or event, or a non-geek one, and dress appropriately.
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Heh. I love that you can say “*nice* pants” to a geek and we’ll have a category like that set aside for this contingency. :)
Ah, but I note that shoes are never mentioned!
That’s something of a pants-wearers’ list you have there. When it comes to skirts, I guess for geeks pretty much any skirt or dress at all has pushed us right into “business casual” and ankle length dresses wouldn’t appear at all (in non-geek circles, white tie means a floor length gown, as does black tie if the event is after 5pm, otherwise you can wear below the knee).
As regards ‘dressy’ geek events, the formality level is a practical thing: conference dinners are usually held less than an hour after the conference closes for the day, meaning that unless you’re staying in the same building, and your dress up style only involves changing clothes (as opposed to any hair or makeup work) you more or less have to wear the same thing you wore to the day event. I wanted to dress up for the linux.conf.au dinner last year, but couldn’t: I lived an hour away, and so had a choice between transporting all my fancy clothes, being two hours late for dinner or not dressing up in the first place. (In fact, several women first-timers complained to me privately that they had been horribly embarrassed about their appearance at dinner, because the hour allowed between talks ending and dinner only have them time to walk back to their rooms and shower, as opposed to doing makeup and hair.)
If conferences ever want us to wear black tie, they need to allow for the hours it can take makeup-and-dress wearers to get into black tie.
Mary: yeah, it’s basically the blokes’ list there. I’m going to do more detail for both sexes soon.
I’ve noticed the same thing with the conference dinners and the time available. It works moderately well if the conference is in a hotel and you’re staying at the hotel, but if it’s at a university or other such venue, or you’re day-tripping because you live in the same city, you’re kind of out of luck.
My work conference dinner next month has an interesting setup: they arrange a handful of hotel rooms for people to get changed in between the day and evening events, and you can put your name down to use one of those rooms if you don’t have any other way to get changed before the semi-formal dinner.
Change your color scheme. Your site has such low contrast it’s very irritating and difficult to read. Couldn’t get beyond two lines.
Matthew: It’s customary to say “please”.
Anyone else: opinions? I don’t have trouble with it but my eyesight’s reasonably good.
No problems at all Skud, I like it just the way it is! :D
Thanks, Wes.
I think you’re spot-on with this. I wish we had more descriptive, less confusing names for modes of dress.
As to the style of the site, it wouldn’t hurt to make the text black instead of dark gray. I have no trouble reading it, but then again, I’m young. :)
To continue the off-topicness, I’d like a bit more contrast and a little larger font. Yeah, I’m 32. What of it? ;)
And that’s a damn clever idea getting rooms specifically to change into formal or semi-formal dress.
I wouldn’t mind a larger font, either.
(Or, for that matter, why not let me use my browser’s default font? Then it’ll be a size and shape that I like, and similarly for others.
At least in the theoretical world where everybody customised their browsers rather than using whatever the setup program thrust upon them.)
Hmm here’s this geek’s POV..
Dress code ……….. Response
None …………….. Good!
Casual …………… Good!
Business casual …… “Sorry, didn’t hear the ‘business’ part…”
Business …………. “OK, well, I do ‘business’ in my PJs…”
Semi-formal ………. Jeans and sweater, if I feel like it
Formal …………… Screw you snobs!
Actually, in the proper non-geek world “formal” means white tie and “semi-formal” means black tie.
Hi. First off, I pretty much agree with Mary’s comments above, except that IMO dresses are Business. If I’m wearing a dress, it’s either an occasion or I don’t have any clean slacks ;) I think we need an ISO standard dress code, set down exact dress-up protocols n’ such. Something like at my company, where the dress code is going on ten pages, including charts. Bit of a puzzler considering the fact that we’re an internet/phone-based company and never, ever see our clients face to face. :P
Oh, and FWIW, I’d like to add another vote for darker text. I can read it mostly fine, but it isn’t as readable as it could be. Maybe a darker grey, or black in the comment boxes? Anyway, enjoyed the post.
Kelly
(who would, given her druthers, show up every day in flares, sandals, and a dashiki)
[...] http://geeketiquette.com/archives/2007/06/27/dresscodes-geek-vs-non-geek/ [...]
heh. *these* pants are *not* nice.
1. Dresscodes ars sooooo silly.
2 .What’s their purpose?
3. What’s the penalty for not complying?
Kelly, maybe we need IMW (In My Wardrobe)! I have a bunch of dresses IMW, and they divide in two in terms of formality: casual sun/beach dresses that I can get away with in a geek office or on the weekend only; and dresses for semi-formal and formal non-geek parties. I don’t have the middle dresses for business events that you must have! I wear men’s formal pants and white button-up shirts for business style dress.
MachBoy: that’s not what any of my etiquette resources say (and I’ve got half a shelf-ful of books on the subject), but if you have authoritative sources that say otherwise, please point me at them. It’s possible it’s one of those things that’s different in different parts of the world.
Re fonts etc: I’ve changed it to a very dark grey. Is that better, for those who asked? Regarding size: I fiddled a bit but couldn’t make it look good. It’s always a trade-off I’m afraid. If it bugs you, can you use your browser’s font-size controls? Ctrl-+ works for me in Firefox on Linux/Windows, or Cmd-+ on Mac. There’s also the NoSquint plugin which I recently discovered.
MachBoy: Interesting… just checked Wikipedia, which says:
1) Civilian formal wear can be categorized by dress codes. In the early decades of the twentieth century, the codes in England, Europe and North America were universally accepted as:
* Formal evening wear, also known as full dress or white tie
* Semiformal evening wear, or black tie
2) The continual relaxing of formal standards since World War II have led to a blurring of what constitutes “formal” and “semi formal”. While pedigreed etiquette and menswear experts tend to still use the traditional terms — particularly when describing dress codes for weddings — many other consultants use more contemporary labels and definitions. It is now common to see white tie described as “very formal” or even “ultra formal” and black tie labeled as “formal”.
I would’ve agreed that white tie = formal, black tie = semi-formal if we were talking about the 1920s or something. I’m pretty sure most modern sources would say black tie is formal.
Uniform category for IT should be Shorts and some sort of Shirt that covers your beer belly.
There is a much more fine grained geek dress code, I think!
Shirts:
Tshirt your mom bought you at Kmart when you were in high school. Ill fitting; 80s colored; perhaps with abstract designs.
Tshirt for tech company, probaby white, grubby, boring.
Tshirt for unboring tech company or science fictional thing
Cool tech tshirt, black
Cool tech tshirt, black, tucked in, with belt
Snarky geek tshirt perhaps from threadless; tight fitting to show off boobs and/or muscles
Snarky geek shirt with sports jacket; best multitool on belt
Pants:
Underwear worn yesterday, turned inside out
Underwear
Baggy pants, too short, bought in high school by mom; used to be either green, grey, black, or brown; now a greyish nothing-color; holes optional
Jeans.
Jeans without prominent holes.
The “nice” jeans; no holes, no stains; they fit
Black jeans!
Pants that are not jeans but are not quite suit pants either -OR- a misguided Utilikilt
Skirts:
Long flowing hippie skirt, unfashionable, no underwear
Skirt that is more current style of some sort
Miniskirt and combat boots ( with snarky tshirt and jacket, this is punk geek formal)
Ball gown of amazing ridiculousness
Bras:
None
Tank top
Tank top with shelf thing built in
Actual bra, scungy
Fun colored lacey bra -OR- none, with Snarky geek shirt, tight
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I don’t agree with the association of Paul Fenwick (formal = tie, very formal = tux), because I consider some kilts may look really formal, like these:
http://www.scotyard.com/index.cfm/a/catalog.catshow/catid/3/Formal-Wear
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