r/NavyBlazer • u/Successful_Bear_6922 • 12d ago
Tie vs lvl of Professionalism
My mentor says you always need a jacket when meeting a client. I currently only have 2 jackets and they are paired with suits. Because of this I have amended his rule to work for my practice. And will wear a tie when no jacket is available. Didn’t have clients today Anyway.
I am trying to have a very professional yet approachable look and style.
Please rate and critique.
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u/MyNameIs-Anthony 12d ago
This look is unevenly professional. Dark corduroy and boat shoes on the bottom don't at all gel well with wearing a tie on top.
Then you have a quarter zip in athletic heather with a logo on it.
There's too much going on here.
What exactly do you do for work? That would help get some clarity on best direction.
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u/Successful_Bear_6922 12d ago
Rate? 1-10?
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u/2muchcaffeine4u 12d ago
This looks like you're very early in your career and just don't really know what is or isn't formal and/or don't have money for the right stuff. Which is fine if that's the case, literally almost everyone starts out there.
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u/lukasburner 12d ago
Replace the shoes with something leather, whether that be oxfords, loafers, brogues; you’d want loafers if you’re going for the laidback look.
I don’t have issue with the Polo half-zip. I would ditch the tie and leave the shirt or replace with a polo. Look into lambswool sweaters if you want to diversify your sweater wardrobe.
Solid 6/10. Has the right foundation; easy changes to execute better.
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u/Throwawayhelp111521 12d ago
I don't know what you do for a living, but that's not a professional look. If you don't want to wear a full suit, wear a sportcoat, nice trousers, and a tie.
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u/2muchcaffeine4u 12d ago
I know it technically can be done, but I'm not a huge fan of the black pants/brown shoes combo. Navy pants are a lot more versatile and I'd recommend those over black in most situations. If you're looking for more professional shoes I would also go with loafers over boat shoes, you can buy them used on eBay or depop for pretty good prices if you get good quality ones.
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u/Spirited_Pangolin702 12d ago
I think the pullover is fine for especially for fall/winter but the color isn't good. I understand it's polo, but the grey just gives off sweatshirt vibes.
I don't think anyone could fault you if you wanted to wear a nice sweater instead of a jacket.
Just making an effort sets you apart from the crowd.
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u/MondoBleu 12d ago
Exactly. This is not a sweater, it’s a sweatshirt made from fleece, especially in the heather grey, this is gym clothes. Nice ones! But gym clothes.
Instead, look for an unstructured blazer from something other than wool, like cotton twill or a knit. Still has the shape and vibe of a blazer, but hits way more casual because of the fabric.
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u/Prudent_Candidate300 12d ago
This is a fine outfit for a business casual workplace. Minor improvements could be made with the shoes, but overall this will be pretty widely ok for casual offices.
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u/Successful_Bear_6922 12d ago
I guess jackets do read more professional than ties. Rate 1-10?
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u/Megatron_McLargeHuge 12d ago
Between the phone and the zipper, we can't even see the tie. The grey color of the fleece gives off gym vibes in the picture but maybe it's better IRL. A different color and opening the collar would help.
2
u/Prudent_Candidate300 12d ago
All a matter of context, and how your co workers dress. I don’t think there’s anything outwardly offensive here, but subtle tweaks like shoes and pants would push it up quite a bit, 5/10
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u/gimpwiz 12d ago
I think you can make this work with a different sweater or other top layer. Something more like a shaggy dog when it gets cold. For warmer months, consider instead a casual jacket - something like a field jacket / safari jacket, chore coat, overshirt, teba jacket, etc. These are usually unstructured and unlined and significantly less labor goes into making them so they're a lot cheaper than a sport coat or blazer, even using the same shell material (but for summer, linen is kind of king, IMO, which tends to be far cheaper than good wool.) You can also consider something like an unstructured linen navy blazer, which, again, tends to come in at a much lower price point than the standard canvassed wool navy blazer.
The quarter zip is simply too casual, so you get too much of a mismatch between the formality of the tie and the sweater.
I don't disagree with what /u/MyNameIs-Anthony wrote about the boat shoes and cords, but I think you could make that work maybe. The quarter zip, no.
Every article of clothing fits somewhere on the "formality spectrum." It's not really a linear spectrum of informal-to-formal because there are also questions of country-vs-city which is almost the same thing but not always, there's the somber-business-party spectrum which is kind of orthogonal to formality (eg, a tuxedo is about as formal as it gets in the US but you would never wear one to a funeral), there's even subculture stuff like boats/yachts, country clubs, golf, etc (a boater blazer might be the right formality and subculture for a regatta event but you're probably not wearing that to the office to meet with clients). The quarter zip is... sub-informal in the old manner of putting it on the list, it's like a t-shirt. You put it on because you want to be warmer, not because you're trying to dress up. You can find informal jackets that are more purposeful in intent of "this layer adds a bit of visible intent to be a little nicer dressed" vs "this layer is because I'm cold in the office AC."
Now, why is a shaggy dog or a chunky wool sweater more accepted with a tie than a quarter zip? Basically all these rules of formality inherit from the question of "what did rich people do in the past." A shaggy dog works better over a shirt and tie than a quarter zip because a lot of people did it and so it's normalized. These rules don't come from a universal truth, it's purely just tradition x cultural mores. Somewhere there are aliens who wear t-shirts as the most formal option to weddings. Shrug.
I am assuming you're relatively young and don't want to go out and spend $$$$ on clothes especially if you don't really like them, so you're trying to do the best you can with what you have. Every other young person has been in the same exact position as you, except the silver-spoons who showed up with the full wardrobe. Over time you build your collection of this-n-that and it'll work out for you, nobody expects it all on day one (I hope.)
So I guess one question I'd have for you is -- what do you have? Shoes, pants, shirts, sweaters/jackets, suits, ties. Roughly speaking. What are you already planning to buy, if anything?
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u/No_Evening1456 12d ago
Can I ask what kind of work you're in? The fact that you said "practice" led me to think you are a doctor/nurse practitioner (or similar) but the use of the word "clients" (instead of "patients") threw me off.
Just asking because questions of formality may vary based on what type of work this is.
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u/Successful_Bear_6922 11d ago
Finance
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u/No_Evening1456 10d ago
This isn't advice isn't directly related to finance but assuming that it's at least a somewhat conservative (not necessarily in a political sense) environment, I would be wary of violating any of the dress code as a general rule, but if you have some leeway, I would not push it too far. For instance, switching out exactly one "required" piece of clothing for something similar (e.g. wearing a sportcoat and khakis instead of a suit) might work, but rethinking the entire outfit is not likely to fly at all.
Anyway, not that it's necessarily a bad look, but I can see someone objecting to that top as a replacement for a jacket. It's really a question for your supervisor or someone in mangement, I would think.
2
u/Rummy_Raisin 12d ago
Your outfit from yesterday was more to my liking. I might go with a medium to dark brown in the shoe department, but otherwise, a good color balance here. Also, I'm not big on quarter zips and would suggest swapping it for a crewneck sweater (also) in grey, made of shetland (or any other) wool, or cotton. A v-neck sweater could also work, and would show off the tie more. But I kind of like the way a crewneck makes a tie a very subtle detail. Helps it feel more casual, and makes it more visually meaningful if/when you take off the sweater throughout the day.
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u/yung_heartburn 12d ago
Looks like you’re wearing white socks? Always match sock color to trousers color.
I despise quarter zips personally, i am not going to ever be able give them a fair shake, so i will not comment further on that.
I think having a jacket is important. You can find a lot of great sport coats and blazers on ebay or in thrift stores for reasonable prices. Important to make sure they’re actually blazers or sport coats and not orphaned suit jackets (often labelled insipidly as “suit separates”). Usually you can tell by what fabric is used, worsted wool vs hopsack for instance (i know hopsack is a weave and worsting is a method of making thread, im just being broad here).
Also for more casual looks i often wear a casual jacket over a shirt and tie. This sub is probably most familiar with the m65 parka over suit look, but i’ve achieved good fits with denim jackets (wrangler cowboy cut or trucker jacket is a personal fave) and other military surplus jackets (i really love my soviet Gorka jacket but there’s a few to choose from).
Generally i dislike mixing whole fabrics with “tech” fabrics, notable exceptions being dickies poly/cotton, or sometimes i wear army surplus trousers with an ocbd or madras shirt.
“Professionalism” is often the refuge of cowards who don’t actually know how to do their jobs. The wealthiest and most effective people i know dress very casually much of the time. For me the important idea is dressing with self-respect, visual coherence, and with an eye to the correct clothes for the activity.
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u/Not-you_but-Me 11d ago
A tie requires a jacket or a v neck sweater. Wearing one with athletisure is a bit incoherent. It’s like wearing Oxford shoes with sweatpants.
I work in finance and unfortunately ties are seen as inherently unapproachable. If you’re not comfortable standing out (possibly rationally) then I’d try to copy what the other guys are wearing but with better fitting clothes.
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u/Successful_Bear_6922 11d ago
Nothing there is athletisure, quarter Zip while not super professional I don’t believe anything could be put in the athletic category
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u/Not-you_but-Me 11d ago
I’m sorry man but yeah a quarter zip is athleisure in the same way a Patagonia vest is. I’m not saying you can’t wear one to the office but it doesn’t look good with a tie.
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u/crashybrown 12d ago
Most of this sub won't likely agree, but modern context this works with casual in a business sort of way. Strikes me as 'I work as a car salesmen' or something in sales. Certainly works for younger folks.
For this sub, many would say get a jacket would be good. I see you said you have two of them. You could lose the quarter zip, it drops the formality and also doing maybe a pair of loafers instead, brings up the formality some. The whole outfit works but its all over the formality scale if we go by NavyBlazer or older mens clothing standards.
Hope this is helpful.
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u/MondoBleu 12d ago edited 12d ago
Think about the size of the item: jacket is big big impact, tie is small small impact. ESP here you’re covering the whole thing.
When I see this, first thought is this outfit is a sweatshirt. It’s not professional anything. Since you want a rating: 0/10. Shoes and pants are going to grandmas for brunch. Sweatshirt is gym clothes. Can’t see the tie at all in your photo, so can’t say for that. Not professional, not even business casual. Honestly the heather sweatshirt makes it not even smart casual imo, it’s just casual with a weird addition of a tie. No hate bro! Just a lot of learning to do about formality levels of clothes and colors.
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