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Ryan Healy is a recent college graduate. He is a founder of 
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New here? Employee Evolution is a blog written by Ryan Healy. Ryan is a Co-Founder of Brazen Careerist, the webs #1 social network for young professionals. Ryan speaks with organizations on best practices for recruiting and retaining Generation Y and how to effectively use social media to reach your target market. To contact Ryan, please visit our contact page.
As I stood, squished like a pig in a pen, on the train to work this morning, beads of sweat dripping off of my 6 foot 4 inch frame onto the poor tiny woman standing below me, I thought to myself, “What’s up with sacrificing comfort, and more than likely, body odor, for a nice suit?”
Yes, I’m aware that I am something of an anomaly; most people these days are not required to wear full suits, especially in the summer. But specifics of my job require playing dress up. If it wasn’t next to impossible to find a nice, decent priced suit for someone my size, I really wouldn’t mind.
I have four suits, and there are four suit days a week. Friday is work in my boxers day. You would think that four suits and four days make a pretty good match. What you don’t know, is that suit number four is quite possibly the ugliest piece of clothing you have ever seen. It’s an ugly tan color and made of a heavy twill type material. The pants are a little too short, and my oversized brown shoes stick out like a clown’s. Suit number four stays in the closet.
At first glance, suit number three appears to be perfectly fine. It’s a plain black suit with a three button jacket. According to fashion experts, like my mother, tall people are supposed to wear three button jackets. I used to think this was a way for sales people to sell me the first suit I tried on, but if you ever check out a NBA basketball player’s suit, they always have a minimum of three buttons. For future reference, this is the first, and hopefully last, fashion tip I will ever give on this blog. Trust me, you don’t want any more.
Anyway, back to suit number three. For some reason it just doesn’t fit right. The folks over at The Men’s Warehouse think that because I am tall, I need an extra huge jacket. Despite what the Big & Tall stores lead you to believe; tall does not equal fat. The jacket hangs down well below the standard, well fitting length and the pants were hemmed for someone thee inches shorter than me. Suit number three comes out once a week, but I’m never happy about it.
Sophomore year of college I purchased a suit for my grandfather’s funeral. Today, I call it suit number two. And it actually fits quite well. The jacket is normal length and the pants rest nicely on top of my shoes. Here is the problem; it’s green! I don’t know what could have possibly been going through my head when buying it, but I’m pretty sure all of those frat parties were affecting my better judgment. My green suit, aka suit number two comes out once a week barring any unforeseen circumstances.
Last summer I finally took my credit card somewhere other than Men’s Warehouse. I figured it was time to buy a real professional suit. What do you know; I found a great blue pinstriped Italian suit, on sale. Today, I call it suit number one, my go-to suit. The jacket fits great, the pants are perfectly tailored, and I feel like a stud in this thing. If it was socially acceptable I would wear my go-to four days a week, I swear! But, as we all know, it’s not. Regardless, I do whatever I must to wear the blue pinstripes twice a week. And it might be my imagination, but I swear people treat me with a little more respect when I wear it.
hahahaha! The way this work day was going I needed a little humor. I feel your pain….suits 4 days a week for me as well.
Luckily, (I guess) I’m happy to report I have 2 go-to suits. lol. I do cringe a little in the rest of them.
I hate hearing about all the casual work environments my friends work in. Ohhh the tragedy they have wearing actual cool non-constricting clothing in this heat!! I guess we’ll just have to suffer..
I don’t quite share your pain, as I am expected to wear business casual (the strict definition of the term, not new definitions that include untucked polos with unpressed khakis) on a daily basis, with Friday being our actual “casual” day.
However, I do share in questioning why this is necessary. 95% of the time my schedule is known in advance, and the majority of my work is accomplished through conference calls/email. I don’t need to be wearing a tie in my cubicle. On those days I’m out on a client call, or have a training session, or a meeting with other associates, I am more than willing to wear appropriate clothing, but that would probably only amount to 1-2 times per week. The rest I could legitimate accomplish, without anyone ever knowing the difference, wearing jeans, polos, or god forbid, shorts!
My job satisfaction would increase greatly if I had these options available to me, as it would allow me to schedule more things back to back with work, allowing me to carry a backpack, meet people, etc immediately before/after without taking the time to go home and change. It would also help in the winter, when wearing slacks/dress shoes though nasty snow is not only uncomfortable and incredibly messy, but it ruins things.
This was hilarious- I laughed out loud. Well written… yeah, I can’t relate either. I can wear whatever I want unless I have a meeting and even then, the heels come off the moment I’m back at the office
I do remember at a certain job I was expected to confine to a certain dress code and it was awful though. My sympathies.
The reason people treat you differently is that, from the way you write, you apparently are more self conscious about the other suits. This most likely shows through in your behavior.
A well tailored (in fashion) suit also harps back, in most baby boomers minds, to a day of super professionals. Examples of this would be doctors, lawyers, and a high achieving salesmen.
Personally, in my line of work, I can wear what I want a majority of the time. What I want to wear is not often what I turn to. While comfort is nice, nothing feels better than wearing the confidence and the treatment that a well fitted suit can get you… and no, I do not sell suits for a living.
@Gina & Rebecca - Thanks! I’m glad some peope found this amusing.
@Nathan - I agree, dressing up seems totally unnecessary for the most part. The only exceptions are when you are meeting a client or have some type of meeting. If you are with the same five or ten people and a cube all day, you may as well be wearing jeans and a T-shirt. I actually carry a backpack along with my suit every day, and I would take the snow over 100 degree heat any day of the week.
@Kyle - I think you are right, I probably do project more confidence in my go-to suit. That is interesting. In the right situations, a well fitted suit can do a lot for people’s initial impressions of you.
Hilarious Post Ryan!
It makes me think of the quote, “People hear what they see.” It’s so true.
I think you should post a picture of you in each suit and let the faithful readers of the EE blog tell you what your suits are saying to them. Who knows? You might re-rank them based on the feedback you get!
Sad but true, they probably do. Do you have to wear the jackets (ie full suit) all the time? Otherwise, there are lots of ways to disguise bad suits. My only other suggestion would be to plead to mom, grandma, whoever for a nice birthday (or whatever gift giving holiday is closest) present to help buy you a nice, new, perfectly tailored black suit. It’s really amazing the impact clothes have on your day, your appearance, and your general attitude about life (at least while you’re wearing them).
If it makes you feel any better, while I was on co-op we had to wear business casual (only b/c our group wasnt external client facing - they have to wear hardcore business attire) but we NEVER had casual fridays. We had a total of 3 jeans days the entire time I was there, and only one of them was a jeans & tshirt day.
As for your train commute, nothing is worse than being sweaty in dress attire. Trying having a skirt on — it’s like a tent that traps the heat. And girls aren’t supposed to sweat, we’re suppose to look all dainty and whatnot.
Haha..Yeah I feel your pain. Me and my brother are tall but not large people. Whenever the funerals or weddings come around we have to wear the dreaded suit. Ive given up on mens wearhouse totally. Unless you walk in dressed all nice, they dont want to help. It must be something to do with the fact that they are on commission. Anyway, a friend introduced me to this place in illinois called Threads big and tall. He lives near the place and its awesome! I get all my jeans, dress pants and suits (44XL) from them. Thank god i dont have to wear dress clothes everyday! Check them out and good luck! www.threadsbigandtall.com
Ah yes. I have to say, I, unlike many women, feel your pain. We have a super-professional dress code at work, so I must wear a skirt suit (with hose) every work day. No exceptions for traveling or conferences or anything. And no pants. Unless you can work them into your Halloween costume somehow. (Stuff dress code or not, we do have fun around here!)
It’s taken me a while to build up a good army of skirt suits, and I don’t really get to by “normal” clothes anymore because I have to have to invest a lot into a professional wardrobe. It’s a funny thing though - in an age of so many relaxed dress codes, I’m definitely one of the most dressed up, professional looking people I see at business meetings, lunches, etc. It puts an air of professionalism around me wherever I go - in the corporate dress code. I also agree with you that when I’m wearing a suit, people tend to treat me with a little more respect. And luckily, the company just instituted a $600/year professional dress allowance – so that takes the sting out of shopping for work clothes some.
But one thing our dress code is not is weather friendly. A suit in warm weather is just flat out never fun. But snow in a skirt and heels isn’t good either.
Thanks for the fun read!
It is hard to dress business on a budget, thankfully my office is business quite-casual unless otherwise notified, usually one or two days a week we have more strict business casual/business dress for client visits.
There is a difference in how you feel and act when dressed sharply, but I think there is also a cap on that. At some level, formal business attire is uncomfortable for sitting at a desk or meeting table, where semi-casual business attire that doesn’t require as much fussing and adjusting to stay sharp-looking serves better.
My new challenge is dressing in business MATERNITY on the required days! The expense of buying a short-term prego wardrobe is unpleasant, but also, these clothes must be up to multiple wearings per week just like Ryan’s suits. The short rotation of these few items is a big laundry/cleaners treadmill!. On the bright side, I’m finding that I do get some slack in what is considered “business” dress since suit jackets now look like either tents or ships on me.
“Suit #2″, hehe I dig it.
Ryan, you might want to look into developing mix and match career clothing. It’s easy enough to wear a pin strip jacket with a non-pinstripe pair of slacks in the same color. You might want to think about sticking with a color theme. Pick a few neutral colors and use those for your suits, blue and grey for instance. Next time you add suit pieces to your wardrobe, keep in mind the colors in your wardrobe theme. You can then mix and match them. Instead of having two different suits, you have 4 different ways to wear them.
I’m not sure how you can work in that green suit though, lol. How green is it? Kelly green, or much more muted? If you find a tie that compliments it well, it might still work for you, and it will help the confidence. Sometimes we buy clothing that looks better on us than we realize, maybe that’s the case with this? If it is muted green, the jacket would work well with a pair of black slacks, or even tan slacks.
Confidence is a great accessory to a well fitting suit, and can even help an OK fitting suit, but it doesn’t help a poorly fitted suit. Unfortunately, you cannot add fabric to a too short hem, but maybe speak to a tailor to see what can be done to resurrect the jacket in suit three, then see if you can find new pants to coordinate with that jacket. The tailor may even know of good places to purchase clothing in your size. Of all of this, definitely look into finding a tailor you trust, not just one in the store you bought it from. They work off of repeat business more than the in store tailors and your tailored look will be more consistent throughout your wardrobe.
Good Luck Ryan
Hey Ryan - really enjoyed your post. I’m not into the ’suit thing’ anymore, but have been there in the past myself. It really is a pain to create (aka: invest in…) a completely different wardrobe for work. Especially, when you know that there is “no way” you would wear the stuff anywhere else (with the exception of funerals perhaps).
What really gets me is that I’ll bet 90% of the working population feels this way about having to ‘dress the part’ for work - yet, we are the very ones who give more respect and recognition to those who do ‘dress the part’. Go figure…
As an example, we are more likely to trust our investment money to someone who is wearing a suit and tie than to someone who is in shorts and sandals. True? Even though the one in shorts and sandals may have far more investment experience. The adage that first impressions can make or break you is really true.
Anyway, I guess we just need to keep playing the dress up game for each other. So, in the meantime - hopefully pin stripes stay in style for a while
Robin Ogden
www.firedupcareers.com