Sep 02 2003
Suitable
I’m not kidding about the interview outfit. While there is some truth to my being one of those women who walks into her walk-in closet and says she has nothing to wear, in this case it’s true. I blame “business casual”.
A few years ago, my former firm changed to business casual dress code. No-one knew what it meant, other than the forbidding of the always forbidden jeans. Why are jeans such outlawed attire? Given the fact that almost everyone in the entire US of A has them, making them the televisions of clothing, they are scarcely rebellious. Unflattering, possibly, and why most wearers would care to advertise their waist size to an unsuspecting public is beyond me, but they are practically a uniform at this point in time, which does make me wonder why they are considered to be as inappropriate in an office setting as, say, a tube top. After all, jeans really only reveal all too personal measurements instead of all too personal flesh. I can’t see anything inherently shocking in them.
But I digress. Those of us baffled by the new business casual dress code tried to find out what it was, and no definitive answer was forthcoming. It was rather like pornography, in that it’s difficult to define but the powers that be are convinced they will recognize it when they see it.
Not that I minded the new world order, which released me from the tyranny of nylons. But it does mean that I haven’t bought any dressy clothes in several years, so my wardrobe goes directly from wedding dress (probably not the right choice for any job interview other than mail order bride) to pants and tops (probably not the right choice for a job interview, either). Seems I have just justified a shopping trip, though a very dull one. Do I really need a suit? I don’t want to work where I would have to wear one and/or be re-introduced to the tyranny of nylons.
What’s worst? Having a job or looking for one or having to have one at all?