Definition of Professional Dress

Business professional attire is standard at most professional offices including attorney firms, financial advisor firms, and banks. The standard dress for these professionals includes a business suit with a tie for men. Men should wear dark-colored or black shoes with black socks. Women should wear a business pants- or skirt-suit with low-heeled shoes and hose.

According to the University of San Francisco (see Reference 1), professional business attire, sometimes referred to as the "business uniform", is the standard that most employers expect in an interview environment. Regardless of the company's regular dress code, interviewers' expectations include professional business attire (see above paragraph). Even if you know the company has a casual dress code, impress your interviewer by showing up in the appropriate attire. You will make a good first impression, which will go a long way towards landing you the job.

Business casual, according to the Free Library (see Reference 2), means dressing a step down from the normal attire. If one usually wears business professional attire, the business casual style would mean wearing a sports jacket instead of a suit jacket. If a man normally wears a sports jacket, then his business casual style may include a knit polo shirt with Dockers-style pants. Women could dress down from professional by wearing nice knit slacks and silk or cotton blouses.

Dress down days allow workers and professionals to refrain from wearing their normal professional attire and come to work in clothes that are more comfortable. However, individual companies will still have guidelines for dressdown days. The rule of thumb is no tube-tops, short shorts, flip-flops, or mini-skirts for women, and no muscle shirts, sandals, flip-flops, or cut-off shorts for men (see Reference 3). Many companies will allow workers to wear tasteful blue or dark jeans. Your company may also allow tasteful sandals for women on dress-down days. See your human resources department for dress-down day rules for your company.

Professional dress does not just include clothing. Men should consider short hairstyles, and should be clean-shaven or keep facial hair neat and well groomed. Women should avoid outlandish hair styles and stick to basic styles, such as pulling the hair off the face or wearing it in a bun. Woman should wear small, tasteful jewelry pieces. Men should not wear jewelry except a wedding band or class ring. Women should not wear overbearing fragrance or excessive makeup.