What to Wear, Revisited

Don made an interesting comment on my Lavender Farm post that I thought I would go into some detail and elaborate on what I actually wore to my interview, and why. (I must also note that I get kind of paranoid when it comes to what-to-wear for important stuff. Also, I'm far from a rich woman, but I do know how to find -or wait for- some good discounts.)

I read somewhere that, at any one particular occasion, no matter how formal or casual, men tend to get the attire right and women don't. This is because men have fewer choices in regard to color and style to work with than women.

For a job interview, a man wears a suit (the blazer and slacks of which may or may not match in color, but usually do), a dress shirt (which is usually white or blue), dress shoes (which are probably black but could be brown and of a low heel) and sometimes a tie (which is probably striped and coordinates color-wise with the blazer and shirt). Men's hair is usually short and easily styled.

Women have it a little more complicated. I'll try to keep this short. I went with the suit, so I'm going to just cover those options. The suit may or may not match the slacks or skirt. The skirt could be of several different lengths, although for an interview I would probably go with a knee-length skirt, and several different styles. The pants can also be of varying lengths and styles, which usually determine the shoes she wears (of varying heel heights and styles). The top could be a menswear-type top, or could be just about any top she has in her wardrobe. (I tried on my suit wearing a black Young Dubliner's t-shirt, which I thought looked kind of cool if I was interviewing for something in the entertainment industry) Depending on the length of her hair, she could wear it up or down, and while I would suggest miminal makeup, she has to decide on that too.

The problem of women's wear is compounded by the high availability of cheap, low-quality, poor-fitting clothes, not to mention the heinous styles that tend to appear from time to time. Most women my age and near my geographic location tend to get their business suits from Maurices, whose suits are made out of a stretch polyesther blend material. I tend to have somewhat picky tastes, so I would never buy one of those on the basis of the material alone. I noticed most of the women at the interview event I went to wore tops that they would wear to a club, which I think is a bad idea.

I wore an Antonio Melani suit in oatmeal-colored linen (suits should be made from natural fibers) I found at Dillard's in Boise. Surprisingly, the jacket fit perfectly (I usually have to buy a size up and have the waist taken in; I have big shoulders), and the slacks were long enough to wear with heels. My top was a plain lilac tank top from some designer's business coordinates line (remember, we're in the middle of a heat wave!). I never took my jacket off, so no one would have known the top didn't have sleeves. I wore a string of pearls my aunt gave me for graduation. The reason why I wore lilac was because the pearls had purple beads interspersed with them. I received several compliments on my suit (one surprising compliment from one of the HR people at the interview), and let's say I got some unexpected, unwanted attention (long after I changed into something more casual) from one of the hotel guests as well. (It amazes me what men find sexually attractive - at least someone found my threads memorable!)

I'm definitely not against wearing skirts or dresses to interviews; I would have opted to get a knee-length circle skirt that matched my suit jacket (even a white skirt would have looked nice), but I couldn't find one. It took me hours to find the suit I did end up wearing (just ask my poor friend Dan, and he wasn't with me when I went looking for the suit in Twin Falls), and I believe that if I was looking for an appropriate dress to wear it would have taken longer. I was under the impression shopping was supposed to be fun. . . .

I do own a couple nice dresses (most of my dresses are traditional Chinese qi-pao, and too formal for an interview), but I don't think either of them would work. One is the brown silk dress I wore to a friend's wedding, and the other is a Ralph Lauren silk nude floral dress I got on sale. The dress I wore to my friend's wedding is way too low-cut for a job interview (it's not that kind of job, is it?) and the other dress is low-cut and a tad sheer (the same). I tend to think that the last things a woman should draw attention to at a job interview are her physical attributes (Or maybe I'm just old-fashioned?). It's one thing to look pretty and attractive, it's another to say "take me home tonight" with your clothes (save that for the dance floor!). I believe that the cost of high-quality clothes trumps the quantity of low-quality clothes. I've never done a cost analysis, but I would think one would spend less money on a few great items than lots of semi-good ones.

Most of the woman's business-dress problem stems from the problem of wanting to look both feminine and hard-working. Compound this with readily-available "bad clothes" ("larger" women in particular tend to have more "bad clothes" to sift through as well), and you have the problem Don describes.

Don, you wouldn't happen to have your set of prints from Men In Suits digitized, would you? I'd like to see them.