What do Architects Wear to Work?
As summer rolls along, I want to do a fun blog post on work wear.
I go through this dilemma every morning - What do I wear to work?
A lot of firms now are more casual, but do I really wear t-shirts and jeans to work?
Plus we probably don't have money to buy fancy clothing, so do I just follow the simple architect-wear-black code?
Recently, I realize I tend to wear white with colors, because I think going to work should be fun. But sometimes it's probably a little too much...
One day I forgot I had a client meeting, so as usual in the morning I wore one of my bright colored pants to work - this time was super bright yellow.
We drove to the client's office, where everyone was wearing black suits.
My yellow pants were screaming at everyone like "LOOK AT ME!! I AM YELLOW".
Even though my boss was fine with it, so did the client, I stopped wearing those yellow pants to work to avoid this embarrassing moment in the future.
To prevent you from running into this problem like me, I asked my coworkers for help!
I took a picture of each of them on a typical work day to show you what architects / designers usually wear on a business casual environment.
1. The Black & White
There are some people in our office that only wear black, white and grey tones.
Just a simple classic look would work any day of the week.
Plus you can mix and match a million different ways!
2. The Go-To Dress
For girls, the easiest thing to do is probably to put on a dress.
I like wearing blazer over a tube dress that I would wear outside of work (That's me on the right!).
Pretty much any dress would work, as long as you are not showing too much. Trust me you don't want to go there.
3. The Pattern & Kahki
For guys, it's pretty straight forward. Have a little fun with a patterned shirt and a cool looking watch.
I am not a fan of kahki pants, or anything beige in general, but it seems to work in an office environment.
4. The Business Casual
If you are adventurous, try a bright colored tie (Yes, they are married). Or a plaid shirt - everyone in architecture wears a plaid shirt at one point in life. It just works.
5. The Hard Hat
Here comes the time you have to dig up your work boots.
Going on site is fun, but you don't need fun clothing with it.
A simple pair of jeans with a shirt would go a long way. Of course, don't forget your hard hat!
People do judge you by what you wear, especially in the architectural world where everyone is a designer.
And also because we are all designers, we want to show our style through our clothes without going over board.
May be a simple outfit injected with a little bit of creativity would work - just avoid the yellow pants.
What do you wear to work? Share with us by posting a picture on the comments below!
And thanks everyone at KSS Architects for all the awesome modeling.
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