Then, when Viner, 38, got to his office, the elation quickly faded. No one blamed him, and no one spat on him when the elevator doors opened. Perhaps he just quickly realized he was showing a lot more skin than usual. Or maybe his childhood in Britain was haunting him: “The last time I did anything serious in shorts was when I was in primary school, with knee-high socks and little shorts,” he says.
He suddenly, and too late, realized that he many He preferred to wrap his legs in his usual light slacks.
“When you put something on, it makes you feel different — ‘I feel good,’ ‘I feel powerful,’ ‘I feel capable,’ and I didn’t feel any of those things,” he says. Then, with a rueful laugh, Viner adds, “I felt like a Boy Scout.”
Viner’s office, like many in the U.S., doesn’t have a strict dress code, even as pandemic work-from-home attire has become a part of office life, and he says some of his coworkers wear shorts to work and still look smart and stylish. still.
It may be a relic from the days of suits and pumps, but going to a desk job with your whole leg exposed is a bit of a shame. Several Stretch your legs. As summers heat up across the globe (and so do handsome young actors) 3-inch inseam continues to prevail), this question becomes even more important: are shorts appropriate for the office?
Can I wear shorts?
To the office?
Useful Flowcharts
Are your shorts the bottom half of a shorts suit?
Wear with dress shoes
And glamour, but
The preparation is completed
Comments and Questions
(However, this does not apply to British princes under the age of 8.)
Wear what you like,
Whenever you want.
other,
How do senior employees dress?
Polo shirt and chic
sneakers
Have you ever worn a knee-length or shorter skirt to work?
Wear it with dress shoes and panache.
Make some preparations
Comments and Questions
(However, if you are a British prince,
8-year-old).
It’s easier
Not taken
risk.
If you do,
Consider
Proportion, length,
Stylish.
Are you Senator John Fetterman?
In Pennsylvania?
Wear anything
Whenever you want
you wish.
Don’t wear shorts.
However, linen, tropical wool, loose fitting
In silhouette
keep calm.
in
T-shirt and flip flops
![](https://gfx-data.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/ai2html/fashion-shortsattheoffice/CZLLJ2LDKZBN7JR46M3CTPMBDE/officeshorts2-print-xsmall.jpg?v=7)
Can I wear shorts?
To the office?
Useful Flowcharts
Are your shorts the bottom half of a shorts suit?
Wear with dress shoes
And glamour, but
The preparation is completed
Comments and Questions
(However, this does not apply to British princes under the age of 8.)
Wear what you like,
Whenever you want.
other,
How do senior employees dress?
Polo shirt and chic
sneakers
Have you ever worn a knee-length or shorter skirt to work?
Wear it with dress shoes and panache.
Make some preparations
Comments and Questions
(However, if you are a British prince,
8-year-old).
It’s easier
Don’t take risks.
If so, please consider
Proportion, length, style.
Are you Senator John Fetterman?
In Pennsylvania?
Wear anything
Whenever you want
you wish.
Don’t wear shorts.
However, linen, tropical wool, loose fitting
In silhouette
keep calm.
in
T-shirt and flip flops
![](https://gfx-data.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/ai2html/fashion-shortsattheoffice/CZLLJ2LDKZBN7JR46M3CTPMBDE/officeshorts2-print-medium.jpg?v=7)
Can I wear shorts to the office?
Useful Flowcharts
Your shorts are
The bottom half of a short pantsuit?
in
T-Shirts
and
flip flops
Wear anything
Whenever you want.
How formally do other senior employees dress?
In polo
shirt
Chic sneakers
Are you Senator John Fetterman?
In Pennsylvania?
Have you ever worn a knee-length or shorter skirt to work?
Don’t wear shorts.
However, linen, tropical wool, loose fitting
A silhouette that keeps you cool.
Wear anything
Whenever you want.
To wear
Dress shoes and glamour, but
Ready to take comments and questions
(However, if you are a British prince,
8-year-old).
It’s easier not to take risks.
If you do, consider proportions, length and style.
![](https://gfx-data.news-engineering.aws.wapo.pub/ai2html/fashion-shortsattheoffice/CZLLJ2LDKZBN7JR46M3CTPMBDE/officeshorts2-print-xlarge.jpg?v=7)
Can I wear shorts to the office?
Useful Flowcharts
Your shorts are
The bottom half of a short pantsuit?
Wear anything
Whenever you want.
T-Shirts
flip flops
How formally do other senior employees dress?
With a polo shirt and chic sneakers
Are you Senator John Fetterman?
In Pennsylvania?
Don’t wear shorts.
But to stay cool, try to wear linen, tropical wools and loose-fitting clothing.
So far
Skirt below knee length
work?
Wear dress shoes and decent attire, but be prepared to field comments and questions (unless you’re an English prince under the age of 8).
Wear anything
Whenever you want.
It’s easier not to take risks, and if you do, consider proportion, length and style.
Common sense, and perhaps unsurprisingly, would dictate no. “The Social Psychology of Clothing” The Indiana University professor emeritus is adamant: “Don’t do that.”
Studies have shown that “wearing casual office attire conveys a sense of incompetence and a lack of respect for the office environment,” Lennon said. Said They perceive people dressed formally as more knowledgeable than those dressed casually, and in situations where they need to ask an adult for information, they tend to be drawn to those dressed formally, Lennon noted.
Plus, wearing shorts to the office can (unfairly) send a negative message to women: “When women wear revealing clothing, it communicates sexual intent,” Lennon says.
(Of course, just tell that to fans of “Hart of Dixie.” The mid-2010s CW series follows Dr. Zoe Hart, played by Rachel Bilson, as a young woman who moves from New York to rural Alabama. Chic dress shorts that are often worn She works in a medical office.
This debate has recently spilled over into Congress, where Senator John Fetterman’s (D-PA) term in Congress has been marked by controversy over his choice of uniform: a hoodie and gym shorts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it was a surprising choice in an environment where most men have historically worn suits. Senator Charles E. Schumer’s (D-NY) September decision to suspend enforcement of the Senate’s implicit business dress code was widely assumed to be a tribute to his own preference for dress at work. But days later, the Senate reversed Schumer’s decision and voted to establish an official dress code.
Like Lennon, Washington Post fashion reporter Rachel Tashjian also says no to wearing shorts to the office.
“I can’t imagine wearing shorts as appropriate attire for the office,” she says. “Even if I thought wearing shorts would make me feel good, I’d likely get some stares and raised eyebrows from my coworkers.”
She adds: “It’s not just about casualness, it’s about balance. You have to do so much to look good that it ends up looking out of balance.”
If you want to avoid any mixed feelings about work attire, the answer here for shorts is to not wear shorts at all—or, as Tashjian suggests, wear shorts. To It’s work, but please change your clothes when you arrive.
Or, like Twitter-famous Derek Guy: “Men’s Wear Guy” Who will write it? Blog Die, WorkwearHe points out that there are ways to breathe better in the summer without having to wear shorts. For example, linen is more breathable than traditional dress fabrics. “Linen wicks moisture away from your skin, transports it to the other side of the fabric, and wicks it away quickly,” he says. (But keep in mind that linen does wrinkle easily, so if that’s a concern, Guy recommends a linen blend.)
Trousers made from tropical wool (low-density worsted wool fabric) They also offer a less stuffy alternative to most slacks. “Wool itself is lighter than other formal fabrics, so It doesn’t retain much heat, and the open weave allows body heat to escape and allows air to pass through.”
And if all else feels unfeasible or inadvisable, “wear looser clothing” in the summer, says Guy. “If your clothes are sticking to you on a hot day, that’s not going to feel comfortable.”
But if you’re into shorts…
That said, Guy isn’t opposed to wearing shorts to the office, especially in an office where employees typically dress casually — there are just a lot of things to consider before you do so.
For example, what other employees are wearing matters. With formal dress codes being phased out in many offices, “we live in an unfortunate world where we have to decide our own dress code,” she says. [yourself]”Fundamentally, it requires some socialization,” Guy says. But for those who don’t naturally understand dress codes or are just starting in a new workplace, he says there’s nothing wrong with simply asking your boss or coworkers what is and isn’t appropriate.
Unfairly perhaps, gender is also a factor: while business dress for women is highly problematic overall, women and those who dress for women have more options when it comes to how to wear shorts in a business environment. For example, short-pant suits are a dressed-up version of the shorts more commonly found in women’s clothing, and the historical prevalence of skirts and dresses in the office sets a precedent for exposing women’s legs.
“Generally speaking, women are at much greater risk when it comes to their clothing and face harsher penalties for any infractions,” Guy said. “Women have less of a problem with exposing skin below the knee than men do.
Like Guy, Robin Givhan, a senior fashion critic at The Washington Post who has won a Pulitzer Prize for fashion criticism, said shorts can be appropriate for work, as long as they’re tasteful. In swampy summer weather, shorts might be justified. “But my biggest question is, what do these shorts look like? Are they short enough to reveal cleavage, or tight enough to show off family jewels?”
Before you free your knees, consider your position in the workplace. If you’re a boss, you might have a little more leeway. For example, Bill Gates Known for casual clothingIt works well, Guy says, mainly because his power is so well known that he doesn’t need to communicate it through his attire. “But if you’re a young lawyer and you’ve just been hired by a big law firm, it’s probably not a good idea to wear shorts to the office,” he adds. “You probably want to send a signal that you take your job very seriously.”
Of course, not all law firms are like this. In fact, Southern California-based law firm Quinn Emanuel: With 35 offices in 12 countries, Gained a reputation For a relaxed approach to workwear.
Quinn Emanuel lawyers wear suits to court but are known in legal circles for often showing up to depositions and the office in jeans and T-shirts. This summer, both men and women at the firm’s Washington, D.C., office have been wearing shorts. “The SEC has been working to improve its reporting and reporting practices,” said Megan McCaffrey, co-managing partner of Quinn Emanuel’s Washington office.
McCaffrey said the company’s philosophy is, “If you’re going to have a long day in the office, you don’t need to wear formal attire. Wear what makes you most comfortable and perform at your best.”
In other words, at the end of the day, what you wear doesn’t define you in the workplace. McCaffrey says you can be productive even if your knees or ankles (heh!) are on display in the conference room. “You can wear shorts and still be 100% productive,” she says.
The only dress code enforced at Quinn Emanuel is that, for legal reasons, everyone must wear shoes.