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FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: senorcorazon on July 31, 2008, 10:20:31 AM

Title: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: senorcorazon on July 31, 2008, 10:20:31 AM
I'm all for throwing rules of office attire out the window. I think people that freak out about jeans when you're spending your whole day trapped in a cube need to grow up. Heck, I could even get behind shorts and flip-flops in most cases. But seriously, what the hell is up with this? Nutters? With dress shoes?

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts-600.jpg)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: emma on July 31, 2008, 10:24:30 AM
Those photos upset me in a way that is probably excessive.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Laurie on July 31, 2008, 10:27:01 AM
Blame Thom Browne:

(http://www.thefashioniste.com/Spring08/ThomBrowneSc.jpg)

Full disclosure: His womenswear Black Fleece line for Brooks Brother has been super duper cute. I just looked at the current line, and it's vomitcore.

Also, he had a show last year that I thought was kind of sexy. The shirt sleeves were extra long and tied together behind the models' backs, leaving them bound and helpless. Male helplessness has been a leitmotif for a couple of seasons lately. Even Miuccia Prada has exploited that theme. I love it.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: JonFromMaplewood on July 31, 2008, 10:33:51 AM
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts-600.jpg)

Hmmm. I did not give the New York Times permission to print my photo.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Chris L on July 31, 2008, 10:35:56 AM
I have a feeling Paul F. Tompkins' act is going to be noticeably different very soon. 
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Wes on July 31, 2008, 10:36:57 AM
Thanks to these photos, I kind of hate knees now.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Pat K on July 31, 2008, 10:38:31 AM
To be fair, I've worn dress shoes with shorts before. Extremely extremely old and well-worn-to-the-point-of-almost-being-sneakers dress shoes, but dress shoes nonetheless, which I know is against The Rules but don't think is SO bad.

What for sure isn't cool in those pictures is 1.) Long sleeves with shorts always makes you look like a douche. And 2.) No socks with dress shoes? Wtf?
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: yesno on July 31, 2008, 10:41:50 AM
My current place's dress code is pretty hilarious.  I talked to the woman who is in charge of writing the rules, and basically every time there's some new outrage, a new item is added to the list.

Thus, "no shiny leather," etc.  I also recently went to a party where the dress code was listed as "dressy casual" which has no meaning at all.  I wore a black suit and white shirt with no tie, and black and white chucks.  Trying to square the circle.  But people just wore whatever.  Work clothes.

On the one hand, I would love to be a dress code totalitarian and require that men wear suits, hats, etc, like in Mad Men.  It seems simple.  But on the other, lazy hand, I hate dry cleaning.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on July 31, 2008, 10:46:01 AM
And 2.) No socks with dress shoes? Wtf?

relax Pat K., only a tenth of the population could pull off the socks-meets-shorts in dress shoes look. 

Thanks to these photos, I kind of hate knees now.

Ha.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Pat K on July 31, 2008, 10:53:42 AM
Actually, I think the most frustrating part of this is that I know there's a joke somewhere here involving the Prank Patrol/Metropolitan Diary "Why oh why would he sell my shorts?" kid, but I just can't find it right now.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Beth on July 31, 2008, 11:01:23 AM
Blame Thom Browne:

(http://www.thefashioniste.com/Spring08/ThomBrowneSc.jpg)


At least that dude has the good sense to wear socks with his dress shoes.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: gravy boat on July 31, 2008, 11:41:56 AM
I have an interview at Goldman Sachs at 1pm.  They wanted "fresh" "forward" "ahead-of-the-curve" thinking.  Thanks for posting this.  Wish me and my shorts luck!!
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Beth on July 31, 2008, 11:50:49 AM
I have an interview at Goldman Sachs at 1pm.  They wanted "fresh" "forward" "ahead-of-the-curve" thinking.  Thanks for posting this.  Wish me and my shorts luck!!

Be sure to wax or shave first! It appears these guys do.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: ericluxury on July 31, 2008, 11:57:04 AM
The amount of men who could pull that look off and not look like fools: .05%
The men in these ads have to pose in order to be able to work this style at all.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Martin on July 31, 2008, 11:58:55 AM
Blame Thom Browne:

(http://www.thefashioniste.com/Spring08/ThomBrowneSc.jpg)


At least that dude has the good sense to wear socks with his dress shoes.

I love everything about this except the shorts.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Emily on July 31, 2008, 12:20:33 PM
(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts-600.jpg)

Hmmm. I did not give the New York Times permission to print my photo.

Hubba hubba!
Sounds like someone just earned themselves a post in the "Hunk of Meat" thread..
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Laurie on July 31, 2008, 12:23:26 PM
Blame Thom Browne:

(http://www.thefashioniste.com/Spring08/ThomBrowneSc.jpg)


At least that dude has the good sense to wear socks with his dress shoes.

I love everything about this except the shorts.

I'm sure you can purchase that suit for a mere $6,000. Probably less, if you're purchasing with Euros.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Bryan on July 31, 2008, 12:23:56 PM
I can't wear shorts to work because I just haven't figured out how to manage the socks thing. Plenty of people DO wear shorts to my workplace (a university) but their outfits also usually involve sports sandals, which are, to my mind, intolerable. I feel ill at ease with those little sock-ettes that men have started wearing lately, too.

Also: this is not a real problem, I realize.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: gravy boat on July 31, 2008, 12:39:11 PM
Plenty of people DO wear shorts to my workplace (a university)
I really hope these people are addressed as "Coach" and are carrying clipboards.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on July 31, 2008, 12:41:41 PM
Plenty of people DO wear shorts to my workplace (a university)
I really hope these people are addressed as "Coach" and are carrying clipboards.


or they could be wearing cargo shorts  ::shudder::
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Sarah on July 31, 2008, 12:44:35 PM
It's just English schoolboy chic, no?

(http://www.archivist.f2s.com/bsu/indexpix/trad-school.jpg)
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Shaggy 2 Grote on July 31, 2008, 12:46:38 PM
Hey, I like cargo shorts.  They make me feel like David Cross.

Doesn't the NYT publish an article like this every summer?  Maybe some Style section editor is just longing to start a trend so he construction workers won't make so much fun of him when he walks through Times Square in his short-suit.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Bryan on July 31, 2008, 01:06:07 PM
As someone who came of age in the early 90s, I'm kind of stuck on cargo shorts too. My wife made me buy a pair of longer shorts that I guess are more in fashion, but they seem like capris to me. My masculinity is too fragile for that  kind of thing.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Pat K on July 31, 2008, 01:19:33 PM
Is it just me, or did the whole thing of whether/how to wear socks with shorts really only become a big issue in the last 10 years?
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on July 31, 2008, 01:24:18 PM
in people under 60+...yes
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: mokin on July 31, 2008, 04:14:59 PM
It's just English schoolboy chic, no?

(http://www.archivist.f2s.com/bsu/indexpix/trad-school.jpg)

That's exactly it! Those people in the NYT photos look like little boys (especially the left photo)! That's why it's so disturbing.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Gilly on July 31, 2008, 04:27:39 PM
The last one doesn't look bad but not in a work setting.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: iAmBaronVonTito on July 31, 2008, 04:37:01 PM
The last one doesn't look bad but not in a work setting like Neil Patrick Harris.

ta-da
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Martin on July 31, 2008, 05:30:43 PM
What's cargo shorts?
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Oogie on July 31, 2008, 05:34:47 PM
I'm all for throwing rules of office attire out the window. I think people that freak out about jeans when you're spending your whole day trapped in a cube need to grow up. Heck, I could even get behind shorts and flip-flops in most cases. But seriously, what the hell is up with this? Nutters? With dress shoes?

(http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts-600.jpg)

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/fashion/31shorts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Hey, I could look like this! (?)

TOO?

Thanks!
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Bryan on July 31, 2008, 05:35:56 PM
Cargo shorts are baggy shorts with lotsa pockets. David Cross always wore 'em in Mr. Show.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Gilly on July 31, 2008, 08:11:34 PM
I'm so sick of cargo shorts. It's impossible to find a good pair of knee length shorts without 8 million pockets on them.
Title: Re: NYT: How to look like a FWD at work
Post by: Laurie on July 31, 2008, 08:27:03 PM
Sorry to burst your bubble guys, but knee-length "shorts" are clamdiggers. Anything below the knee but more than two inches above the ankle are capris. Own up to it.