Business women attire

The Basics of Professional Attire

The keys to professional attire start with cleanliness and well-fitting clothes, as well as avoiding inappropriate attire.

• A suit, no matter how expensive, will always look dishevelled and unprofessional if it is unironed or too tight.
• As a rule of thumb, skirts should be no shorter than the tips of your fingers.
• Buttons on your shirt should not gape open when worn.
• Suits and trousers bought off the rack often do not fit perfectly, so tailoring may be needed for a proper fit.

Determining Your Office's Dress Code

How you should dress in your office is largely dependent on your comapny's dress code and the cultural norms of your office. Companies usually issue employee handbooks with formalized dress codes, and that is also a good starting point to understand what is appropriate to wear in your office.

A good tip is to observe the attire of your supervisors and women who are similar in rank to you in your office for a week or two whenever you start a new job. It is important to pay attention to what they wear on days where there might be an important meeting (when you will typically see the most formal of attire) and ordinary days. Seeing what others wear is the best barometer in determining the appropriate level of formality in your office.