Coloured shirts on men, USA

[burntcopper]

The 'what to wear at an interview' came up on the internet messenger bits. AOL gives you US, MSN gives you UK. Looked at the men's. The difference is... quite interesting. Especially for office jobs.

US? frighteningly conservative. Thou shalt wear white shirt, red or blue tie (no pattern), never, ever wear brown shoes or belt - they've even got rules about what to carry.

UK, they were saying 'don't wear a white shirt, wear a coloured one so they'll remember you and you won't look like you've come straight out of school. Ties should match your shirt, a discreet pattern is okay. No paisley and no cartoons.'

And then I remembered Smallville fandom, where Lex wearing purple/pink/light blue shirts was taken as proof positive of him being at the very least bisexual. This made me boggle a bit at the time, since wearing pink shirts is normal in the UK, *especially* in the City. Five blokes in my carriage on the Tube this evening, two in my carriage on the train.

Seriously. Is colour in men's shirts that odd in the US?

Comments

[sakara75.livejournal.com]

lol i shall ask my US friends and get back to you!!

[harriet-spy.livejournal.com]

I think that's something of an exaggeration. Light blue is not odd at all. Pink is okay in cities, though less common. With Lex, it was the purple. And...you know...Lex.

[sakara75.livejournal.com]

well this is what i got from a us friend
I personally see nothing wrong with it but I notice that men view pink as a girls color. They are afraid that if they wear pink, other men will think or tease them about being gay.

I encourage Bob to wear colors, but even he sticks to darker shades.

I watch "what not to wear" all the time on TLC and they encourage color and ties and nice shirts. I didn't know that there was formal rules on what to wear to interviews. I heard it depends on where you interview. For example, if you interview at Delta airlines, you should wear a blue suit, white shirt and red tie (red white and blue are their colors).

Anywhere else, it depends on where you interview. I've seen wankers interview in jeans for trucking companies, while you need like a 3piece suit to interview for a legal position.

But men I notice are definitely color shy over here. And afraid to dress nice as well. All rednecks wearing tapered jeans and crappy shirts.

[sabremeister]

There's a guy at work (temp) who habitually wears T-shirts, polo shirts, etc, and jeans. On the day of his interview for his job to become permanent, he actually wore slacks and a suit jacket - white polo shirt underneath though, with a brown tie. We know this, 'cos as soon as he came out of the interview, he took the jacket and tie off.

[aqua-eyes.livejournal.com]

Alas pink shirts are taken as a sign of confidence. Not gayness. Generally.

[mrslant]

Ties should match your shirt

Ye gods, what kind of style hell does this advice come from? Only wear a coloured shirt with a matching tie if you want to look like a footballer being had up in court, I say.

[burntcopper.livejournal.com]

should've been clearer. 'match' as in 'doesn't clash horribly'.

[mrslant]

Co-ordination is good. Purple shirts with purple ties, not so good. :-)