the well-dressed engineer

I remember the Apollo mission shows. A bunch of white guys with white shirts, black skinny ties and black pants sitting behind rows of desks.

I'm retired. But I have a very small company of other retired engineers. I usually wear an undershirt and briefs. We meet using Skype. Everyone wears whatever is comfortable. We have been doing this for years. I can't even imagine going back to a strict office environment. We're all well-dressed.

In message snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com, John Larkin <jlarkin@highland_atwork_technology.com> writes

Harris tweed sports jacket, checked shirt, knitted tie, fair-isle cardigan , brown corduroy trousers, was the de rigueur Engineer's dress when I started in 1972. Brown shoes don't make it.

A variation on this .

Oh and leather elbow pads.

Brian

Hell, I miss shirt pockets.

Why am I the only one in my neighborhood with his shirt tucked in ?

RL

Pocket tees are great for holding glasses. I'm super nearsighted, a great adaptation for being an EE, but once in a while I need to see a whiteboard or something.

I find slacks much more comfortable when sitting for long periods than blue jeans are, and wearing a shirt with a collar makes my pencil neck look less pronounced. :-)

Sneakers / trainers paired with slacks is not a great look, and you can get "dress" shoes nowadays that are just as comfortable as athletic shoes (plus much more durable) so that's what I wear.

My commute to work involves some hundreds of vertical feet, so I want good traction.

Clicking a mouse isn't very aerobic, so I park where, at the end of the day, I have an uphill trek, whether I feel like it or not.

I'm self-employed, so I can wear whatever I like - but occasionally I have to give a formal talk, so I keep a few smart skirts and tops for those occasions.

About a year ago I had to give a talk on a technical topic to a more general audience. I had just bought a black and red layered 'gipsy' skirt at a car boot sale but the waistband had begun to disintegrate, so I took it all to pieces, cut off the frayed material and reconstructed a skirt which looked absolutely stunning but formal when coupled with a black silky top. I just got it finished the day before the talk.

Afterwards a lady came up to me and said how much she had enjoyed the talk, even though she didn't understand a lot of it ...but she had spent most of the time admiring my skirt!

Beakers!

My preferred look is "invisible."

Gotta have tees with pocket for the gym to hold the mp3 player.

Ed

Regular dress shirts, lumberjack shirts and even the Carharrt T-shirts still have them.

Most T-shirts don't so I now prefer carpenter shorts and jeans because a pair of glasses nicely slips into the longer right tool pocket. So well that I never even lost one during lengthy and rough mountain bike rides.

If I wear a dress shirt (which is rare nowadays) it's always tucked in. T-shirts not, of course.

My preferred appearance is whatever it happens to be. I dress for my own comfort... I don't have to look at me and I don't care what you think.

My wife only buys shirts that have a pocket for me - so they do exist (at least here in Canada) - I have a closet with twenty or so that get updated from time to time. I always have a pen and sharpie in the pocket, glasses sometimes, phone sometimes...

My wife likes shopping for clothes and I loath it, and I like fixing stuff around the house and she doesn't - it works for us.

John :-#)#

Is this from choice or because it is expected of you?

I can't do without pockets somewhere in my clothes but you should try finding skirts with decent sized pockets. Lack of pockets is the one big grumble women have about 'womens' clothes. I have become adept at opening a side seam and inserting a pocket or sewing one on the inside of an elasticated waistband. (You have to be careful where you put it or it could look like a hidden colostomy bag or worse).

When friends borrow any of my skirts, their first comment is usually "Oh! It's got lovely big pockets!".

fredag den 15. september 2023 kl. 22.43.47 UTC+2 skrev John Larkin:

that's the whole point of dress codes

Choice. I'm mildly autistic and not very social - as many engineers are - so don't seek or want any sort of approval or even notice from the public. I don't want to sing, dance, act, or strut my stuff. The New York Times Style Magazine astounds me: why would anyone want to look like that, much less pay $12,000 to look like that?

Clothes have historically been very important. "Clothes make the man." I don't get that at all.

I have been "performing" before potential customers and at design reviews and such since I was a kid. My strategy is to keep low profile, quiet and nearly invisible until I figure out the situation, and then whack them all at once. That's fun and seems to work.

I like women to look like workers or gardeners or hikers. Tee shirt, or better undershirt, no makeup, real looking. In a fashion magazine with "before" and "after" makeovers, I always prefer before.

People are different. Engineering is not a social activity, because social interaction creates consensus and suppresses dissent; original design is fundamentally dissent. Brainstorming is great if several social pathologies can be avoided.

Slack sucks.

I'm definitely not a 'heels and lipstick' person, but I much prefer skirts to trousers, they are so comfortable. I have an assortment of old denim ones with oil splodges, which I wear when I'm working on machinery.

For safety, I have to wear trousers when I am doing canal restoration involving bonfires, but if I have to work in the wet, I wear a skirt. A wet skirt doesn't cling and wick water into your socks and boots like trouser legs do - and it dries out twice as quickly because air circulates on both sides of the material.

If I am giving a presentation, then I feel I need to stand out a bit and wear something formal but attractive - but still no heels or makeup.