Sweater vest

[Tobus]

I appreciate the phrase "smart dress". While it's not in my daily vocabulary, I understand it and appreciate the imagery it provides.

I think the UK term "smart" is what we in the US would call "sharp". Everybody who knows their ZZ Top understands the concept of a sharp dressed man. (I hear that every girl is crazy about them.)

[Baeau]

.....Regarding the Silicon Valley definition of "business attire,"......

Andrew

Back when I was race crew for a local sports car racer, he was a lead designer for IBM. I joked they would toss him a room, & tell him not to come out until he had designed 'X'. By that time, IBM had slightly relaxed the dress code. White shirt not required. He went to work with shirt / tie, daily......sometimes, a sweater vest. Hanging behind the office door was a garment bag, containing a white shirt, & a couple of jackets that would work with whatever pants he was wearing. In the event the Elite of IBM were coming to see him, which was fairly commom. Contrast (recently), an acquaintance(mid-40's) left one of the local tech giants, for another. First job wardrobe was as Tobus has describe. New company, jeans, t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt. Days of meetings, he makes things look matchy. To keep us, faintly, on the thread subject........he will wear a sweater vest over a white t-shirt.

[Jock Scot]

Alright, lets try this.

Formal evening attire from kilted Scots(UK)point of view is equivalent to white tie and tails and black tie dinner jacket(tux) and is I think is possibly understood the world over.

Formal day attire from a kilted Scots(UK) point of view is equivalent to morning dress--morning suit(tails but NOT the same style of jacket as the tails of evening attire)and a drop down tie. This is probably more easily understood in the UK and perhaps Europe, although I understand morning dress is worn by some on occasion in the USA too.

Smart attire from a kilted Scots(UK) point of view is equivalent to business/lounge suits, blazer and flannels and sports jacket and pressed cords/cavalry twill/flannel trousers. A tie would probably be worn as might a waistcoat and with well polished shoes. NOT boots.

Casual attire from a kilted Scots( UK) point of view would be equivalent to anything else although judgement and discretion of attire is still required. However casual attire does not usually mean scruffy, although it might!

There are grey areas where smart and casual might overlap a tad, but not by much.

Hope this helps.

An afterthought.

I hope our friends from outwith Scotland and the UK will note in the above that from the kilted Scots(UK) view on these things then there is no mention of that dreadful term "semi dress/semi formal"!

[Wareyin]

A quick note on the Gentleman's Gazette that has been linked to: The author resides in the US currently, but was born and raised in Germany. I don't think his site is very good evidence of American formality, so much as a European attempting to guide Americans on his idea of formality.

[Wareyin]

I don’t think I included that link as a definitive guide to formality in American dress, just as an example that such a thing exists. Perhaps you could point us towards a more apposite guide by a more acceptable native born American rather than this European immigrant parvenu.

I would be happy to, if I was aware of the existence of such a thing. Sadly, I suppose the best example we will be able to find of American formality guides will remain that of a German telling us Americans how to do it.

[Father Bill]

There seem to be many here who are very aware of standards of formality and I have seen the excellent guides by Panache and McMurdo and they would seem to be most acceptable on both sides of the Atlantic. Perhaps it boils down to that old adage “Two countries separated by a common language” where terminology varies between the two. I think when it comes to formal dress then fairly rigid rules apply, principally to avoid any misunderstandings but everything else comes under the heading of casual which covers a multitude of sins from shorts and t-shirts to lounge suits.

I want very much to agree with you, Steve. The problem comes when people mis-use that word "formal" In some circles, that just means a lounge suit, possibly even without a tie - an outfit that I would never consider to be formal.

What I consider here in Canada to be "casual" others also here, label as "formal."

[Macman]

I think it is also very much a generational thing. When I was invited to dances in my younger days it was almost unsaid that a dinner suit (tuxedo) was required dress , i.e. “black tie” and I had to go along and hire the requisite outfit (because in those impecunious days I didn’t own such a thing). Even in business events such dress was expected and then things relaxed and business or lounge suits were acceptable. Then in the 2000’s office nights out seemed to be “anything goes” with jeans, t-shirts, any old tat was acceptable - for men - not for women who continued to dress up to the nines, visit the hairdresser and nail bar and present themselves in the best possible way whereas their companions turned up looking like tramps (hobos).
I suppose to that generation anything other than a t-shirt and jeans is formal and that is just so sad. If an event is supposed to be in any way “special” then surely dressing in a special way makes it all the more so.

I notice this as well. The ladies know how to dress for the occasion, and many of the men do not, either because they don't know or don't care.