To ask if this is appropriate office wear?

[Skimpyfd]

I work in a big law firm. Today I wore a navy dress about an inch above knee and skin coloured tights. Is this weird in winter?! Felt I got a few funny looks but might be being paranoid?

Good grief, this is crazy: mustn't wear flesh coloured tight or people will think you're a strumpet, skirt an inch above the knee too short. Really?

I haven't worked in the city since the 70s and I don't remember any of that sort of nonsense.

As pp said, no wonder the glass ceiling is still firmly in place if what a woman wears is scrutinized so thoroughly and can have such an impact on how people view her professionalism.

Obviously a certain level of neatness and respectability should be maintained in the workplace, but bloody hell. Are men's clothes subject to this sort of close inspection and judgement?

I'd be tempted to turn up on a Monday morning wearing something with spaghetti straps and a split up to the top of my thigh and 5 inch heels, just to get a reaction. Oh and not in black or navy blue.

I actually cannot believe some of the crap I've read on this thread. "Flesh coloured tights in winter are the preserve of a specific kind of woman in the city"

What a load of misogynistic bullshit.

I work in a v professional environment (city based hedge fund). Flesh coloured tights are considered WAY more professional than black opaques. And thick black tights DO NOT go with a beautifully cut well tailored suit. They go with casual woollen skirts, etc.

Flesh coloured tights will always look professional. And ONE INCH above the knee not considered professional? What a load of nonsense. most decent quality skirt suits (Hugo Boss, etc) are on the knee or slightly above it.

OP your outfit sounded fine, I think you are being paranoid. You probably got looks because you looked nice. I often notice other women checking me out and I know for a fact it's not because I look like a 'specific type of woman in the city' its because I look good

Isn't it weird how fashions and moral judgements about fashions change? I'm an old gimmer, and back when I was growing up, flesh coloured tights were what respectable women wore as part of a working outfit (usually in an extraordinary colour called "American tan" which we as school girls used to roll our eyes at and joke about how frumpy it made our mums and school teachers look). Black sheer tights were "sexy", black opaque tights were frumpy.

Now it seems black opaque is respectable, and flesh coloured sheer are "sexy". Thank god I work in a workplace where I can turn up in jeans and a woolly jumper.

I think you need to wear what you are comfortable in - so not what you are wearing today! I used to work in a large firm, and how the solicitors dressed varied hugely, though most of us would suit and boot up and put on the slapper for any kind of client contact. But people dressed differently in different departments too.

They could be looking for any reason - you may have lovely legs, or they may be worried you will die of cold... either way it doesn't matter, if you feel uncomfortable go for something comfortable until you find your own style (at which point you won't ask what people think).

Thinking about it, not many women wore flat shoes in my days, other than trainers or occasionally uggs in and out of the office. For me that was a choice not because anyone told me to. I live in flats nowadays.

Just on here to agree about "American Tan" tights! Ghastly!
Also to agree that OP's clothing sounds eminently suitable (although perhaps navy rather than black shoes!) and am in shock at some of the 1950's attitudes on show here. I'm 60, you know!

PS by comfortable i meant something you know is going ot be ok with everyone. I wore suits from austin reed as a newly qualified which bankrupted me, but it meant i didn't worry about how i looked. their trouser suits are nice.

I agree sounds fine. An inch above the knee means too short? Really??? And also I find that any tights give pretty much the same amount of warmth unless you are wearing super thermal ones.
If you got any looks it was probably becuase your tights were a good natural match and they were trying to work out of you were indeed super human and bare legged. Don't worry about it. Your outfit was fine.

There's only one poster who seem to think that nude tights mark you at as some sort of man stealing strumpet. Surely they are the least sexy item of clothing available!

Blokes do tend to find girls in shorter skirts in winter quite sexy. Doesn't mean its unsuitable.

It depends on your dress, it's impossible to judge without seeing it.

What's the problem with nude tights? Kate Middleton looks perfectly corporate in the first pic, but her outfit would have been too casual in the second.
If you have great legs, you get away with a lot, but it really depends on the whole outfit.

Going against the flow here. I would never wear a skirt above the knee at work. Just feels wrong to expose so much leg. Below the knee also means when you sit down it doesn't ride up and expose thigh

I'm wondering what lady lawyers wore to work in the late Sixties/early Seventies (mini-skirts, hotpants, loons era!)? Or were there none?

The tights thing is a major difference in UK style and US style, I think.

I'm a lawyer in the States in a warm climate. I go bare-legged year round. Where I live, even women lawyers in court don't wear pantyhose/tights and certainly not opaque ones.

true

UK Royal family members wear tight for as a matter of etiquette, but commoners like me because they are cold! We don't have enough sun to get a nice colour all year round either, and tights are quicker than fussing with fake tans. And again, it's freezing.

Please OP do us all and yourself a favour and post a picture or a link to a similar dress, so that we make an informed comment.

Seneca, reading this thread I keep thinking of all the beautifully dressed lawyers in The Good Wife – always bare-legged and always looking utterly corporately appropriate.

Leaving aside it being winter or summer. would actual bare legs be OK in a British office, though, if you're a corporate lawyer? Would it not be deemed not properly dressed if you had no tights/stockings on at all? What if you wanted to disguise your pasty, blotchy legs or knobbly knees? Nude tights can help with all that. The office I work in - not a legal firm - would be fine with bare legs, but would everywhere?

Remember that when you sit down your skirt will ride up so you will need to consider that when thinking about your skirt length for work.

Bear legs would have been inappropriate where I worked.

daisypond

I know of at least a famous London Bank where women are not allowed to have bare legs. Whilst I think they are absolutely entitled to have their own rules, you don't have to work there, I am amazed they get away with it nowadays. In most places, it is difficult to implement, there's only so far a dress code handbook can go. You can at least make sure employees dressed inappropriately (men or women) are never promoted. You can't put someone in front of an important client when they have a cheap ill fitted suit for example.

Most corporate lawyers are ambitious enough to want to be noticed for their work, not their appearance.

I'm amazed there is an issue with nude-coloured tights and a dress sitting an inch above the knee. I mean, come on. What's wrong with that?

Maybe you've got nice legs OP, I'm always jealous of women with nice legs as mine are horrendous. You probably just looked nice, and people are used to seeing people cover up with trousers in this weather. Don't worry about it, you know the reaction it will elicit now and will probably go for trousers or opaque tights just to fit in.

Have I fallen into some bizarre Victorian parallel universe where showing your knees (shock horror!) at work is considered scandalous? OP's outfit sounds perfectly reasonable - it's hardly a miniskirt and thigh-high boots! And anyway, shouldn't we be past the stage where we judge women based on what they wear?

They're probably just wondering if you're cold, opaque feel much warmer.

You could always buy navy opaques, that's what I wear when I wear my navy pencil skirt...law firm but office staff not a lawyer. Having said that I'm sure the younger lawyers would have no problems wearing navy tights.

Re: bare legs, I see women with them in the summer at my work, maybe not for court but for a normal day yes. I always wear tights though because I don't like the feel of proper shoes or the scratchy office chairs on bare skin.