STEM students - what do you wear?

[GreenSlicker]

I’m 5’4, size 8-10, quite busty (d cup)

Have a week in a (mainly) Male environment in the summer which will involve some lab days.

in my 30s and mature student so used to joyfully expressing myself clothing wise and don’t want to be too “stick to hiking gear or jeans and t shirt”

But I don’t think a Boden wrap dress and knee length flat boots are the thing - will want trousers I expect? also want to project an air of confidence if I can (quite baby faced)

any tips?

Not a student, but a STEM practioner i.e. I work in a traditionally male STEM industry, fairly evenly split between construction site/office/field. Unless I am meeting consultants, politicians or very senior management, I tend to wear chinos (navy/grey/burgundy) and a tidy T shirty top, often a Breton. Easy to wash, easy to wear, cheap to replace, easy to climb over stiles.....plus Company fleece and whatever PPE I need.

What sort of lab?
I work in STEM and just wear what the hell I like. Jeans and hoodie, dress and heels, just what I wear normally.

A lab coat! Dp has worked in STEM his whole career(he's in academia now)and has always worn jeans and a shirt. Jeans and a t shirt when he was younger. Nicer jeans and a nicer shirt now he's old! Every sodding thing he ever stepped foot in a wet lab in ended up covered in various tiny bleached out bits and holes. He never wore a lab coat you see.

Mix of stuff I think?( engineering intensive week) Think it will be some surveying stuff and some lab stuff and writing up and lots of social stuff.

Told no flip flops proper shoes which is fine (I don’t wear heels anyway)

I’m having a no spend year but I think I have some M and S gift card to use. Pink matronly dress maybe?

What sort of labs? They all have different rules. I'm in chemistry labs and microbiology labs. Different lab coats for each. I just wear jeans and shirt. You can't really see what I'm wearing once I got my lab coat on. No bare ankles! Hair must be in a bun. No contact lenses. Not much opportunity for expressing myself.

I wouldn't wear a dress in a lab personally.

I work in a university lab (I’m a biologist) and some people are fairly smart (chinos, button down shirts, skirts, fairly casual dresses) and others are more casual. I tend to wear smartish skinny jeans or knee length skirts, flat boots, and long sleaved t shirts or jumpers.

Honestly, nobody really takes much notice of what anyone else is wearing, plus everything is covered by a lab coat anyway - just make sure you’ve got sensible, closed toed shoes.

On lab days - hair out of the way, natural fibres, trousers and closed shoes.

Non lab days, what ever you would normally.

I work in a STEM industry and wear sresses, skirts, trousers. Whatever I like!

No need to dress like someone you're not.

Dresses not sresses

ClaudiaD13 why no contact lenses?

If something splashed or fell into your eye, the lenses make it difficult to rinse the stuff out.

Acids, alkalis, fine powders - all have to be thoroughly rinsed out and the lenses not only trap stuff under them, they prevent the water getting through to rinse it off.

Laboratory specs all the way.

I work in stem, in a male-dominated team. I wear lipstick. I like boden dresses but also smart trousers and a stretchy top. I wear sensible shoes though, can’t be doing with bunions. Occasionally I wear jeans and a hoodie, but it’s mainly on quiet Fridays in August or just before Christmas. I recommend liquid lipstick that lasts all day.

Yes, and apparently contact lenses can absorb chemical vapours.

I am a scientist, not really lab based anymore though. Always wear flat shoes covering my toes and glasses. Never wear makeup. If on plant no jewellery, safety shoes and tyveks with jeans and a jumper underneath to keep warm. If in the R&D labs flat shoes and whatever I want to wear. If seeing customers a dress.