What is it about men and blue/white shirts?

[BikeRunSki]

I realise that this is not really an S&B question, but I do know that there are a lot of people on here who understand fashion a lot better than me.

I work in a male dominated, professional field. Our office has a smart-casual dress code. So for men, this basically means chinos and a shirt and usually a tie.

Pretty much all the shirts my male peers wear are variations on pale blue / blue and white checks/ blue and white shirts., regardless of age, colouring etc. More or less every day. DH is the same, but he can't explain why he always wears blue/white shirts. Very occasionally a lilac or grey shirt sneaks in, but that is about it.

Why the obsession with blue?

My own office clothes have a much wider range of colours.

ive just started a thread about me being addicted to blue striped shirts and tan shoes/belts.

i've noticed this recently in work too when we are on business dress days.

i think for men, its a case of less choice and blue tends to suit most people. dh wears mini check navy/white shirts or else white shirts. he feels odd in a pink shirt (and has has the piss taken too) and pale grey looks shocking on him as he is so pale with dark hair.

i've also noticed this out for meals/ parties too: navy polo shirts on little boys and dads in pale denim shirts, blue linen or blue cotton shirts, a sea of blue shirts on facebook!

Ha, DH wears blue Oxford shirts or navy polo shirts every single day. Very occasionally he will break out into a stripe or check but that is only on very special occasions. White shirts are only for funerals apparently (according to him).

It’s so much easier though. I might join him.

He will break out on holiday and has a particular fondness for coral.

My dh’s mantra in life is blue and check and black and you can’t go wrong

It’s a good job I love him for more than his dress sense.

I’ve asked DH and he said they are neutral and go with everything.

Its because they are smart looking colours and frankly the range of clothing choices for men has always been limited and narrow so they don't have the cuts and colours available to us laydees :)

Plus its means they don't have to really worry about what to wear each day to work... lucky buggers

Thanks for your ideas ladies. Shame DH looks awful in pale blue!

Plus its means they don't have to really worry about what to wear each day to work... lucky buggers

Yes!!!! What’s the girls equivalent? Chinos just seem too casual on me. In my field I might be called upon to go and walk round a building site or riverbank at short notice, and keep trousers in the back of my car to change into en route (no office parking, not for lowlife like me anyway). Would be nice just to go, and just put my hard hat etc on when I get there!

I love wearing blue and white shirts, they feel so fresh

My wardrobe is slowly transforming into an oasis of blue, white and grey and it pleases me so much to open the door and see the calming sight.

I like the whole menswear thing of almost having a uniform though, really appeals to me

I think men suit blue and white shirts. They are fresh and zingy and have a big appeal for me. Men look great in suits too. 🙂

BikeRunSki I know I work in the same field (as it were) I've sat in meetings where there are maybe 15 men, pale blue shirts to a man. Ties rarely worn. Sometimes the 3 or 4 wearing a tiny check somehow gravitate together. On my current project the PM is a waistcoat wearer, he's a refreshing change.

It's what's available. Once I was looking for a shirt for ExP and most places had a few other colours, plus endless variations on blue and white. That tells men that other colours are for bold and wacky types so most stick to the mainstream.

(Apart from the pink shirt thing, in more financial circles...)

I find it boring and a man in a colourful, floral or interesting shirt always gets my attention. But I also think there's too much blue around for women as well. Nice if you like it, but it doesn't suit me so it always drives me nuts that when items come in a range of colours, there will always be at least two blue options, black, and one or two others.

What also fecks me off is when you think at first glance something is black and then you realise it's navy. I'm looking at you Cos and Boden.

I might get DH this for his birthday he looks much better in red!

I have just browsed Next, Boden and M&S and see what you mean about the lack of choice. Maybe DH is as keen for a non-blue shirt, as I am for non-skinny jeans!

My husband wears blue oxford shirts and blue and white stripe shirts almost everyday. Occasionally a navy check. He’s not interested in fashion at all.
So I went rad this Father’s Day and bought him a pink oxford shirt!

DH is a red head and wears lilac shirts, plus the obligatory white and white/blue/navy. Pink looks shocking on him, though he will wear grey. He is cautious with certain blues/grey as they can show if he sweats.
I have some lovely expensive men's shirts, picked up in charity shops, often they look new, I think probably donated presents that aren't conservative enough! My favourite is a Ted Baker with humming birds on the cuffs.

I pointed out the blue shirt thing in a meeting at work and it was clear none of the men had ever given it any thought whatsoever.
I’d like to see more Hawaiian shirts in the workplace myself.

Blue is neutral - if you go to work in a floral shirt or something loud or unusual, people will make judgements about your personality. Blue is smart, professional and says absolutely nothing about you as a person and is therefore perfect for work. It's the male equivalent of a plain shift dress.

Because life is easy for men, they don't have to think anything through

I would love it if DH wore something as zany as a blue shirt. He works in the city and still adheres to the very rigid dress code that applied when he started there over 40 years ago. So dark grey single breasted suits, white shirts with double cuffs and black socks and black Oxford shoes. The only splash of colour is the tie. My ironing is just an endless succession of white shirts and white pillowcases. It’s so boring.

I suppose I should be grateful he started after the era of bowler hats.

There’s really not many other colours to choose from according to my H. Maybe some pale pink or purple.

Oooh, I like the blue/ red gingham shirt.

For office/professional environments there are quite strict, usually unwritten, dress codes. White and blue are always the safe colours. Barristers have a tradition of loud shirts and extreme pinstripes, but I doubt many accountants could get away with such a look. If you can read the codes you can often tell whether someone is a solicitor, barrister, accountant or surveyor simply from what he is wearing. Doctors and teachers have a little more freedom. You would not expect a solicitor to look like a geography teacher, and vice versa.

I think similar codes exist for women, though women have generally got a lot more wriggle room. That said, I have known quite a few women lawyers wearing only black and white to work, presumably for safety as that will go with whatever task they might have to do.

I understand the unwritten dress codes Talbot, but they really don’t exist in civil engineering (DH and I are in the same field). As long as you take off your Hi Vis and overalls before you come in the office, you’re generally OK.

I am relate to a lot of lawyers of various types. Whoever I see a man in a wide pinstriped grey suit I think “barrister”.

Tbh , I found the formal dress code much easier to deal with, back when I started work. Grey suit, navy suit, skirt suit, trousers suit.

My DP is the same. Will only wear white or blue shirts. I have desperately tried to get him to wear other colours but he won't. My greatest achievement was getting him to wear a red checked tie!
Some colours I think are "too girly" or "too loud" for his conservative tastes.

I have 11 work shirts in total. One of them is not based upon the colour blue as it's pink and white.