Work requires expensive tailored clothes

[PriscillaPartridge]

I work at a very traditional law firm. I earn very little compared to the partners who impose this policy. Work clothes must be of good quality fabrics and preferably fitted by a tailor/adjusted to fit. I asked if M&S was ok, but was directed to more suitable brands such… some places are £300 a skirt. Any ideas on where to shop for expensive looking but not big ££ clothes?

They are still discrete though, because they are two separate earrings.

What they are not is discreet.

( It was a pedant’s joke.)

Oh, yes - I'd love to pay a Magic Circle lawyer the best part of a grand an hour only to have her greet me in a cardie!!

That sounds mad!… now I am off to google Vardags 😉

You genuinely think that the hourly rate is related to the clothing that the lawyer wears?

How bizarre. You’d be unlikely to be paying MC fees as an individual anyway, clients are mostly corporate.

This reminds me of the induction training I had at a magic circle law firm. I have never mistaken discrete for discreet since (not that I had beforehand, mind).

I’m a lawyer…Hobbs or my personal fave…although I sound terribly middle-aged… Boden.

@PriscillaPartridge
why the different levels of $$
is it more setting an image, but then how will the clients know weather its a 50$ outfit vs eg 2000$ outfit

plus i can understand lookin the part, but after that surley its the knowledge and experience that should matter more than the clothes ?

Brand Alley always have Reis's, Hobbs etc.

But. Your employer is being unreasonable. If they want to dictate a dress code beyond business formal then they need to give you a clothing allowance.

If none of them shop in m&s they won’t know! Get a nice cut jacket (Hobbs sale) and pair with smart m&s skirt and blouse.

I just looked at the Vardags website. Blimey, they’re not shy of letting the world know that they’re amoral, money-grubbing scumbags are they? At least the honesty is refreshing.

Or ignore them and buy what she can afford???

@WhatapityWapiti love your user name BTW well I can only speak from experience but I've only ever worked in firms that expected you to show up ready to go to court if needed.

Which meant tailored pieces and a nice quality suit or something that looked like a nice quality suit. (No one ever checked the brand.)

What you couldn't do was show up in a flowery dress and cardi (unless you had a back-up suit in your office).

I agree that the OP might have got the wrong end of the stick. No one's checking labels. A suit from M&S is fine as long as it's the right kind of cut and colour for court.

I mean yeah of course we should be able to show up in track suits or ballgowns or clown costumes and be judged by our brilliance alone but that's just how it is.

I never mentioned flowery dresses and “cardis” though- I said dresses and cardigans. Think graphic prints, checks, wool shift dresses, wrap dresses etc, with good quality wool, cashmere or silk mix cardigans.

Sure, and that looks fab, but I've never worked in a law firm where anyone could wear that. Fee-earners and support staff had to look court-ready at all times.

Never heard of anything so ridiculous. If it’s fairly corporate and you are sticking to black, navy, greys and white shirts / tops / blouses, then unless they are asking to see the labels they won’t be able to know whether a black pencil skirt is from Reiss, M&S, Hobbs or bloody Gucci. Buy M&S and don’t waste the money.

But I did change into uggs and I throw a fleece on if I was actually at my desk.lol rebel

Were you at more of a litigation firm then if you needed to be "court ready" - I've been at Magic Circle and Big US and dressed exactly like @WhatapityWapiti describes (no court for me though )

(Glad you got my Johnny Morris reference!)

Yes, but that is not most law firms, which was why I took issue with you saying most firms would have that dress code. Lots of people, especially in the City, work in teams who do transactional law and never go anywhere near a court, and would have no idea what to do once they got there. For those who do litigation, in big commercial disputes it’s rare to have to dash to court at short notice too and even rarer to be doing the advocacy when you get there, so a dark tailored dress and dark cardigan would be perfectly acceptable for sitting in the row behind the barristers.

Was this in your contract when you got the job? If not, they can't make you do it. If it was, I'd personally be looking for another firm, and reading the contract carefully next time!

I’ve just finished a 7 week High Court trial as a solicitor and didn’t wear a suit to court every day (though I did sometimes). I also wore long sleeved shift dresses with no jacket and smart blouse and skirt combos. It was summer time so no cardi but I would have felt comfortable wearing a smart cardigan in court if it was colder weather.

The female solicitors on the other side were similarly dressed to me. One of them had a very nice shirt dress which she wore several times. We did all wear sub fusc colours but not necessarily designer labels.

The barristers were all male this time but female barristers tend to wear suits or dark shift dresses with their bands and a gown over the top. Again no designer labels required.

Well yes I think the OP got the wrong end of the stick re designer labels. No one is checking labels. I've worn loads of Primark.

What's a sub fusc colour?

I agree with this. I've worked in law for over 20 years and in the beginning it was all suits and shirts. It softened to something like a shift dress and jacket pre-pandemic. Now it seems to be anything goes. People just keep one suit or smart jacket in the office in case of needing to go to court.

I bumped into a barrister I know a few days ago. He was wearing shorts, deck shoes and a Hawaiian shirt in chambers. Needless to say he was not in court that day.

Dark colours: black, charcoal, navy etc.