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?

I don’t work in the law but I can tell a polyester suit by looking at it. And polyester doesn’t impress as stylish or classy.

Dark and muted.

So in my case I wore black, navy, grey, deep burgundy and once a very dark bottle green shift dress.

Fair points, although I can understand about the clothes and to an extent I can understand, but then what happened to knowledge over looks ?

Yet you can still pay £££ for polyester.

I never worry about looking classy. As long as I look like myself that's the main thing. Which I didn't in conservative law firm clothing.

Well...how do you know this?

Sure sometimes you can see something obviously shiny and flimsy, but equally I'm sure there have been times where you've looked at a suit and thought, "Ah, pure wool Fendi" and it's been a dupe. Or your eye is better than mine!

I wouldn’t be so sure. There’s polyester and polyester and if you look at Net-A-Porter you will see a huge amount of high-end tailoring made from polyester or polyamide. There’s a world of difference between those fabrics and the stuff they use at Shein.

Hobbs has a good range of jacket dress combinations which are smart and pretty reasonable. I would never spend £300 on a skirt, that’s bonkers and no one would notice. If you could stretch your budget then The Fold has beautiful smart dresses. I also bought some trousers from them and they have bobbled and weren’t worth the money.

I love Dai for their trousers but they are pricey at £200.

I wouldn’t buy workwear from Vinted. I would get the best that I could in sales, new and easy to return.

I also really rate Me & Em

I make most of my own clothes and use high end tailoring techniques on good fabrics, as it's not worth my time or care to use anything other than wool, silk, linen, or cotton. So I"m quite familiar with assessing fabric quality. Generally, at a touch, I can tell roughly the composition of a fabric. The cheaper it is, the easier to tell - and if the manufacturer has put some viscose or even 10% wool, it can show as a "nicer" polyester/artificial fabric, but the polyester still shows. I've noticed how even the more expensive end of the high street is user far less robust & cheaper fabric mixes.

There’s polyester and polyester and if you look at Net-A-Porter you will see a huge amount of high-end tailoring made from polyester or polyamide.

Yup, I've seen Armani, Donna Karan, whatever diffusion lines do tailored jackets in polyester mixes, but I think they're a total rip off. What is the point of polyester really apart from convenience & cheapness. It's not nice to wear.

That's a fantastic skill and now I wish I could buy your clothes. But I think you might be the exception that proves the rule in that regard. Most people don't have such a discerning eye.

And @FarEast if you were meeting with a solicitor and you could see their suit was Primarni, would it put you off, make you think they had bad taste and judgement? I'm not having a go, I'm really curious!

As you're on a lower wage and are not a partner or similar, I'm not sure they can enforce the quality and cost of your work outfits legally
If it is required as part of your job description then they need to pay you a clothing allowance
Frankly some of M&S tailoring is very good, especially the Italian collection
My DS has a suit from the range( chartered accountant)
You can look for suits etc on Vinted( lots don't need formal clothing post Covid)
Or just cut the labels out!

Have them made for you privately. Certainly won't cost £300 for a skirt, and nobody will ever a) know where you got it b) know how much it cost. If you can't find someone to do it, ask on a local Facebook site. Buy 2 suits with skirts and trousers that will interchange. Mix them up. Buy plain white shirts from M&S. I dare anyone to question you!

I have bought very smart, unworn or almost new dresses from charity shops before. There are second hand designer dress shops online and in some towns. With more WFH people have got rid of a lot of work wardrobe, so there should be lots out there.

I’ve never heard of them but just looked them up. Is it just me or do they all look suspiciously like aircraft cabin crew? They look like they were supplied outfits by British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. 😂

With one honourable exception, they seem to go for plain neutral colours or else pillar-box red. I'd never last there, I'd feel compelled to come in in purple polka dots or yellow and green stripes, just to ring the changes.

I also just looked them up. Why are they well known? Looks like a pretty niche firm to me. And it also appears the colour scheme is mandated (dark hues, monochrome or pillar of red).

Not read whole thread so can’t comment on firm but a few years ago I had a Zara dress (work type) which was navy with a coral red stripe down it - a fairly old school partner in our firm thought it looked very smart!

Re this firm it does appear like they want an “image” with colours which is ridiculous if you’re in a training contract! No wonder 2 of SIL’s lawyer friends have left their silver and magic circle firms and are now in house legal counsel.

I do agree to a certain extent. I’ve had Reiss and a Donna Karan suits (sale, NYC buy) and jigsaw wool mix skirts and suits and the “good” polyester mixes can be hard to tell apart. If it’s a well cut classic suit like the first two I mentioned then most lawyers (including one who offered me a job as a legal PA) are fine with that.

I’ve known a female barrister turned solicitor who when she joined our firm just wore nicer and more expensive versions of the clothes we wore plus silk tops etc. for court etc of course you go for the best suit (handmade usually) you can afford but that’s a one off usually or bought a few of.

As a PP says a lot of corp lawyers wear Reiss and head of GLD (gov dept) now leading spl on Grenfell wore Sainsburys Tu mixed in with higher end brands and you really couldn’t tell!

Silver and Magic Circle firms would never mandate dress in the way that Vardags do. There are lots of other reasons to leave them, but dress code will not have been a factor, I assure you!

The senior partner in my office is one of the most laid back clothes wise. Why would you rate a lawyer based on their wardrobe ?? What an odd person

I now don't wear makeup for interviews. If I don't get the job because I didn't wear it, I didn't want to work there anyway.

And this image-crazed nonsense is why I went into a STEM career.

I don't care what your clothes look like, I care about the quality of your work.

Me and Em and Reiss do great tailoring, from eBay or Brand alley.