Cracking the dress code

Font Size

Print

Feedback

Email

Discuss

Related Articles

Ten women spread ‘untamed ideas’ on canvas'Condom ring-tone' attracts 270,000 downloadsWorn out professionals join theatre to vent out!Saree, now a favoured garment in Canada

Dress codes are most often intimidating, if not irritating for most of us. When we receive an invitation that has a “dress code”, it does send a nervous, discomforting sensation up the spine, that is, if you are the image-conscious kind. Instead of getting excited at the idea of having a great time at the ‘do’, we start worrying about, ‘Oh God! What am I going to wear?’ Even though, it’s not such a big deal to figure out what’s appropriate. In this column, I am going to ‘de-code’ and decipher the various dress codes that are likely to come your way. Let us look at some fairly common codes that come on invitations:

Dress: Formal: This is simple. Gentlemen have the following options:

a) A dark suit, navy or black, with a white shirt and dark tie, lace up black shoes

b) A dark bundgala suit worn over a white shirt, shoes remain lace ups

c) Kurta pyjama — Now this is a bit of grey area, whilst a kurta is our ethnic /national dress, it still has to be worn with a certain sense of formality. Sleeves should not be rolled-up. The kurta should have a band collar and most importantly, the footwear needs to be sharp and clean.

The above are options for the ‘conventional’ man. For the slightly less conventional, a black suit, black shirt and black tie should be nice and dandy. Ladies should stick to wearing a sari. It’s formal enough even for the White House!

Dress: Lounge Suit/Uniform/National Dress: These are the dress codes that come with most of the invitations to ‘National Days’ of various Embassies. For people in the services, I guess a uniform is fine. But for civilians, it causes a problem. But, what the heck is a ‘Lounge Suit’?

Well, any suit that is not a business suit or a black suit could qualify as a lounge suit. So you could wear almost any suit with a shirt and tie and you are ready for the occasion. But here I would like to add that when one goes to diplomatic events, it’s always good to wear your nationality on your sleeve, so perhaps a bundgala, shervani or kurta pyjama would be more authentic.

Ladies could of course wear a not so shimmery sari or even an avatar of the salwar kameez or churidar.