Rants and Ramblings: random commentary about culture, media, politics, technology and whatnot.

dress like a republican

My company, the Newspaper Association of America, is holding its annual convention this week here in DC. Our editorial equivalent organization, the American Society of News Editors, is meeting at the same time across town, and we’re hosting some joint sessions for members of both groups. It’s an interesting mix of publishers, business/ad executives and higher-up editors in this crowd. And they all seem to take themselves very seriously.

I’m hanging out at the NAA convention hotel this week to keep the convention Web site up-to-date as the various conference sessions take place. I’ve never been to a formal convention like this before (conventions of webmasters, in my experience, generally are paragons of slackerwear), but I thought that business casual would be okay.

I was wrong.

On Tuesday, my first day at the convention, my boss strongly hinted to me that my outfit — black cardigan and shell, khaki skirt and black slides — were too casual for the event and, gesturing toward her own suit, half-jokingly advised me to try to “look more Republican” for the remainder of the convention.

Point taken.

The fashion admonition sent me into a shopping tailspin, as I headed immediately after work to H&M, followed by the Pentagon City mall and Target to find more “business-appropriate” garb. I’ll be ironing (or dry cleaning) these clothes until the end of time, but I think I’m set — for this week, at least.

My outfit for tomorrow: Black cardigan, white button-down dress shirt, black pinstripe skirt, black hose, black dress shoes. Today I’m in a light gray embroidered sleevless dress, with matching gray jacket.

Office fashion is such a strange concept for me. I’ve never worked anywhere where that wasn’t casual, or which didn’t enforce dress codes with staff who had only limited contact with “outside” people. And this is the first job I’ve had where the dress code is “business casual” but jeans (even nice jeans) are verboten. I know that overdressing — business dress or something close to it — is probably the best way to go, but my disinclination toward ironing, my procrastination regarding laundry and my stinginess with dry cleaning — not to mention my general “preferred” manner of dress — all tend to lead me to want to wear the most comfortable, low-fuss clothes possible.