If you are just starting a career, you might be struggling to figure out the professional etiquette and dress codes. The business world has been changing for quite a while and now it even influences the way men dress and behave in the office or a meeting.
Two trends that dominate modern business are business casual and smart casual. This is way too much for the average Joe because it’s not so easy to spot the differences between the two styles.
What is business casual? How about smart casual? How can you recognize the opportunity to pick one dress code over the other? There are many questions we need to answer here, so let’s dive straight into the topic!
Business Casual and Smart Casual: The Definitions and Use-Cases
Analyzing casual fashion styles is pretty much like reading paper writing services reviews – it all looks the same, but there are actually a lot of differences between certain solutions. Business casual and smart casual are not an exception here, so we want to start simply by defining the two concepts.
By definition, business casual is a style of dress or dress code that allows people to wear casual clothes that are professional in nature but not overly formal such as suits and ties. This style is suitable for everyday office work among professionals who do not plan to attend formal meetings or important conferences.
It allows you to keep the authoritative style and appearance without looking too stiff and polished. For example, you can embrace the business casual style by losing the tie, adding alternative colors like brown, and wearing a sweater.
On the other hand, smart casual is defined as a neat and stylish dress code, but not too formal, especially when this is the accepted way of dressing for a particular situation, place, or social occasion. It is slightly less formal than business casual, which makes it suitable for a wide range of events and situations.
These two styles also fit different types of personalities. For example, business casual is ideal for serious professionals who don’t enjoy experimenting too much with alternative apparel. At the same time, smart casual gives you the opportunity to express your style and clothing interests while maintaining a fully professional tone.
When to use business casual
What makes a perfect occasion for business casual attire? It depends on your personality, the company’s etiquette and dress code, and the business event itself. However, we can identify a few use-cases that seem to be widely accepted in the professional universe.
Most men will stick to business casual apparel when going to luncheons and informal meetings. It is also a common choice among certain types of workers such as marketing managers, startup owners, IT specialists, and similar.
When to use smart casual
How do you know that it’s time for smart casual? Once again, it depends on your style and your position within the organization. If you are having a regular day at the office, wearing smart casual is totally fine. The same goes for informal meetings with your peers and colleagues.
You will often notice a smart casual style in creative industries such as the custom essay writing service, content creation, UK dissertation writing, public relations, blogging, and so on.
Business and Smart Casuals: Things to Wear
Now you know the distinction between business casual and smart casual, but what does it mean clothing-wise? It’s an obvious chance for you to express creativity and impress coworkers and business partners, but here’s what we can recommend:
Upper components
We’ll cover every segment of the apparel from top to bottom, but let’s begin with upperparts. Business casual is all about darker colors and hues, particularly when it comes to jackets. You can wear a simple shirt, but avoid t-shirts because they are too casual.
Smart casual is known for brighter colors, so feel free to wear a bit more cheerful jackets or even pullovers. If you can combine it nicely with other parts of your clothes, do not hesitate to put on a one-color t-shirt.
Pants
Business casual leaves no room for improvisations here. Darker jeans and smart chinos are more or less the only acceptable solutions in this case. On the other side, smart casual is a bit more flexible as you can consider light-color jeans and lighter chinos.
Shoes
As you can see already, the business casual style only leaves you with a couple of options to choose from. Shoes are by no means different as you are supposed to opt for brown or black leather shoes. If you prefer smart casual, then you may as well choose a bit more informal leather shoes or suede shoes.
Accessories
Accessories are important for every style in men’s fashion, but you have to be discrete in order to fit the business casual style. It doesn’t accept too many items, so do your best to choose them wisely. For example, you can wear a black leather belt and a watch. Professionals who want to look smart casual can use more than one accessory and combine all sorts of belts, watches, sunglasses, and even wristbands.
Colors
Versatility is not the word we’ll use to describe the color schemes of business casual. This style demands darker hues and shades as well as muted colors without complex structures or patterns. Contrary to that, smart casual allows you to mix cheerful colors without overdoing it. It’s enough to use up to three colors because you don’t want to look too casual.
Occasions
When do you go for business casual and/or smart casual? Luncheon meetings, seminars, and easy workdays are perfect for business casual. At the same time, smart casual is suitable for informal nighttime events, parties, Fridays, and similar.
Up to You!
There’s a very thin line between business casual and smart casual, but you need to know the difference if you want to sail smoothly through the career. In this post, we showed you the basic characteristics of these two styles. Which one do you prefer?