All posts tagged baracuta jacket

Casual*Prep is Hard

Baracuta Jacket

*I included the term prep in the title of this post with a little hesitation. I have issues with the word, which I will discuss in the future. I have used it here because it is the most widely understood term for the style of clothing which I am describing.

Things have been been a little hectic lately. Although, it does not take much to overwhelm me as I am a man of routine. I spent all last week painting my living room (see pic 2 – it looks darker in person). Plus, I had weekend plans (sadly this is not the norm). Actually, it was getting dressed to go out on Friday that  inspired this short and late post. I was trying to dress casual as I was going out with a friend and I didn’t want to look as if I were still in my work clothes. While selecting my outfit I discovered that dressing casually is hard (see what I consider casual below).Baracuta Jacket                                                               What I consider universally casual

What do I know about casual dress? I have learned from my work experiences that people love to dress casual. And that when people say casual they mean jeans. Everywhere that I have worked my co-workers have been excited to wear jeans on Fridays. My new workplace has recently allowed employees to jeans anytime, and they do. Even though it is permitted, I never wear jeans. Not even on Friday. It is not that I hate denim. I just don’t find it to be that comfortable.                          Navy sweater                                                                                  Friday’s Outfit

I do dress casually at work. I wear khaki chinos and a blue ocbd. I don’t think that it gets much more casual than that. My co-workers on the other hand do not feel that way. It gets even worse for me on the weekend. I tend to want to dress exactly like I do at work, but with clothes that I have worn out at work. My friends do not consider this casual. So, I have been trying to strike a balance keep between looking casual and feeling presentable.

The solution that I have come up for weekends (work remains the same) is leaving my shirt untucked. Believe me, I know that this is a cardinal sin in the world of traditional clothing. I find myself wanting to tuck my shirt it in so badly, but I don’t want to look the same all of the time (just 99%). I am not going to lie, it is not so bad. I am getting used to it.  Navy Shaw Collar Outside                                           Saturday’s Outfit (Look, I even have athletic sneakers on!)

I am even beginning to warm up to the untuck.  As it would turn out the urge to tuck is directly related to the length of the shirt. In pic 3, the shirt is kind of long. In order to compensate for the length I tucked a little bit of the shirt up and under my sweater. This improved the look. In pic 2, the shirt is short. It actually might be a challenge to keep this shirt tucked in. I thought that this shirt worked the best out of the two. I am going to have to continue to work on developing a distinct casual look. I will let you know if I make any more progress.