Last month I received an invitation to attend a tech meetup. It called for smart casual attire. My brain went immediately to: fantastic, another dress code that means anything and everything from “don’t wear your sleeping clothes” to “wear a suit but pretend you don’t care.” I’ve been thinking and writing about men’s style and capsule wardrobes for years now and smart casual still makes me want to throw my phone at the wall.
Despite my frustrations I actually learned something about smart casual over the past year. Not only do I know why it’s confusing, but also how to reliably nail it without overthinking every piece of clothing you put on. It doesn’t require an engraved list of rules to memorize.
It just requires you to understand what other people are actually saying when they say it. I attended three “smart casual” events in two weeks last year.
A work party in SOMA, my girlfriend’s friend’s birthday dinner in the Mission, and this networking “social hour” that my college roommate talked me into.
I wore essentially the same outfit to all three – dark jeans, white button up, navy blazer, white leather trainers. I felt perfectly dressed for one. Formal for the other.
Under dressed at the third. And that’s when something clicked for me – smart casual isn’t actually a dress code. It’s more of…. whatever.
I don’t know. Something non-specific that shifts based on context and company. Probably as useful a description as asking someone to just “dress nice” or “look good.” Super helpful.
What helped me after years of stressfully under-dressing or pretending to “dress down” as a display of cool was understanding that smart casual is all about fitting in. It’s about acknowledging that you know a social setting requires some degree of effort and showing it – without wearing something anyone would wear to an actual meeting or board room. Rule of thumb?
Combine one clearly casual article of clothing with something more refined. Nice jeans + crisp shirt + leather shoes. Trainers + slim fit trousers + blazer.
T-shirt + sport coat. As long as everything looks intentional and you’re not wearing distressed clothing or sweatpants, you’re good. My standard smart casual uniform is now dark denim (NOT the stuff from Target), a button-up shirt that fits properly, and either my white trainers or loafers.
Bonus points if I add an unstructured navy blazer if I want to lean a bit more on the formal side. Counts for 90% of smart casual occasions I encounter in San Francisco. Of course, smart casual depends massively on region.
When I was visiting my cousin in Boston last summer, what I would typically wear for smart casual in San Francisco was way too casual for Boston standards. Everyone was in blazers and leather shoes. Me?
STAYRED jeans and trainers – wearing what I consider business casual in SF. Which was…fine? I actually had rolled straight out of the office.
Same goes for industry. Tech smart casual will never look the same as finance sharp. The former allows for an extremely high quality t-shirt and jeans as long as they fit well and you look put together.
Wear that to a law firm associated function and you’ll stick out. I learned that the hard way when I once attended a “smart casual” mixer and was probably the least dressed person in the room. Not hipstery understated, I actually wasn’t dressed as well as everyone else.
Take cues from the venue. Oftentimes that restaurant site or bar page will give you enough information if you know what to look for. That Michelin-star seafood place my girlfriend was dying to try?
Blazer and dress shirts everywhere on the Instagram. The brewery my coworkers go to for weekly happy hours? Dude in sandals in one of their photos.
Same dress code, completely different answers. Age matters, too. Men in their 40s+ can get away with far more traditional smart casual (think khakis, button downs, loafers) than their younger counterparts.
You Might Also Like
Wear that same exact outfit and you’ll look like you’re dressing up in costumes or over doing it. Smart casual seems to allow younger folks to wear trainers and far more casual interpretations of traditional menswear. Let’s break down what works for each category.
This is going off of what I’ve observed works and what I’ve seen laughably fail: Jeans are your friend. Dark wash. Not faded blue jeans you’d wear on the weekend.
Not the ones with holes that you patched up. Dark denim that actually looks intentional. I have two pairs of raw denim I swear by for smart casual occasions – they look sharp enough to work but aren’t stuffy.
Chinos are great too, especially in navy or olive. I personally stay away from khakis – feels too dad-like but plenty of men make it work. Shirts are pretty simple.
Button ups are always safe but they don’t have to be boring dress shirts. I prefer oxford cloth or chambray because they photograph well and are less prone to wrinkles than your typical dress shirt. But most importantly, fit matters.
A well fitted t-shirt under a blazer can work for smart casual in casual settings, but that t-shirt has to be a nice t-shirt. We’re talking $50+, not the free ones from your conference booth. Blazers are your secret weapon.
A lightweight unstructured sport coat says “I know what I’m wearing jeans and a t-shirt for” much easier than jeans and a t-shirt alone. Navy is king for versatility and I have one from Everlane that I wear about twice a week. It’s comfortable enough that I feel like I’m not wearing a blazer, but put together enough that I never feel under dressed.
Shoes can make or break your outfit. White leather trainers are sufficient for 90% of modern occasions. I prefer something minimalist like Common Projects.
Loafers are great when you want something more traditional without having to go full broke shoes. I have a pair of brown leather ones that go with 99% of my wardrobe. Maintenance is key.
This wasn’t something I really thought about when building out my wardrobe, but everything has to look pristine. Wrinkled shirt = messy, no matter the cost. Scuffed shoes = trash the whole outfit.
I even started hanging my blazer on a closet hanger instead of off a chair. Literally transformed how it looks. Examples of this happening?
Showed up to a friend’s birthday dinner in a hoodie because it was the “social hour” of a smart casual event. Wore a full suit to someone’s house for dinner because it was a “smart casual house dinner.” Went overweightedly dressed to a tech company holiday party because “smart casual” was more casual than I was giving them credit for. Learn from my mistakes.
If you have any doubt, err on the side of being slightly more formal. You can always take a blazer off if you’re too dressed up. You can’t really make an outfit more formal/clean if you’re too casual.
Smart casual has even evolved since I first started thinking about this.
Technical fabric trousers that look like wool but stretch like yoga trousers, performance blazers that look sharp but don’t wrinkle – it’s changed. And it’ll probably keep changing.
It also happens to fit perfectly into my philosophy of having a small wardrobe that can be dressed up or down for majority of occasions I encounter. My smart casual clothes double as work clothes and weekend staples. I wish someone told me that smart casual doesn’t actually mean anything.
It’s a dress code we made up so that we could stress about it. Once you stop trying to decipher what someone means when they say smart casual, and focus on simply dressing in a way that looks like you made an effort but aren’t restricted by uncomfortable clothes, it becomes infinitely easier. Now when I see smart casual on an invitation, I don’t freak out.
Dark wash jeans, nice shirt, good shoes, maybe a blazer depending on where I’m going. Show up looking like you gave enough of a fuck to care about what you’re wearing, but not so much that you’re worried someone will inspect your outfit. That’s smart casual.
And frankly, that’s probably all someone wants from you anyways.
