Somewhere, right this second, someone is frantically Googling “smart casual,” open-applications Excel spreadsheet tabs upon tabs full of pubs with bottomless Sundays hovering ominously over their browsers. Who invented smart casual as a dress code? I have a theory it was an asshole host who delights in making his guests angst over their attire for weeks leading up to his events.
Nothing is more ubiquitous and equally infuriatingly vague as smart casual. I have seen otherwise confident, Wall Street bullish alpha males suddenly completely melt down at the thought of getting dressed and send me pictures and messages from the department store fitting room along the lines of “AM I SMART CASUAL LAD?? ?” The exclamation points come in the order magnitude of their panic. As far as I’m concerned, I have a smart casual track record that is borderline haunted.
There was the garden party I went to once in Cheshire and showed up in what I was pretty sure was smart casual… only to find everyone else wearing outfits that were essentially just dressed-down wedding guest attire (“Oh, did you… just stop by to drop something off?” No, mum, I’m actually here to PARTY with your son and his friends!). Contrast that with the work dinner where I went entirely too far in the other direction and showed up wearing a blazer and tie while everyone else was in jeans and polo shirts (UGH help me I WAS SCARED THEY MIGHT ASK ME TO DO A PRESNTATION ON LIFE INSURANCE PRODUCTS).
With its ability to generate confusion and deeply buried anxieties about one’s social standing, smart casual has become a sort of nationwide British pastime.
Every region of the country has slightly different standards for what smart casual is, as well as attitudes about what smart casual should be. Wear what I would think is acceptable smart casual to a Christmas party in Belfast and you might just find yourself quietly ostracized at a “relaxed dress” business lunch in the City. I’ve been writing about menswear for fifteen years and I STILL get it wrong sometimes.
British people are also terrible at answering direct questions about what they want guests to wear. God forbid you come across as demanding or put anyone else in the position of having to explain what they want. So instead of your invitation saying “jeskirt and tie for dudes,” they’ll say “look fancier than you would for a Saturday morning football match!” Then they spend the entire time glaring at you because you took them literally and showed up in your ACTUAL SATURDAY MORNING FOOTBALL MATCH outfit.
Trust me, I know this because I am English. I recently received an invitation that said to wear “relaxed country attire” for a weekend in Suffolk. After several distressingly embarrassed phone calls to the host where I kept getting threateningly closer to saying “WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN?? ?” the invitation eventually became “oh ffs Blackpool just wear a tweed jacket but no tie, corduroys or those horrible moleskin trousers instead of jeans, and for fucks sake wear some proper shoes to go inside the house.” LET ME HANDLE THIS FOR YOU PEOPLE.
So allow me to take this opportunity to clear up any uncertainties about smart casual you may have by breaking down exactly what smart casual means in Britain for a variety of occasions. After nearly three decades of getting it spectacularly wrong but occasionally just right, I think I’ve finally got smart casual nailed down. The Basics.
Ok, so FIRST. True smart casual (aka whatever that chart in the dress code guide of your wardrobe is trying to tell you) is actually rarely ever just “casual.” Smart casual should ALWAYS be somewhere between business casual and cocktail attire with the smart winning more often than not. So we’re talking along the lines of: Jaacket/sport coat No jeans (although dark, well fitted jeans can slide), trousers Shirt, but not necessarily a tie (no tie is becoming more acceptable these days, even in smart settings) No trainers/trainers That right there is your Goldilocks zone.
Not too smart, not too casual. Ok but like… obviously like that changes to suit location, season, and who the hell knows what else. So with that in mind, lets break down your averages by category: Smart Casual For Dining At Inexpensive To Upscale Restaurants in London When it comes to dining out, smart casual almost always errs on the smart side of the spectrum.
Dark wash jeans can sometimes get away with being worn with a jacket but I always play it safe with chinos or wool trousers. Shirt, no tie. Get leather shoes that aren’t falling apart and make sure they’re clean.
Throw in an uncommon knit if it’s winter or fashionably warmer. You’ll notice I said dark wash jeans – avoid bright coloured denim at all costs when trying to look smart. Ever been to a nice restaurant in London with a mate only to discover you look like you’ve landed from a brochure of holidays in the Greek Isles while everyone else is wearing muted navy, grey, and black?
BEEN THERE. Smart Casual For The Countryside British country customs are a nightmare of internalized class markers being passed off as “just asking people to dress practical.” Honestly, unless you live in the countryside, you can disregard anything I say about being smart casual in the country except for this: a battered looking British army-style jacket is infinitely better than something clean and new smelling like a catalogue jumper. Think moleskin or cord trousers, tattersall shirt, suede brogues or Chelsea boots.
You wanna look like you put some effort in but also could probably help deliver one of the sheep at any moment. God, I hate how classist that all sounds. But that’s how the British countryside still is y’know?
You either accept it and fit in, or you constantly fight a battle against it. I choose faintly ridiculous clothes so…. WINNING?
Smart Casual For Work Events This is massively variable based on your industry but I’ll cover off the ones I know best. My nerdy tech friends can usually get away with cleaning jeans and a decent shirt but my former banking and law bros would consider smart casual to still be wearing a suit; they’d just not wear a tie and likely have a loosened collar. Ask around if you’re not sure but a good rule of thumb is to see how the higher ups in your office dress on a day-to-day basis and dress slightly nicer than them.
You’ll never regret being too smart for a work occasion but you will regret being under dressed. Smart Casual For Weddings (This should probably go without saying but smart casual for weddings (particularly now that more and more are using it for the evening reception portion of their big day) usually means more smart than casual.) You need a jacket. Trust me on this.
You Might Also Like
Good trousers and proper shoes are also non-negotiable for weddings. You showing up in Birkenstocks and your dad jeans may be “smart enough casual” for YOU but no one else. Leave your dad clothing at home for special occasions.
Trust me, he doesn’t care what you wear. He won’t even notice. NB: this is mostly generational.
What older people in their 50s/60s think is smart casual will be wildly different to what millennials and Gen Z-ers wear when they hear those two words. I’ve literally found myself having to translate smart casual dress codes for family members on more than one occasion. “No Gran, Tom is not being rude or lazy, he just happens to have a jumper that costs more than your first car.” “Dad, that cashmere hoodie under his blazer is totally smart enough these days, I swear.” Same goes for regional differences. Scottish smart casual will differ wildly from that of anywhere else in the UK.
Especially when it comes to occasions where half the guests will be wearing kilts. KILTS ARE FORMALWEAR. People get so worried about looking under dressed wearing jeans and a blazer that they’llforgetkiltsaretheofficialdresscodeofScotland.
Smart Casual Summer vs Winter Lighter coloured clothes are fair game in the summer. Linen jackets and loafers without socks can also usually be worn in the summer months (sadly, still frowned upon by old dryasi€ñ£t>).Wintersmartcasualmeans heavier fabrics, layers, and BOOTS. British weather being what it is, you’ll want options to account for this.
NOTHING ruins a good outfit more than being stuck inside because it started pouring down rain ten minutes after you left the house or sweating to death because your venue has no air con. TLDR;ASK QUESTIONS Ok so the million dollar life hack when it comes to smart casual is: ASK. YOUR.
HOST. Ok cool cool so that’s literally the worst thing you can do. Trust me, I know this having sent approximately seventy six stressed and panicked emails to hosts when an event was less than two weeks away.
But hear me out. If you Google voice your actual question to your phone and then delete the email before they’ve seen it, they’ll likely give you some shit answer you then have to decipher what they actually mean through vague words alone. But it’s better than showing up in the wrong thing!
If you can’t bring yourself to ask, over dress and bring options. Bring a blazer and if no one else has one, take it off and fold it over your arm. Bring a knit tie folded up in your pocket that you can pop on if you feel out of place.
Pop an extra shirt in the car that you can change into if you land up being too casual. Yeah it’s a faff but being under dressed for an event is 100% more embarrassing than having to pretend to carry an extra blazer around all night. Another thing to take into account is the Occasion.
Smart casual for a Summer BBQ birthday celebration is going to be way different to smart casual for a November dinner party. Use your noodle a little here and take into account where it is you’re going, who you’ll be with, and what you’ll be doing. And finally… This is the formula I’ve landed on for myself after decades of stressingt about it: Navy blazer (I really do think every man should own one of these) Light blue or white shirt Grey or beige chinos (depends on season) Brown suede loafers or brogues It’s not sexy or groundbreaking but it honestly works anywhere and can be dressed up or down depending on the occasion with simple changes to your accessories.
Hell, ditch the socks and roll those up in your brogues and it’s even smart casual appropriate for Summer. RULE OF THUMB: clothes are supposed to make you feel confident and allow you to express yourself, not cause you to stress out about them so much that you don’t enjoy yourself. If you’re second guessing your outfit choice every five minutes at an event then you’ve missed the point.
Ok maybe you won’t get it 100% right every time.
I wore what I felt ABSOLUTELY FINE wearing smart casual to a media event once only to discover it was taking place in a trendy fitness studio where we all had to take part in a group workout before sitting down. Not only did I ruin my new jeans that I’d had tailored that very morning…but I spent the entire time jacketsl strapped to my arm while doing burpees in someone else’s leggings.
To this day those pictures haunt me. Point is, smart casual dos and don’ts are actually wildly interesting if you stop and look at them through a sociological lens. They say so much about how British people view class, our desire not to come across as demanding or tell people what to do, and our inherent love of hedging our bets.
By saying smart casual, your host gets the best of both worlds; setting a standard but not having to explicitly say “WEAR A FUCKING JACKET YOU HEATHEN.” It’s so British. Perhaps the best way to look at smart casual is as less of a STRICT definition you need to conform to and more of a guidline of how to present the best version of yourself for the occasion. The most stylish men I know don’t worry about what side of the smart-casual fence they autumn on; they’ve dressed in a way that suits who THEY are for so long that they’ll always look “right.” I am not one of those people unfortunately, which is probably why I keep a “dresscode emergency kit” in my car at all times that includes; spare shirt, knit tie, pocket square, and shoe polish wipe.
I’ll probably still be Googling from my car what I can wear whenever I get invited to “smartish” somewhere. But hey. At least I’ll know what I’m wearing after I Google it.
