Via Steinn, the Incoherent Ponderer ponders academic clothing:
For some strange reason, whenever it is not clear whether the attire is formal or informal, I am much more concerned about overdressing, than dressing too informally.
I think that this is because it’s very difficult to be dressed too informally in academic environment – unless of course it’s a fancy dinner or cocktail party or something. Even if I err on the side of informal dress code, chances are – there is still someone dressed even more informally, likely a senior faculty member. I know some people who seem to be wearing shorts or jeans almost all the time, for example.
But it’s very easy to go overboard and be “too dressy” while everyone is casual. Perhaps subconsciously I would rather be considered a “slacker”, rather than someone who is too uptight or who is trying to show off?
Steinn offers some thoughts of his own, and a commenter points to the Society of Uncasually Dressed Scientists, which features too many lab coats.
There’s no particular code on my campus in general, and in fact there’s quite a bit of variation, with some of the engineers and older social science types wearing jackets and ties on a regular basis, while other people show up in ratty T-shirts and shorts. I do have some personal dress code rules, though, ranging from the practical to the psychological:
1) No shorts in the lab. If there’s even a chance that I’ll be working in the lab, I don’t wear shorts, no matter how hot it may be. I’m not a chemist, but there are plenty of things in my lab that I’d rather not have in contact with my skin, and you just never know. Plus, I frequently end up crawling around on the floor for one reason or another, and it’s good to have that extra layer of fabric.
(I don’t enforce this on my students, but I do mention it to them when they start. It continues to amaze me how many of them come to work in shorts and flip-flops, even after that advice.)
2) No shorts or jeans when teaching. If I know I’m going to be intereacting with students in a formal way, I wear kakhis and a shirt with buttons. It’s less because of the impression it makes on them– I doubt they notice– than it is a reminder to myself.
If I’m just going to be working in the lab with students, I’ll wear jeans and a T-shirt (usually a T-shirt advertising the competition– I have more Williams shirts than Union ones, still), but if I’m going to be in the classroom, I dress marginally more formally.
3) Sneakers. I almost always wear sneakers, mostly as a comfort thing, but also because it wouldn’t do to overdo the formal thing. I do have fairly comfortable adult shoes (you have to pay a little more, but Vimes’s Law applies), but I prefer to wear sneakers, and I can do that, because I’m an academic.
I never wear sandals to work– I don’t even own a pair of sandals, for that matter. And I would absolutely never under any circumstances wear sandals with socks, because I’m not German.
So, those of you in academia: What’s your dress code?