How should I dress in San Francisco? (Marina, Stanford: transplants, home)

[gone down south]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

hoodies??jersey shirts?? I didn't even dress like that in high school.

Dude. You. Are. Moving. To. A. New. Place.
Why do you keep trying to pigeonhole SF into your NYC worldview?

Anyways, executives here dress the same as everywhere. Business people wear dress pants and starched shirts, but jackets and ties are more the exception.

Almost no-one gets 'dressed up' like they do in NYC to go out. California Casual rules the day, although of course that means different things in a crowd of young designers and students than it does mid-30s singles in an upscale place.

Hoodies and North Face jackets are de rigeur because it's chilly most of the year.

In NYC the overpaid youth are all in banking and finance and showbiz, and need to flaunt their money. In SF they're all in tech and roll out wearing the same jeans and tshirt to dinner that they spent all day writing code in. Zuckerberg and Jobs set the tone, think what they're wearing in nearly every picture - casual pants, ratty shirt, sneaks.

[HockeyMac18]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

hoodies??jersey shirts?? I didn't even dress like that in high school.

People here on the whole dress more casually. However, you'll see plenty of well-dressed people around the bay area (particularly in SF, in certain neighborhoods, e.g. on weeknights after work in the financial district). Also, plenty of people dress well when they go out to restaurants. You won't get looked at like an alien/there's a foot growing out of your head if you have a suit on...but you might feel overdressed in most situations.

I remember my first day of work showing up in a button down shirt, nice khakis, and dress shoes...I was pretty overdressed, as everyone else (including my world-renowned scientist of a boss) was wearing jeans and casual shirts (some nicer shirts than others)). Granted, I work in a science lab at Stanford, but people here just dress more casually at work.

At the end of the day, people here really don't care that much about how you dress (assuming you don't look like a vagrant/bum). You can dress up all you want, but you won't be prejudged if you don't dress up (as you might in other places). The clothing you have described will not make you stand out...and even if you DID stand out for whatever reason, you would still be accepted just fine. This is one of the great things I love about this area!

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by gone down south

Zuckerberg and Jobs set the tone, think what they're wearing in nearly every picture - casual pants, ratty shirt, sneaks.

Obviously the couture of the unsuccessful. How gauche.

[NYCtoSF]

Originally Posted by gone down south

Dude. You. Are. Moving. To. A. New. Place.
Why do you keep trying to pigeonhole SF into your NYC worldview?

Anyways, executives here dress the same as everywhere. Business people wear dress pants and starched shirts, but jackets and ties are more the exception.

Almost no-one gets 'dressed up' like they do in NYC to go out. California Casual rules the day, although of course that means different things in a crowd of young designers and students than it does mid-30s singles in an upscale place.

Hoodies and North Face jackets are de rigeur because it's chilly most of the year.

In NYC the overpaid youth are all in banking and finance and showbiz, and need to flaunt their money. In SF they're all in tech and roll out wearing the same jeans and tshirt to dinner that they spent all day writing code in. Zuckerberg and Jobs set the tone, think what they're wearing in nearly every picture - casual pants, ratty shirt, sneaks.

This is kinda depressing to be honest, but hey at least the weather will be nice.

Originally Posted by HockeyMac18

People here on the whole dress more casually. However, you'll see plenty of well-dressed people around the bay area (particularly in SF, in certain neighborhoods, e.g. on weeknights after work in the financial district). Also, plenty of people dress well when they go out to restaurants. You won't get looked at like an alien/there's a foot growing out of your head if you have a suit on...but you might feel overdressed in most situations.

I remember my first day of work showing up in a button down shirt, nice khakis, and dress shoes...I was pretty overdressed, as everyone else (including my world-renowned scientist of a boss) was wearing jeans and casual shirts (some nicer shirts than others)). Granted, I work in a science lab at Stanford, but people here just dress more casually at work.

At the end of the day, people here really don't care that much about how you dress (assuming you don't look like a vagrant/bum). You can dress up all you want, but you won't be prejudged if you don't dress up (as you might in other places). The clothing you have described will not make you stand out...and even if you DID stand out for whatever reason, you would still be accepted just fine. This is one of the great things I love about this area!

This is good to hear. At least my Charles Tyhrwhitt shirts won't go to waste. Also, this is kind of silly, but are leather jackets overdoing it?

Originally Posted by SS.

About this business of clothes-obsession, and how strangers will 'feel' about the clothes you are wearing--I really hope these are chicks talking and not men.

I'm one of the most heterosexual males you'd ever encounter.

[Isebiel]

Leather jacket is fine. You'll probably only want it in the evening though, as it doesn't get that cold until the sun sets.

(Some) people do dress up for dates and nice restaurants. Sometimes I'll notice lots of people dressed nicely, and I realize, oh right, it's Friday! Women generally dress a little nicer than guys. Some men do dress up more, but they tend to be significantly older than you are.

I walked through the Marina today and checked the local fashion to see if it was any different... but not really. Very typical look was layered sweatshirt + t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.

Remember, this is the city where jeans were invented!

[NYCtoSF]

Originally Posted by Isebiel

Leather jacket is fine. You'll probably only want it in the evening though, as it doesn't get that cold until the sun sets.

(Some) people do dress up for dates and nice restaurants. Sometimes I'll notice lots of people dressed nicely, and I realize, oh right, it's Friday! Women generally dress a little nicer than guys. Some men do dress up more, but they tend to be significantly older than you are.

I walked through the Marina today and checked the local fashion to see if it was any different... but not really. Very typical look was layered sweatshirt + t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops.

Remember, this is the city where jeans were invented!

Hmmm I guess I'll have to adjust. Thanks for giving me the lay of the land.

[Larry Siegel]

Somewhere between very casual and smart casual.

>Originally Posted by clongirl
You can dress the way you like as long as you keep your offensive and childish mouth shut.

Don't mind her, most Californians are nice.

[Huckleberry3911948]

dress well, everybody else does.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by Larry Siegel

Somewhere between very casual and smart casual.

>Originally Posted by clongirl
You can dress the way you like as long as you keep your offensive and childish mouth shut.

Don't mind her, most Californians are nice.

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[ambient]

Originally Posted by NYCtoSF

True but I don't wanna look out of place either. When in Rome and all that good stuff..

This is a pretty diverse metropolitan area; you have to decide which crowd it is that you're trying to hang with. There's about every kind of dress code you could think of around here depending on where you go.