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*IMPORTANT* Architects and clothing
Okay. This is really sensitive so make sure you tell everybody to reply.
We are a large Architecture/Interiors firm in Melbourne. One of those 'Creative Capitals' apparently.
Today, all our staff told by our non designer, executive director, we were beginning to have a very 'casual' attitude to the way we were dressing for work. ie. not dressing in a manner 'suitable' to be called for/into a corporate client meeting.
Many of us took it to mean we would need to come to work in the 'traditional' and late 20th century/earry 21st century funereal black. This is opposed to the Melbourne Uni Bow Tie and jacquard vest Movement of the 70's and 80's which sometimes teamed up with brown vest and elbow patches. I went to a ID products show (Designex) recently and it was the sales/promotion staff who wore the black thing. The 'ladies' selling tassels and lamp shades wore either the 'shreaded look' or the 'shawl look'. But I digress.
I remember the father in 'The Brady Bunch' was fairly corporate but certainly did not look part of 'The Creative Class'. And that awful series 'Pacific Palisades' where the guys looked like pimps and the girls looked like street walkers. I fact they looked more like the current crop of real estate agents than Architects.
Has anyone else thought it was strange that only car sales persons, real estate agents and Seventh Day Adventists wear suits on a Saturday? I'm babbling.
Anyway my allocated lunch is over, so, it's ever to you.
What does a designer, Architect, drafty wear to the office?
No polo shirt suggestions please. Too project managery.
We are a large Architecture/Interiors firm in Melbourne. One of those 'Creative Capitals' apparently.
Today, all our staff told by our non designer, executive director, we were beginning to have a very 'casual' attitude to the way we were dressing for work. ie. not dressing in a manner 'suitable' to be called for/into a corporate client meeting.
Many of us took it to mean we would need to come to work in the 'traditional' and late 20th century/earry 21st century funereal black. This is opposed to the Melbourne Uni Bow Tie and jacquard vest Movement of the 70's and 80's which sometimes teamed up with brown vest and elbow patches. I went to a ID products show (Designex) recently and it was the sales/promotion staff who wore the black thing. The 'ladies' selling tassels and lamp shades wore either the 'shreaded look' or the 'shawl look'. But I digress.
I remember the father in 'The Brady Bunch' was fairly corporate but certainly did not look part of 'The Creative Class'. And that awful series 'Pacific Palisades' where the guys looked like pimps and the girls looked like street walkers. I fact they looked more like the current crop of real estate agents than Architects.
Has anyone else thought it was strange that only car sales persons, real estate agents and Seventh Day Adventists wear suits on a Saturday? I'm babbling.
Anyway my allocated lunch is over, so, it's ever to you.
What does a designer, Architect, drafty wear to the office?
No polo shirt suggestions please. Too project managery.
Comments
Basically you put the image up to a free photo gallery site and link to it or use the IMG button above to insert it into your post.
If none of that makes sense to you email it in (last resort though as might take me days to get to it).
P
Will Self, Feeding Frenzy, Penguin Books, 2001, pp.160
True, not an Aus reference, but I recognised a little bit too much of what he described for it to be pretty bloody relevant here too. So, I think we should wear just about anything to the office that isn't as spectacularly cliched as the above described attire.
OK that sounds way to hard. I'll try this -
http://www.archiseek.com/content/attachment.php?attachmentid=679
:shock: LMAO..thats better...
i dunno..i guess casual is cool..
monday - rock chick
tuesday - glitter chick
wed - punk chick
thrus - lady like chick
friday - retro chick
lol
most 'arteliers' wil let you wear anything because thats the look thy are going for. btu goodluck showing up to a coporate firm with thongs and a tshirt.
why gotta wear so formal like biz people u know....
dang maybe i should be a fashion designer lol
back to topic. the type of architecture you refer to is almost non existant. int he real world its high powered client meetings and site inspections. formal attire commands respect .
architects ARE business people.
EDIT: People who finds the confines of architecture restraining often do find other design industries mroe appealing. mainly because they had a wrong conception of what architecture is int he first place. So yes, maybe you will be a better fashion designer than an architect.
Architecture isn't boring suits and high powered client meetings - it's creating a product for people to live and work in and embrace life through, no matter how you go about it. And architects aren't business people. They DO business but they occupy an almost unique position that floats in between business and something much more powerful. At the least we make someone happy in the morning with a well-placed window, at the most we control peoples' lives by organising their cities.
If you like climbing the corporate ladder, having your emails spied on and being told what to wear so as to facilitate some disparate coporate view of your job, then go nuts, good luck to you. Not all of us believe that is a path to happiness and creative fulfillment
Also, formal attire does not command respect. Talent and skill and knowing how to approach a client and knowing how to do your job command respect.
oh, and good architecture can be created anyhow and anywhere, dude. Have you EVER crawled through a ceiling space in your life? or is it all CAD and consutlants for you?
Have a good day kids.
:? thats a good thing? whatever floats your boat mate. you obviously dont bother to read other peoples posts.
big scale architecture IS business. But why does design and business are not opposites, infact that are more alike then you think.
If you are happy with boutiques and artist studio then thats your choice. I like urban scale civic projects.
I was illustrating that other types of architecture do exist, and can be done while wearing whatever the hell we want, that clothes do not maketh the man or lady-architect and that if you find the parameters of a profession that pathetically attempts to grasp at past glories and memories of status and power, too rigid, then change those parameters! If you don't want to be at the mercy of 'high powered' clients' perceptions and you don't want to wear a suit to your site meetings, then just don't. I think that if the talented designers and thinkers get motivated to change the perception of the architect, instead of bailing when some corporate colleague tells them they'd be better off in another profession, we'd all be in a better boat.
The design and construction of our entire environment at the mercy of men in suits? Screw that!
As this thread seems to have demonstrated, its all about who your clients are. The clothes you wear, like it or not, are part of the "presentation" of the company. And clients may well judge the company you work for on what you wear. Also, you want to establish 'repore' with your clients, identifying with them in the way you do business, including the way you present yourself to them. This includes the clothes you wear.
Therefore, if your clients are mostly big corprate lawyers and accountants, you're going to want to dress up in a nice suit. If your clients are mister and misses average after some house plans, some nice pants and a collared shirt (or polo top) will do. If your clients are funky designers and boutique fashion designers, then a black turtleneck or some other fashion is obviously the way to go.
My boss hates wearing ties. But when the big meetings are on with the big clients he'll suit-and-tie up accordingly, and so will I.
We allow our staff to dress as they wish respecting their abilty to make judgements about professionalism. Never hauled anyone up yet...and I, I am sad to say am in my 50's. All up twenty people in our practice
Our office ranges in age from 20's to 60's and people dress according to what suits them, what they are doing (no point in clambering in a roof in you Sunday best). We would draw the line at birthday suits, or looking like you were about to go and do your own home renovations.
Philip