Formal, business casual, semi-formal, cocktail evening. Daytime beach elegant casual! Even if you understand the various dress codes you’re intended to abide by, your interpretation may be very different from the person inviting you to her shindig. Wouldn’t it be easier if you could just look at a picture that says “people are going to be dressing kind of like this.”
Photo by Noah Fowler.
Like thousands of other people, I’m attending a friend’s wedding this weekend, and inevitably, I’m a little uncertain how I’m supposed to dress for the various wedding festivities. It’s not my (gracious and lovely!) hosts’ fault — this whole dress expectation thing is so subjective and unclear that it’s hard to know with confidence that you’re on the right page. So I got to thinking: If I could just see what people are going to be wearing ahead of time, I’d know how to dress appropriately! — and an idea was born. It would be so helpful if I could just look at a group of people that all fit the dress code so I knew what the expectations really are.
This idea isn’t without problems. You don’t want your guests to feel like they need to go shopping to buy clothes exactly like the people in the picture you’re sending. You also don’t want to insult your guests by making them feel like they don’t know how to dress themselves. But, as a guest, I think it’d be great to know that, generally speaking, people are going to be dressed in some basic way so that I can pull something out of my wardrobe accordingly. If you look at it as a very loose recommendation rather than “Oh great, Anjali’s totally trying to micromanage this wedding down to the clothes I’m wearing OMG I HATE HER SO MUCH,” it’s potentially really helpful — especially for those of us who may not see resort casual evening in the same light.
What do you think? Bad idea? Great idea? Totally inappropriate? Share how you’ve successfully navigated dress code confusion in the comments.
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