While we’re on the topic of big law … More

Your lovely coworker + trench coat = ? More

Here at BankersBall we believe — nay we LIVE — the idea of “dretthin for succeth” . But a Forbes article makes us question D.T.S., who we are, and our very existence. (sob)

A JPMorgan candidate that scored an interview couldn’t put together a clean outfit. Says a JPMorgan recruiter, “‘I met with a guy just the other day, and he had an incredible resume but a white shirt with a coffee stain. All I did was stare at the shirt–I wasn’t even listening to what he was saying.’”

And it’s not just the clueless interviewees. Apparently you can get to VP level and still be a terrible dresser. Reports an anonymous Goldman Sachs associate: “‘I saw my boss wearing a pair of white socks with dress shoes in the office the other day …I thought, ‘Why would anyone put something like that together and think it looks OK?’ I’m no fashionista, but that’s just wrong.’”

So who wants to rat out the white sock wearer?

Yup, the skinny jean look has hit suits. And at least one financier is drinking the two-button Kool Aid:

“You get to show off your physique more,” said Michael Chan, 30, an equities trader in New York who in the last year bought two slim, two-button suits from Seize sur Vingt, a custom suit maker in NoLIta. “It’s a more fitted look, not so baggy or amorphous, so you can see the body shape.” All the three-button suits in his closet? “I don’t wear them anymore,” he said. “Those big, boxy shoulders, all that room swimming in the waist, it looks totally outdated, like you’re back from the 1990s.”
(via NYT)

The next time you’re in London for business, you might want to leave the poo-colored shoes at home. Brown shoes are a major British investment banker faux pas, signifying at least the downmarket “capital markets, eurobonds” and at worst, an offense so bad that you may be sent home for it, reports Reuters.

A true British rainmaker adheres to a very narrow fashion window: “handmade grey or dark blue single breasted suit, classically-cut shirt with double-cuffs and non-flashy cufflinks, a Hermes tie and black lace-up shoes.”

Bespoke suits should never be worn with belts, although one ex-banker we consulted disagrees with this, saying that often bespoke suits are made with belt loops and that anything is preferable to “suits with those little straps you can tighten.”

By sporting a white shirt, you run the risk of looking like a noob trying to play it safe. Says one esteemed tailor to Reuters, “There is a slight snobbery that white shirts are more for juniors.”

Flashy lining is OUT in the City, but pink shirts and colored shirts are IN, one female banker tells Reuters. Our ex-banker disagrees: “[Pink] is just so freakin British and it looks really bad.” So there you have it.

The WSJ sums up trends in tie wear:

• Paisley is back.
• Makers like Ferragamo and Pink are introducing five and seven-fold ties — that is, ties that have been folded that many ties from one piece of fabric — at higher prices ($180 and $165 respectively). You should also be seeing nicer boxes for those prices, too.
• “Suiting ties” — ties made out of fabrics similar to your suit (wool, cashmere) are in. Personally I think these look very snazzy.

They bought and lab-tested ten suits, ranging from $300 to $2,000, from labels like your personal fave “Donald J. Trump” to Zegna, Canali, Brooks Brothers and Hickey Freeman. They were tested for whether they actually lived up to their numerical claims of fiber softness (higher numbers are softer, narrower fibers), as well as fabric durability.

These higher number Supers are actually not meant for everyday wear, or so say sales people at the high end dept stores, since suits made of these fibers are not as durable and also don’t stand up well to frequent drycleaning. Of course because they are finer, they feel better, like your super high thread count sheets.
More

While there are some good dressers among you in the business casual world, most of you are not.

In fact, since you business casual folk never wear suits, you only buy cheap suits, like Brooks Brothers. And I don’t care if BB was JFK’s tailor. They suck. Their collars are just really bad and Guido looking.

Some of this is admittedly not your fault. Business casual pants are horrendous. They look like potato bags (and I mean bags, not sacks, as there is a difference.) Are there nice business casual pants out there? I really couldn’t tell you. Also, how can you live with yourself, wearing a color and pant called “khaki”, a word originating from a Persian word meaning “of dirt”? More

No matter what you’re wearing, I’ve noticed in my career that the people who get the jobs are above all, confident, elegant and polished. One guy I knew wore a three-piece suit … does that break the “rules”? Yes, but always remember class, not crass.
More

I can’t decide. Are Jack Spade messenger bags just too gay for your average straight professional dudes?

Now you might be thinking that J. Spade bags are too gay for any straight dude, but you’re wrong there. I’ve known many a straight man who’s used them. Why, I saw no less than three today in my regular commute, toted by very straight-looking dudes (one even carrying an orange one).
More