Back to the Field Guide

A Winter Twist to Business Casual

It’s winter. Everyone’s still in a holiday mood and you know some casual dress days are on the horizon at work. But you’re also acutely aware that it’s freezing outside because you can see your breath and your face has gone numb from the walk to the car to the front door.

Staying warm and looking good with business casual clothes for big and tall men, casually, isn’t too hard. But there’s always that invisible line to dance around when it comes to business casual, right? And it’s easy to overdress this time of year and miss the mark. Unless you read some of our tips below!

Coat up

Yes, it’s possible to throw a coat on and still look as good as you are comfortable this winter. But you obviously don’t want to sacrifice warmth; make sure you focus on fabric styles as much as color or fit when you make your choice.

For ultimate warmth, you could go the wooly route with a nice wool top coat with stitch detail. Another top coat option could be of the double-collar variety. What you lose in wool you gain in style and refinement. The good thing about top coats is, unlike overcoats, they won’t end past your knees.

That’s where the jeans come in.

Jeans?

Yep, jeans. They obviously qualify as big and tall casual pants, but you can slip your business casual jeans under the “business casual” bar with enough clever maneuvering. The key is avoiding the fancy, worn-out looks that have invaded the jeans world over the last few decades. Leave those at home.

Take the simple jeans with you instead. And the simple fact is you can’t go too wrong at work with the regular old blues, as long as they’re darkish. Jeans with brighter colors just aren’t the way to go this winter at work; you’re trying to look and feel professionally warm, not stop conversations when you walk into the conference room.

The other key with business casual jeans is making sure you avoid the baggy fits. Athletic denim, dark blue fits might be the way to go instead. Modern fits work as well, especially if you opt for an even darker shade of blue or grey-black.

Sporty, not blazy

If you try to go the office on a windy, cold casual Friday with a big men’s blazer then you’ve made a mistake. You need to opt for a sport coat, my friend. They’re often confused with each other, but the sport coat is made of thicker fabric and will keep you warmer but looking just as nice as that thin blazer you just froze in.

The patterns on many sport coats are simply more vibrantly detailed than a lot of blazers, so this is a great chance to break out your favorite anyway. Wear a coat made up of finely-carved tiny navy blue cubes or a subtly plaided look instead. And there are sport coats designed specifically to give you the lightweight feeling of a blazer with all the comfort and warmth a sport coat can provide.

Back to the Field Guide Next Article