What The Heck Is Smart Casual?

Pam: I’ve really had some good laughs with the emails that were flying around at work last week. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Ann: Some of those jokes that get forwarded to everyone?

Pam: No. One of our vendors offered six of the guys in the office an all expense paid trip to the Indy 500 this past weekend. It was for transportation, hotels, meals, parties, golf, limos, and a luxury suite at the race…the whole works.

Ann: Talk about a real guy’s getaway!

Pam: Actually the week before they left I was beginning to wonder whether it was a guy’s getaway or a ‘ladies retreat’. I was the point of contact for the vendor so I forwarded all the guys the detailed agenda for the trip. There was a cocktail reception on the evening they arrived, a welcome breakfast the next day, then golf, followed by an authentic Moroccan dinner, and then on the final day, the race itself.

Ann: Wow. Sounds like fun.

Pam: Since the information came to me, I was on the email distribution list and saw everything that went back and forth between all the guys at my office. It was hysterical.

Ann: What? Let me guess…they were coordinating what to wear each day.

Pam: You’re kidding, but that’s exactly what was going on! I intentionally stayed out of the discussion simply for the entertainment the whole thing was providing. Can you imagine six grown men trying to decide what the heck they were supposed to wear when the invitation said, “Dress for Saturday night is ‘smart casual’ but we encourage you to have fun with the Moroccan theme as you select your attire”.

Ann: Heck, I’m not sure I know what that means.


Pam: They went back and forth about what exactly constitutes ‘smart casual’ and they had opinions from “casual means jeans” to “we’ll be sitting on pillows on the floor so we should wear our stretchy sweats”. One guy even said, “They mean dress like a professor.”

Ann: That’s too funny! Just like a man not to ask for directions.

Pam: They finally did email the vendor’s rep to get clarification but they were told that the attire for that evening had been changed from ‘smart casual’ to ‘business casual’. Then they went back and forth as to whether that was a step up or a step down.

Ann: Certainly they know what business casual means.

Pam: They used to. But they had confused themselves so thoroughly at this point they didn’t know their own names. One email actually said, “So if we were going smart casual and then downgraded, does that mean we're dressing ‘dumb casual’ now?”


Ann: So what’d they do? Rent hand-embroidered sheik’s robes for each of them?

Pam: I think they would have if they thought it would solve the dilemma.

Ann: Seriously, what’d they do?

Pam: The final email I saw came from the guy in our office who arranged the flights and stuff. It had the subject line of ‘Indy trip attire revisited (again—well actually—still)’. It said:

Travel Friday: Whatever! Just no flip flops or cargo pants. We’ll change at the hotel. (I know we’re getting up at three in the morning but shower anyway because I’m sitting next to you guys on the plane!)

Friday night reception: Button shirt, sport coat, slacks, dress shoes and belt. (Bob, do not wear a tie and make us all look bad. We don’t care what your wife says!)

Saturday golf: Nice golf clothes—shorts if hot and pants if cold. (Joe, DO NOT wear your brother’s shirt from our vendor’s big competitor. It’s not funny to insult our hosts.)

Saturday night Moroccan dinner: This is the final, final word! We are wearing nice, dark colored polo shirts and khaki pants with brown shoes and belts. (Jeff, you stole that Pizza Hut table cloth for nothing because we gave up the whole sheik thing while you were out sick.)

Sunday (Race Day): We all agree it’s a car race after all. But we’re being entertained in the luxury suite. So we’re thinking we should look really good but not like we’re trying. So try to look like a really rich guy on his day off.

Ann: I wonder how the heck they interpreted that one.

Pam: Hey, it was the last day of the trip. I figured they’d just wear whatever they found in the bottom of their suitcase that was relatively clean.

Ann: So what did they wear?

Pam: Every last one of them showed up wearing the promotional stuff that the host vendor gave them on their first day there.

Ann: Well at least they looked like a team!