September 04, 2006

Look sharp!

Goblin's in a quandary: he's moving from insurance defense to criminal defense, and wants to get his new look just right:

After a short time in the insurance defense bar, it's become evident that neither the culture nor the work itself are for me, and I am taking a significant pay cut to move to the public defender's office... the bottom line is that I'll be afforded more freedom to dress the way I want to - this particular public defender's office, like many others, is significantly more tolerant of individual idiosyncrasies than are the local defense firms...

Like Goblin, I too might like to adopt the mod, "skinnier" style, and maybe I would if I didn't maintain such a consistent walrus-like shape. Every work day, I wear a tie (from my couturiers, Deseret Industries and Ross Dress for Less) with a white shirt, a blue shirt, or a gray shirt. I maybe suit up once or twice a week and go with a sportcoat the rest of the time. In my office, if you're not going to court, t-shirts and flip-flops are okay, but shorts are verboten. I can't pull off either look, so the tie stays on.

Any public defender fashion pointers out there?

(apparently the tiny word bubble below is for comments - will somebody please test this for me?)

2 Comments:

ACS said...

Hey, it works!

St Yves said...

First, Love the Algretti paragraph.

As for clothes....I'm sure you always look great Skelly : ) But my hints are this: Merrills make wonderful comfortable shoes that work for all but the most dressy of hearings. Try the slides- with socks- gray, navy or brown unless you're wearing black slides when you may wear black socks. Secondly, the real key to looking good is finding a good tailor. You can shop at Salvation Army and take something home that will look great when you have a good tailor- and a $25 suit + $50.00 in alterations is a great deal all around. Traditional suits don't change much over the years- but make sure the lapels are right- those are much more expensive to change! My second suggestion is to find your kakhis- whatever brand and style you love- and buy as many pair as you can afford- preferably 2 pair in each of three colors- light tan, dark tan and navy. (I diet when my pants get too tight.) Have them altered. I think it always looks better on both men and women to have a full break and cuffs because we sit down a lot and nothing looks worse than naked ankle with droopy socks. Or floods. Or super pleated pants that should have been shed five years and 20 pounds ago.

The shirts are the most fun part- go a little nutty with colors- there are a million shades of Blue (Warning gentlemen: blue shows pit stains more than white!) and yellow is a great spring and summer color- A soft green can look very happy- with a more traditional rep stripe tie. Or a crazier tie with a traditional white shirt. If you stick with cotton or a cotton blend that looks like cotton- you'll keep the traditional feel.

It is my opinion that power ties are important for Defense attorneys. Please, throw away your blobby amorphous ties. Your Garcia ties. Your ties that are more than 15 years old unless they are extremely traditional. Rep stripe in lots of colors, small overall patterns, and an occasional FU tie. (MadDog has a palm tree tie he wears on Thursdays when he's going out of town...Yellow background, pale blue shirt, black pinstripe suit, black wingtips... very sharp)

Its not necessarily expensive to dress well and it gives our clients confidence when we look as powerful as "big firm" attorneys- plus nothing feels better to me than when someone is all "oohhh I like your outfit!" And I can say, "Wal-mart" or "TJ Maxx" or "Thrift store."