If it's good enough for Matlock...

short sleeved dress shirts are the worst.

i feel like telling the guys who are wearing them to go back to the appliance store and sell some more ovens.

is there really any decent office out there where there isnt enough AC? honestly, in my office I would be cold wearing short sleeves.

what about wearing a short-sleeved polo shirt tucked into your khakis? maybe that's just a boston thing.

Seersucker is perfectly acceptable, but generally must be accompanied with white shoes, a suitable shirt/tie/suspenders combo and must be well fitted. On the metro I was recently privy to a gentleman in an ill-fitted blue seersucker suit and dark brown loafers. It was a travesty.

The short sleeve dress shirt choices are a bit stark. I will sometimes wear one on a Friday with khakis, but the basic rule is that short sleeves of any kind are NOT "business casual".

Anyone who wears a tie with a short-sleeve dress shirt should, however, be taken out and shot. Or at least severely beaten.

Polo shirts are only acceptable on casual Fridays. They are not business casual.

Anon 4:48 - Depends on the office. In mine, polo shirts are perfectly acceptable.

To really tighten up your summer look, how about the Andy Sipowicz short-sleeves-with-a-tie look? Nice!

I don't care where you are. If you're billing $400+/hour, you shouldn't look like you just walked off the back nine. That's just unprofessional.

4:48--If you're worried about polo shirts, my office has at least one "fashion maverick" who insists on leaving his polo shirt (or short sleeved dress shirt) untucked.

The worst: polo shirts with the name of some golf tournament embroidered on the chest.

Mad props to LL for the Hattiesburg mention.

True story:

My brother wore a short-sleeved with a tie to the office once; on his lunch he went shopping and someone mistook him for a sears lawn-and-garden employee.

Wear a dress shirt or wear a polo... don't try splitting the difference. "Short-sleeve dress shirt" is an oxymoron.

Short sleeve dress shirts with a tie evoke memories of my high school chemistry and physics teachers. Ewwwww.

Short sleeved dress shirts will always have a home in the closets of career federal government workers next to a rack of fish ties.

My high school physics teachers did the same thing! And on occasion, one of them would throw in a bolo tie.

5:11 and 5:07 were classmates!! Mind = blown.

A seersucker suit is de rigeur in the South, so long as worn with a pair of white bucks and white dress socks.

Seersucker in the South is certainly acceptable. I could see the problem in cities up north though.

And you could have picked a better city (perhaps Oxford). Hattiesburg is full of tatoos and STDs.

5:14 - a few too many trips down Laurel & Hardy?

De rigUeur. You stay classy, 5:13.

I concur that seersucker is fine in the South, but I'd never wear one here in Chicago. I could definitely see it in a place like Charlotte, maybe Atlanta.

I never tuck in my polo shirts, at work or otherwise. Then again, I usually only wear them to work if it's over 90 degrees (or close to it and very humid) or on days we're allowed to wear jeans. Otherwise, I just think dress slacks and a dress shirt look much better so I tend to wear that most of the time.

I bet you were all over the seersucker suit until I ruined it for you at the draft!

I worked as a federal clerk in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and only caught the occasional seersucker suit.

Usually it is worn by local counsel for the contrasting effect with the second and third chair NY or Atlanta lawyer (when they make an appearance). Also good to combine with suspenders and/or bowtie.

On my civil servant's salary, all I can afford is nearsucker.

If y'all were at Skadden you would know what is appropriate office wear from the fashion show!

I wear my Seersucker about once a month in the Summers here in Nashville. It is like wearing a small air conditioner because of the humidity. Wool suits in the summer here are somewhat stiffling.

Seersucker is appropriate professional dress, but it is not to be worn in the evening. I see too many gentlemen violating this cardinal rule. The gaffe is equivalent to wearing velvet before Thanksgiving or after Valentine's Day. Rookie mistake.

When I think of untucked polos, the image that comes to mind is of slovenly, brash, backwards-hat wearing drunkards on the golf course. Sure, a fitted polo, or something else square-cut, with jeans can be left untucked, but do people really wear that to work? Shirts with tapered tails should always be tucked. I had to repress gags when I first noticed the trend of untucked tailed shirts (a couple years back it was not uncommon to see a pack of frat boys dressed similarly in jeans and an untucked, striped, tailed shirt--it apparently was their uniform). It pains me to think that they thought they looked good.

As for short-sleeved "dress" shirts, some people can pull them off but it takes something special. There's a partner at my firm who wears them and wears them well, but I would never dare.

Do Aloha shirts count as short-sleeved dress shirts? If yes, that 6% = the male lawyer population of Hawaii.

I was expecting useful questions about if you have to wear a suit (my office in Silicon Valley, never), when you can wear a polo (any day you want), and when you can wear jeans (any day you want).

Jeans everyday? And you call yourselves lawyers...That's pathetic.

short sleeve shirt with tie = dwight schrute

Litigatrix is correct, a Refined Gentleperson knows that seersucker is professional dress, and also knows that a pair of good white shoes is a minimum requirement; ideally a bowtie and suspenders Complete the Look.

I think the poll needs an additional choice. Those who would love to wear a Seersucker suit but could never pull it off. Pale and "big bones" do not make a Seersucker wearer. I do appreciate the style.

04:46 -- How did you become "privy to a gentleman in an ill-fitted blue seersucker suit . . . ." Was he exposing something he shouldn't have? You can become privy to a piece of information, not to a person. I think you mean you "saw" a man in a seersucker suit.

The best look of all: an UnderArmour golf shirt. A partner in our labor group wears one regularly during the summer. He also spits in the urinal while peeing. Fuck yeah. Aged frat boys rule.

Velvet,

That spit is worth more than your entire first year associate work-product, worm. And don't fault me because the brothers at Emory didn't think you were Phi Delt quality.

How does it go? My wife told me to go to Cox's and ask for a searsucker suit, but I went to Sears and .....

Aged frat boy: Thank you sir, may I have another?

Maybe it's me, but does "UnderArmour golf shirt at work" scream "douche" louder than any piece of clothing this side of a pink popped collar? It almost says "Most people litigate cases. I litigate the shit out of them."

I wear seersucker short sleeved button down shirts in the summer. It may be a little informal, but in a DC summer I can't walk more than a block or two without sweating if I have a normal longsleeved shirt on.

I don't care what you're wearing, it's not business casual to be drenched in sweat.

Seersucker only in the South? Please! I'm in Eastern WA. St. and the forecast for Thurs. is 106 degrees. I'm wearing my seersucker! No white bucks, though.

Sears makes 'em, suckers buy 'em!

Searsucker is not for business. As for Joakim Noah, he looked like a ridiculous ass.

I'm shocked at how many of you evaluate if someone is a douche by what shirt they wear in the summer. I think you've all watched to much Quear Eye. Sorry, but I really couldn't care less if someone is wearing a polo or a short sleaved dress shirt (although with a tie, that is just terrible) unless it is a fat person who buys in the size they wish they were.

Where the hell is a polo shirt not business casual? In every office I've worked in, polo + khakis has been the universal standard.

And I love to wear them untucked whenever possible. It's just so damn _comfortable._

I've worked in large NY law firms and worn seersucker and even linen suits to work. You can easily get away with it if you wear a suit every day of the year -- then you've just changed the cloth to accomodate the season. (It probably also helps that I'm a trusts and estates lawyer.)

The Bon Vivant is completely off base with his approach to seersucker, though. If you're going to wear seersucker, you need to make it look like it's just a natural thing for you to put on in the morning -- not some anachronistic exercise. Once you throw in the white shoes and the bowtie, you've moved from attire to costume -- might as well add a straw boater and a cane...

For what it's worth, an untucked polo is the standard business casual attire at my NY law firm - and yes, it's one of the top firms, not a solo practitioner.

we had some clown at cravath wear a bolo tie once....oh wait, that was ME. hahahhahahaa.

I see seersucker only rarely here in Seattle, but with days here recently as hot as 98F, hey, why not more?

I bravely wear mine at least a few times every summer, not to work (where it's always business casual), but to my Episcopal church on Sunday mornings. It's as fun to wear as it is comfortable.

//Paul in Seattle