This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 510, Outfit or Attire?
Avoid this mistake with business clothing.
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Hello, Lindsay.
How are you?
Doing great, Aubrey.
How are you doing?
How's everything?
Yes, excellent.
I am excited to talk about business clothing today.
How often do you wear business attire, Lindsay?
Well, right now I'm wearing joggers and this morning I was podcasting in a sweater.
So yeah, not very often, needless to say.
Maybe when I go to a conference like twice a year.
I'll wear like a blazer and jeans and a nice clean pair of sneakers.
That would be my business attire.
Even if we're like doing a guest interview.
There's an interview.
I'll have like a jacket and a shirt, but then joggers, maybe sweatpants.
No one knows.
So life has changed a little bit with online work.
But some people wear business attire every day.
I mean, they go with their high heels and their skirts.
Yeah, yeah. suckers.
But I have a question.
Would it sound strange if I asked you, how often do you wear business outfits?
Yeah, it would be a little weird.
Be a little weird.
This is interesting, right?
This is so tricky since outfit is a synonym for clothing, but not business clothing.
We really don't use it that way, right?
That's interesting.
I know outfit kind of signifies to me more fashion oriented and less plain.
I think of business clothing as a little bit plain and traditional, conservative.
Maybe, right?
It's like, do you like my outfit?
Yeah.
And it's often they're slaying, they're shortening it to fit now.
Do you like my fit?
They're just taking like the end of outfit.
Do you like my fit?
But it's true.
It's not going to be sweatpants and even just like standard business attire.
It's usually something that's a little more impressive.
There's a reason to like it.
You've leveled up something.
Leveled up.
Exactly.
So this is a reminder episode that we can't just look up synonyms in a thesaurus, or even chachapiti might not be able to convey this nuance to you exactly.
Words are used in specific contexts, so if you just look up clothing and you're looking for synonyms, outfit is going to be there and you might assume that you could say business outfit, but we don't.
So today we're going to share what we do say how we talk about business clothing, business attire, but first we have a spotify poll to share.
Yeah, I'm excited.
So this was from the episode Doing Business or Making Business.
And the classic question are make and do one verb meaning?
Are they the same verb in your first language?
And we had a 50-50 breakdown, Aubrey.
50-50.
So this can cause a lot of confusion for someone learning English.
Especially if you are doing the direct translation.
So that's why we always warn against direct translations.
Guys, if you want to learn more about everything we talk about here on the show again, our overall philosophy at All Ears English is connection, not perfection.
Hit the follow button.
All right.
Yes, absolutely.
And if you missed that episode, it was 490 doing business or making business.
That was really interesting.
Scroll up.
But yes, hit follow so you don't miss any of our episodes.
All right.
Let's get into some what we can actually say when it comes to business clothing and clothing in general.
So we said outfit is more about non-work clothes.
And it's also when like the pieces kind of go together.
Right.
It's not like random pieces.
It has to be like, I don't know.
And this is interesting.
So when we have the word outfit by itself, it really just means clothing.
So someone who you see at work, who maybe they do have a nice new blazer and a skirt, they might say do you like my outfit?
And it's just like, do you like how I've coordinated my clothing?
But what's interesting is we don't chunk it together.
They would never say, do you like my business outfit, right?
Or they might say, I'm not sure these shoes go with my outfit.
And it could be the heels they're wearing with their pants and blazer, right?
So outfit in general could be used but, like you said, it is usually more for fancier clothing.
But we would never say business outfit or work outfit.
Yes, love that.
That's such a nuance.
That's really important.
Our listeners are ready for this.
Now, go with.
That's really interesting.
I'm not sure these shoes go with my outfit.
What does that mean, aubrey?
Yeah, it means like compliment or coordinate, But we every now and then someone will say I don't know if this complements my outfit.
We most likely will use go with.
Does this go with my outfit, do you think?
Right, right.
Really a very native and natural vocabulary here.
So then what else would we say?
So we know we can't say business outfit.
So then what the heck do we say, Aubrey?
Right.
Yes.
Let's go over what we do say.
So, of course, attire.
Business attire.
For example, the company's dress code requires employees to wear business attire during client meetings.
Or her business attire is always neat and modern.
Good.
Yeah, this is probably the most common, especially where attire is a more formal, professional sounding word.
We mostly use it just with work.
We rarely say, like you know, we're not going to say what attire did you wear to the gym?
No, it really is about gym attire, work clothing, your business attire.
Yeah, I think it has a connotation of a bit conservative and traditional, because I think with business clothing we're not trying to identify like flashy things, right?
We want to kind of dress a little more conservative maybe for work.
So it's not whatever, distracting or something.
But whereas outfit is a little bit more like flashy and maybe has certain aspects to it that are fun, right.
Business outfits are not necessarily fun.
Well, even their like business outfits.
I said interesting how we like it just sounds strange because we just don't.
Yeah, I think it's because it's not fun.
It's very like standard clothing.
Right.
And so in general, you can use outfit to just mean clothing.
You know, how do you like my outfit?
We hear that a lot.
But it's just interesting how we collocate these specific words in certain contexts.
So business attire, stick those together.
And then outfit, stick with like fun clothes.
When you're going out, you can call it your outfit.
Yeah, exactly.
And then business clothing would be a very descriptive thing to use.
I need to buy some new business clothing before the next conference next month.
Right.
Or she specializes in designing business clothing for women in leadership roles.
Interesting.
That's not what I would want to specialize in if I were a fashion designer.
Yeah, more fun things you could design.
Yeah, it's true.
But how can you make pantsuits kind of fun, right?
I mean, it's true.
Somebody's got to do it.
He's got to do it.
I mean, they can look really nice, right?
It's just true if they're well tailored.
Yeah.
But then not if they're just just too large and don't work.
Professional attire would be the next one or professional clothing.
Exactly.
So for tomorrow's presentation, please wear professional attire.
So yeah, it's interesting.
These really mean the same, right?
Business attire, business clothing, professional attire.
We're imagining it could be business casual.
But then when we say professional attire, usually that means more like business professional, a little bit more formal looking.
Yeah, I love that.
Or here's another sample.
He always chooses simple, well-tailored pieces for his professional clothing.
I feel like you always know someone who just knows how to dress and dresses.
There's always someone in your life that just dresses well in well-fitting clothing.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And often it is.
You know someone who's willing to spend a little more money on their professional clothing because it is the nicer cuts.
More well tailored clothing is often going to be pricier.
And then sometimes for people, it's just not the priority, right?
They're digging in getting the work done, and they don't care as much about their business attire.
Yeah.
And I would also say I've worked in some international groups of people and it's usually not the Americans that look good.
We don't have a reputation for our amazing business attire.
No, no, no, no.
Yeah.
I remember when I worked in Japan, a lot of my closest friends in my training group were British men.
And I was just like, wow, they look good.
Like their clothing actually fits them.
The jeans look good.
The jackets look good.
I'm like, They look really sharp.
That's an adjective we use to describe when someone looks really put together like that.
She looks really sharp.
Yeah, it's true.
All right.
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All right, Aubrey, so let's do a role play.
Here we are friends discussing the clothing that you plan to wear for an important presentation.
Okay.
Yes.
Okay, so I assume you're wearing business attire for your presentation?
Yes.
I put together an outfit with a navy blazer and gray pants.
Do you think that works?
Yeah, that sounds great.
I like that blazer.
It's really sharp.
Thank you.
It's usually a pretty casual vibe, but I definitely want to wear professional clothing for this presentation.
Yeah, probably a good move if you're presenting to dress up a little bit more.
Definitely.
Yes, absolutely.
So, yeah, this is interesting.
We used all of these here.
You first said, you know, oh, I assume you're wearing business attire for your presentation.
So, yeah, you wouldn't say I assume you're wearing a business outfit.
Right.
We just don't chunk that together.
Either business attire, business clothing or professional clothing would work there.
And you answered by saying, yes, I put together an outfit with a navy blazer and gray pants.
Yeah.
And so this, where I'm, just I'm telling you that what I coordinated, it makes sense to call it an outfit.
Right.
Yeah.
I chose this blouse with this blazer and this gray pants to be like I put together an outfit because I'm coordinating it.
OK.
And what's the last thing you said?
And then I said, I definitely want to wear professional clothing for this presentation.
I said it's usually a pretty casual vibe.
So yeah, this is interesting.
A lot of people who work for startups or those companies that have casual dress codes.
Often, if you're going to do a presentation for clients or for the board, that's when you would dress up a little more.
Yeah, for sure.
For sure.
I love it.
And we're going to have a poll for today's episode, right, Aubrey?
Yes, we want to know what type of business attire you wear.
So the options are casual, business casual, business professional, or business formal.
What's the difference between business professional and business formal, Aubrey?
Yeah, I had to look these up online because it's been so long since I've had to wear really professional clothing, right?
So business professional for a man could still be like a button up shirt with no tie or blazer.
And so for men, it's a little more obvious.
Business formal is like suit and tie.
Maybe like business formal is like a lawyer at court, like they would wear when they're in court.
And then business professional is what they would wear at the office.
Okay, so there's a lot of shades of gray here, a lot of nuances.
Let us know what you tend to wear most of the time.
This would tell us a lot about what our listeners do.
And, you know, also, I mean, people work for Fortune 500 companies, but they work from home.
And that's another question.
Are you still wearing you know business, professional clothes working from home?
Or are you?
What are you doing?
Right.
Are you doing suit and tie at the top and sweatpants on the bottom?
I know it does happen.
People do that sometimes for sure.
You know, in the pandemic a lot of people got caught, like with you know who knows what on the bottom.
They had to get up and turn the light off and you see the pants or something.
Yeah, totally.
There's so many funny memes when people couldn't figure out Zoom.
It was so new for most people during COVID, right?
So fun.
So my favorite was the one where they accidentally turned themselves into a cat and they couldn't figure out how to undo it.
It was like a cat filter.
I love that.
It is so funny.
When I think about that now, I die of laughter.
It's because it's his accent too.
He's got this Southern accent and it's just like If you guys haven't seen that video, you have to look it up.
I'm sure you can still find it online.
It's so funny.
Oh my God, it's so funny.
Great.
So Aubrey, what's another episode our listeners should check out?
Yes.
If you missed episode 508 right here on the Business English Podcast, go check it out.
This was Michelle and Lindsay.
This is Promising how to talk about potential at work with some really awesome vocabulary and phrases.
Excellent.
And what's our final takeaway?
I mean, there's a lot of nuance here, right?
So just putting two words together business outfit doesn't quite work, but there are better options like business attire or taking outfit by itself.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And it is interesting.
You can really connect about what you're wearing, about what you're planning to wear.
Like this little role play with two coworkers, we do have these conversations.
Like asking someone you know how formally they dress at work is interesting, or what they're going to wear for a special presentation.
Go for it.
Yeah.
I mean, I know that I have a lot of anxiety when I get ready for conferences because I never know.
I mean, the podcasting conferences are a bit casual.
The industry is young and casual.
Uh, but you know, I never know if I'm too fancy, too casual, and there's a lot of inner turmoil.
So this is something we connect on with colleagues, friends, partners.
What do you think?
Everyone has had that anxiety of being overdressed or underdressed.
So this makes it a great connection topic.
Yep.
Really good stuff.
All right, Aubrey, you have a good rest of your day and talk to you soon.
You too.
See you next time.
Okay.
Bye.
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