I am about to go to my very first industry trade show in late September. Wheee! My company hosting a dinner one of the evenings, they're referring to it as a "networking dinner," basically we are all going to entertain and wine and dine our best customers and people who we want to have as customers. The only direction I got in the way of dress code is that women usually wear a dress or nice slacks, but nothing too formal. I'll be in Orlando, so it will still be fairly warm, but hotels and restaurants are always freezing so I don't think my longer sleeves will be a problem. FWIW, this is a male-dominated industry so I guess I don't want to wear anything super trendy that they wouldn't "get," and while I don't think I'm in danger of this, I don't want to look at all slutty, either. These shows always have skanky models running around and my company really loathes that and wants us to all be very classy in this environment, of course. Here are my options. I will definitely assess any need for a cami or slip (to take care of cleavage issues), I just didn't want to bother with undergarment issues while playing dress-up.
#1 - Printed dress with black peep-toe pumps
#2 - black and white dress with red peep-toe pumps
#3- white wrap blouse with brown pencil skirt and brown peep-toes (I could tie it differently to be less dramatic if need be)
#4 - black dress with maroon patent mary-jane pumps
#5 - navy dress with white polka-dots the same patent maroon pumps
Here are all my shoe options:
Can you tell I like wrap dresses? please vote!
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Fashion is art you live your life in. - Devil Wears Prada | formerly ttara123
i love number one, but you dont want to show up and have everyone be in all black and you be in lots of color. My mom does quite a few trade shows a year and she always does neutral colors.
ETA: so i would go with #4
-- Edited by collegegirl5858 at 12:18, 2007-09-12
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Carrie Bradshaw: The fact is, sometimes it's really hard to walk in a single woman's shoes. That's why we need really special ones now and then to make the walk a little more fun.
I'm torn between 1, because you look fabulous in it, and 4, for the reasons mentioned above about it being more neutral and conservative. But really number 1 is the clear favorite...people should be able to deal with you having a personality.