You could layer a red cotton polo neck or a Breton T-shirt underneath a dress with a deep V neckline. The best way to make a smart dress casual is to do something unexpected with it. The older I get, the more I appreciate the power of a great pair of socks. Which you might want to accentuate with a colourful or glittery pair of socks. Instead of classic slim-profile loafers, bring some bounce with a chunky lug-soled supersized version.

One easy trick to make the proportions look breezier is to choose an oversized shirt so it blousons out over the waistband of your trousers.Īnother is to make the shoes chunky. That was smart casual two decades ago – and just Rishi Sunak today. It’s not just about leaving the suit jacket off or rolling up the sleeves of your slim-fit cotton shirt. What you are aiming for is to make this look a bit cooler and less stuffy. So we start with a straightforward template for looking smart – a cotton shirt and tailored trousers, say. It helps if you think of smart casual as about looking modern rather than a halfway house between dressed up and dressed down. But in practical terms I find it is easier to ease up a formal look than to smarten up an informal one. You could also approach it the other way, starting with a casual outfit and making it a little bit smart. The way to make smart casual look intentional rather than a bit all over the place is to think of it as a smart outfit that you are simply making a little bit more casual. Not a fancy top with low-fi bottoms, or vice versa. Smart and casual are not two fillings that you smoosh together like peanut butter and jelly in a sandwich. There are some things to bear in mind though.

That was smart casual two decades ago – and just Rishi Sunak today In the era of small-plates dining, when modern manners are not about how to hold a fish fork but about how to divide a quail between three people without splattering anyone with miso butter, the well-dressed diner needs to show they can walk a delicate line. Rock up in the pinstripes and pocket square, on the other hand, and they start to worry that you are expecting silver service and are going to kick off about the modishly uncomfortable bench seating. If you turn up in ripped jeans and a scruffy T-shirt, your friends might get the idea that you’d rather be home with a takeaway on the sofa, and that can make them feel uncomfortable. Say you go for dinner to a nice restaurant.

Halfway to the grave