This Business Casual Cheat Code Is the Unofficial GQ Uniform | GQ

Nov 07, 2024

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For more office style intel, check our guide to the ins and outs of business casual attire.

Imagine, for a moment, the ideal work environment: The pantry is always stocked with decent snacks, the conference rooms are always unoccupied, and everybody’s wearing blazers and jeans. The first two perks are pretty self-explanatory. But if you’ve struggled to identify a no-brainer outfit that suits your office’s muddied vibes, ditch your next Zoom, set your Slack status to the exploding-head emoji, and allow us to explain the very real, very replicable benefits of the third.

Ernesto Macias in a Sir. blazer, vintage J.Crew tee, Gap jeans, and Bottega Veneta boots.

In theory, as GQ contributor Jake Woolf pointed out last year, a blazer and jeans is one of menswear’s greatest high-low propositions. In execution, though, it can quickly go wrong. Just look at “the cursed combination of skinny-lapel jackets and aggressively stretchy denim beloved by slick-talking realtors and NFL owners,” Woolf notes, “or the Boomer penchant for a one-size-too-big suit jacket with puddled dad jeans.” In other words, a blazer and jeans isn’t just a high-low style hack—it’s a high-risk, high-reward swerve with limitless upside when you stick the landing.

Hold on a second, you’re probably thinking. Haven’t I seen this combination on every other doomed Bachelorette contestant and, like, umpteen Midwestern businessmen visiting the Big Apple for their annual trade conference? You can’t possibly be saying this is what GQ staffers wear to work of their own volition. That’s precisely what I’m saying, pal—and right now, my craggiest-brained colleagues keep saying it, too.

Tyler Chin in a Todd Snyder blazer, CDLP tee, vintage Levi's jeans, and Gucci loafers.

Chris Cohen in a Drake's blazer, made-to-measure Sid Mashburn shirt and tie, and vintage Levi's jeans.

A blazer and jeans is a “stupid-easy way to make a casual outfit feel way more elevated,” says GQ associate commerce editor Tyler Chin, who’s lately eschewed all manner of outerwear in favor of a nubby tweed blazer from Todd Snyder. Opting for a blazer—instead of, say, a cropped twill trucker—helps him feel like he’s about to “get down to business at work,” a pick-me-up that beats chugging a lukewarm Celsius any day of the week. Chin also offers two straightforward antidotes to middle-manager blazer-and-jeans swaglessness: make sure your blazer is just that (a suit jacket divorced from its trousers won't have the same effect), and, if you're testing the waters, keep your jeans dark and straight-legged.

Will Welch in a Sartoria Lazzarin blazer, Drake's shirt and tie, and Levi’s jeans.

For GQ entertainment editor Ernesto Macias, the combination’s appeal boils down to sheer versatility. A blazer and jeans is the rare non-cursed corporate uniform with “endless possibilities,” he says. Macias likes to dress down his blazer with a solid-colored tee, but the beauty of the pairing is its Zelig-like nature: Ditch the T-shirt for a white button-up, and suddenly you’ve got a getup that’ll play nice at a boozy client meeting in the afternoon and a nerve-wracking first date that same evening.

Yang-Yi Goh in a vintage blazer, Spier & Mackay shirt, Polo Ralph Lauren tie, and Madewell jeans.

There’s no single right way to make the combination your own, though it’s telling that three of the five folks we’re narcing on here are wearing honest-to-goodness neckties. Still can’t quite wrap your head around the bossman qualities of the combo? Take your cues from GQ global editorial director Will Welch, who routinely sticks to a riff on the formula that’s equal parts homegrown Southern punk and worldly fashion don: soft-shouldered Italian blazers and battered Levi’s jeans.

As folks double-down on the latter half of the amorphous business casual mandate, reaching for a blazer makes you look like “you actually care about your job,” Chin says. Or, as Macias puts it: at the very least, “wearing a blazer gives people the impression that you tried to look nice.”

Avidan Grossman in a Ralph Lauren blazer, vintage Wrangler shirt, Supreme jeans, and R.M. Williams boots.

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Buck Mason

Gitman Vintage

ShopBop

Drake's

SSENSE

Uniqlo

Uniqlo

Recto

SSENSE

Our Legacy

Mr Porter

Gucci

Gucci

Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch

Todd Snyder

Todd Snyder

Sid Mashburn

Mr Porter

AYR

AYR

RRL

Huckberry

Buck Mason

Buck Mason

Wythe

Huckberry

Tecovas

Tecovas

Levi's

Levi's