介绍:
Xiaohua: Hello, and welcome to Round Table’s Word of the Week. This week we are talking about dress code. 一些西方人日常的着装规范。
John: So we are talking about dress code and the thing is in western culture, dress code in some cases in the formal category is very tightly defined, but as we get into casual areas, it’s very loosely defined. I think, you know, kind of make sense. But interestingly enough, if you go for the most strict all the way down to the bottom, what we find is that actually informal is more formal than casual for example. So when we look at dress code, usually what we are talking about is formal wear, semi-formal wear and informal wear or dress code. Now if we want to get into casual areas, that’s no longer considered as dress code just more of a style.
Xiaohua: 所以说归在formal正式场合着装一类里面有formal, semi-formal和informal. 而剩下的归在casual范围内都算做非正式的着装了。
John: So formal wear or formal dress code, in the US and Australia for example, is not usually followed any more. It used to be, for a formal occasion, like a state dinner, perhaps a wedding or a very, very serious event, it would be a white tie event. For men, what white tie means is basically a tuxedo but then with three pieces on top, a white shirt, a white vest and a white tie and a black jacket and black pants. These days, again in the US and Australia, most formal dress codes don’t include the white tie, instead the black tie perhaps or even just a regular suit.
Xiaohua: white tie是最正式的formal，那么现在除了在国宴这样的场合已经不再用了。之所以叫white tie，就是说男士不光要穿礼服，还要穿白色的衬衫、背心以及白色的领结。但是现在formal的场合一般是指black tie,也就是戴黑领结。
John: Right, so basically like a tuxedo pretty much. It’s a little bit less formal, a little bit more comfortable perhaps and not as complicated. For women, it used to be, you know, like ball gowns, like very, very fancy things with long gloves and things like that. Usually these days, again in the US and Australia, in the UK it’s not so much true, but in the US and Australia, women just wear like cocktail dresses, you know, just like a nice dress or a nice skirt.
Xiaohua: 正式场合的着装对女士来说要求也不像以前那么严了。以前是一定要穿长裙，那么现在穿这种cocktail dress也是可以的。
John: Exactly. Looking at semi-formal and informal, semi-formal again used to be a much more at here to category, but these days all semi-formal really means for you and I is black tie.
Xiaohua: 所以现在大家在正式场合的一些着装实际上已经算是半正式semi-formal的着装了。
John: Right, exactly. So we have already told you what the black tie is and you can see again there is this kind of cultural evolution towards more ‘informal dress’ in formal occasions. So formal, semi-formal and now informal, and informal again is still part of that formal category, so we don’t mean jeans and T-shirts by informal. Informal just means like, I think surprisingly for me, a business suit or something like that.
Xiaohua: Yeah, informal可不能是随便穿什么都可以，基本上也是要穿西装打领带。
John: Exactly. Let’s get into the casual category where anything kind of goes and exactly very difficult to define. So there’s smart casual, business casual and then just casual. So smart casual is basically just when you mix and match casual and formal clothing pieces. So here is an example, a dress shirt with French cuffs and cufflinks which is formal, a herringbone jacket which is considered casual, jeans which are casual and then dress or business shoes which can be considered formal or semi-formal.
Xiaohua: Interesting. Smart casual的种类是介于正式和随意之间的穿着，可以用混搭的方式来表现出smart casual,比如说穿着正式的衬衫，但是搭配牛仔裤，一件毛衣背心也可以。
John: Exactly. And then we have business casual, which is usually found in professional or white collar workplaces in western countries. Very simple, khaki pants, slacks, skirts, business pants, long-sleeved shirts or polo shirts basically. And then anything but tennis shoes, so that could be a nice leather shoe. It could be a sweet shoe. It could be a black business shoe or something like that.
Xiaohua: Business casual 通常被用于不是十分讲究的工作环境中，但是即使不是十分讲究，也不能随便穿，比如说网球鞋就不能够随便穿进来。
John: Right. And then casual is basically anything goes. I mean if it’s not in the category we just gave you, it’s probably casual.
Xiaohua: 剩下的就是casual了. And that’s all we have for this week’s Round Table’s Word of the Week.
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