On Dress Standards

You know how world political, business, and financial leaders fetishize suits for men? Physicists do not do that.

Zelensky Among the Suits

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, currently president of Ukraine, has famously decided during the Russo-Ukrainian War to wear a khaki t-shirt and pants in solidarity with the soldiers of Ukraine. I approve, not that anybody cares what I think.

However, it played out interestingly in a meeting with world leaders:

“One of these things is not like the other ones”, eh?

Physicist Cliff Burgess pointed out above that while this may be a fashion faux pas among politicians, amongst our tribe this is known as physics formal.

• Can confirm: this is US east coast physics formal, my tribe of many years.
• On the US west coast, a Hawaiian shirt, shorts, socks and sandals are also very much en vogue as an alternative.
• In Europe, it usually involves black denim pants and a variety of loose-fitting shirts.

Other captions suggested have been:

• An academic at an industry conference. Can confirm: been there, done that.
• Linux sysadmin forced into a meeting with management. Can confirm: seen it, but never done it myself as I’m not a sysadmin.

I mean, he’s wearing the clean t-shirt and the formal, darker jeans that haven’t faded too much yet. Do you really expect more?

The Weekend Conclusion

One of these guys is facing reality quite a bit more head-on than the others.

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Notes & References

1: Nope.