"What's the dress code?" is, perhaps surprisingly, not an unusual question to ask in the past couple of years. Sure, we may have been stuck at home for most of that time - do note that I have been mostly working from home for the past, let's see, six years now - but it doesn't mean you show up for an event just wearing whatever. At the very least, you deploy a collared shirt and hope the camera gets your nice side. I think I survived being a reactor to Sars' talk on Jo Koy's humor a year ago. I mean, I don't think I looked stupid.

I spend more time on the other side of the virtual event fence, though, so I'm the one who gets asked that question. "What's the dress code?" It doesn't come up often, but my stock answer is usually "whatever you wear to the office". If they want their branding on their outfits, completely fine. Just don't turn up on a tank top - unless it's appropriate, in which case it hasn't been the case yet. Personally, I'm more concerned with how you sound and whether there's too much headroom in your shot.

Now that we're returning to physical events, though - caveat: "for now, because the elections are coming and there might just be a big spike again" - the question of dress codes becomes a little relevant again. I mean, yes, of course you wear your business attires (or your corporate-branded tops) in conferences and the like, but elsewhere, it gets a little complicated. Or maybe it's because it's me.

"What's the dress code?" I asked one of the organizers of a dinner I was taking part in. It's not a formal dinner - indeed, there was no programme - but it's in a pretty exclusive place. But it's not like I haven't been to Manila House before. I have an idea what I should wear, and since it's a pretty exclusive place, I should look smart. But what if the circumstances mean I could let loose a bit? I mean, am I wearing a full business outfit - well, not that full, for I don't intend to wear a tie - or just go in a collared shirt and jeans?

They didn't know, either. But I can go in jeans, they said. No shorts, no tank tops. Just as I expected.

I ended up overdressing, though. I mean, you really never know. They do say it's better to be overdressed than underdressed; I can always just take off the coat and look like I'm really getting comfy. (That did happen.) Also, this is a dinner with people who, for the past year, I've only talked to on Zoom. These are people in pretty high places. These are people I shouldn't be in the same Zoom meeting with, and yet I have been, more than once, more than twice, more than thrice, come to think of it. I have to at least look the part. So, out came the dress shirt, and the Muji coat jacket, and the leather shoes I bought on the day I met Dale. (Come to think of it, those shoes are arguably the very reason why we missed Kimbra by a hair.)

When I first moved in here, I brought those outfits specifically for a meeting with government officials on the supply chain implications of COVID-19. That meeting was going to be on a Monday, but the Friday before, well, we were all on lockdown. No meeting. Those clothes sat on a hanger (err, hung on a hanger) for two years. Shalla keeps telling me I should've had them laundered at some point, but we don't a flat iron just yet, so sat (hung) they stayed. The lint roller pretty much saved me.

Side question: do I bring business cards? I had a fresh new box, although, well, one, it's two years old, and two, my job title had changed in those two years. I stuffed some in my coat pocket, though, although turns out I didn't really need it, because the dinner wasn't formal. Isn't it a bummer, though, having someone go around the room giving business cards? Reminds me of tag-teaming with Iris so she can fill her office-mandated business card quota.

All right, that's done. I left the flat much earlier than usual because I knew the traffic would be bad (and it already is, at half past four!) and because I needed to do some shopping for Shalla's stall at Cosplay Carnival 2022 over the weekend. Halfway through the drive, I realized that, because we still have to wear masks, I'm going to an informal dinner with titans of industry with my moustache unkempt.