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Dress in Washington, D.C.


Dress in Washington, D.C.

D.C. is, perhaps surprisingly, a fairly fashion conscious city; downtown and in the more fashionable districts (especially Dupont Circle, Georgetown, and U St at night) you will see fewer T-shirts and fewer still shorts. While the stereotypical drab formality trickles down from the politicians and those who must work with them, something approaching actual stylishness has been making rumblings in the past ten years, much to the surprise of longtime residents. Now, if you just want to enjoy being a tourist, don't worry—you'll be in good company! But if you prefer to blend in, a safe bet anytime of day are nice dark jeans and an un-tucked button-up shirt, and perhaps dark sneakers or something a little nicer and more stylish. Women will often blend in better in a nice pair of sandals, boots, or other nice shoes, and maybe skipping the T-shirt and sneaks in the evening. For fine dining, expect to dress nicely. A good button-up shirt and slacks are a must for any nice restaurant. Ties are never a necessity, but the most formal restaurants (mostly steakhouses and French) will require men to wear jackets (but will usually have courtesy jackets on loan in case you forget). Women will be fine in a dress, skirt, or nice pants.

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Washington, D.C. Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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