Office where?

I'm double-posting today because I'm extremely passionate about these two things: post titles that play on words and business attire.

Currently, I "work" two "jobs" that don't really ask for much, sartorially speaking. From 10 am until 2 pm, I'm an unpaid intern at The A.V. Club, where I transcribe interviews and listen to hilarious conversations about facial hair and the validity of defining RoboCop as a cinematic gem. From 4 pm to 8 pm, I work from home doing freelance editing for a test preparation company.

The rules of dress for The A.V. Club are as follows:

1) Make sure you wear something that covers both your top half and your bottom half.
2) If that's asking too much, a bathrobe is also acceptable.

The rules of dress for working from home are as follows:

1) THERE ARE NO RULES. Sometimes I wear (clean) underpants on my head while talking to my editor just because I can.

However, as someone who likes to wear frilly and impractical things, you had better believe that I do a little bit more than just cover my respective halves at my internship, and sometimes, I'll even wear pants while working at home. It's easy for me to feel self-conscious about being entirely overdressed for certain occassions though, so I recently sent this query out into the universe: is it appropriate to wear a floor-length silk dress to work? More importantly, to a place where Converse and khaki pants reign?

For me, I've realized that the answer is yes. I do get a couple of double-takes at the internship for wearing some of the things I do. But I find that I do as many double-takes when I discover just how much Simpsons memorabila a staffer owns, or that the guy working two seats down from me is a competitive facial hair grower.

Everyone is a nerd about their own thing, whether it's fashion, medieval literature, or True Blood. Frankly, I don't think I really want to know a person unless they could be classifed as a nerd. Those passions are the awkward conversation starters, and I for one know that I don't feel nearly as interesting when I just cover my top and bottom half without any thought. While I do plan on drawing the line at wearing straight-up stripper boots to work, I've learned in these past few weeks that "office attire" isn't so much of a death sentence as it is a general guideline to be entirely messed around with in my current situation.

Because honestly, when you're working two seats away from a champion beard-grower, you've got to bring your A-game in whatever area you can.