What To Wear To A Long Lunch

Everybody loves a long lunch, whether it’s a legitimate work affair or a well-planned fake meeting (sorry Boss). So what to wear when the calendar invite calls?

We love something with plenty of stretch, something that says comfort but also feel elevated, and special occasion-ish. Ladies, go for silks, want-to-wear pastels and overstated prints, and guys, dress like Donald Draper for your long lunch. Think sharp tailoring and clean lines – blazers, dress shoes and relaxed shirting.

There is something delightfully old school about a long lunch. It throws the concept of kaizen-in-all-things out the window. Kaizen, the Japanese business philosophy pushing continuous improvement of working practices, personal efficiency, and general getting-stuff-done, can up productivity is all general life things but, sometimes, it’s just exhausting. A lunch – be it for business or pleasure – slows everything down, allows you to connect, to be present, enjoy great food and, best of all, to not be in the office.

In the Monday-to-Friday of eating your lunch at your desk / on the run, there’s even some science in the justification of the long lunch: research shows that people who take lunch breaks are healthier and can also be more productive. This, of course, would largely depend on the amount of alcohol involved in said lunch. Read this paragraph, though, as selectively as you like.

In other good news: enjoy the afternoon naps slash follow-up drinks that inevitably follow that long lunch. Might as well block out the whole afternoon, right?