We are visiting Canada next week, and we have been invited to a Gala Dinner. The dress said business suit does that mean jacket and tie or a full suit and what what should the wife put on.

many thanks

From what I've seen, you could probably turn up in a hockey jersey and jogging bottoms, with thick woolly socks and a pair of grubby orange Crocs and you wouldn't be out of place.

A suit (as opposed to jacket and trousers) and tie.

I would not dare to advise on dress code for your wife in case I get it wrong but maybe others will comment.

By the way, be prepared for the dinner to commence with everyone standing and singing "Oh Canada" - if you are out to impress anyone you could do a lot worse than learning it in advance. That would score you some points. But you would equally be forgiven for not knowing it.

I feel like I've left my webcam on.

Look at your number of posts Ummm errrr, happy Halloween

Very wise NSpaul. Mr L2S has been tasked with finding out dress code for me for his works xmas party. The summer one he said casual, so I went straight from the sailing club in t-shirt and shorts, got rather hot a sweaty cycling up the hill there, only to find lots of women looking like WAGS - oh well! I hope my personality or at least accent, shone through!

I' getting a bit bored of the wellies and waterproof pants, so think I might at least try and go a bit glam to the xmas party (obviously been watching too much Dancing with the Stars).

But West Coast is very accepting of a whole spectrum of clothing, including sweaty t-shirts!

i would suggest your wife wears her birthday suit that could impress

Thank you for your replays but it is not helping me (Mel) very much, i need to pack.

Please Help

Mel

try this website www.dresscodeguide.com hope this helps

Have you got anything middle of the road?

How about a black trouser suit with a sexy top underneath. If it isn't that smart when you get there just keep the jacket on, and if it is, then whip the jacket off!!!

Where abouts in Canada is this dinner? East tends to be smarter than west.

I would agree with the suit and tie as opposed to jacket and trousers for yourself, for your wife I would go with a cocktail style dress but not necessarily a skimpy, very short, strappy number - more smartish, just above/below the knee sort of thing. Black's always good. Probably sort of thing you'd where to a wedding but without the hat

But what do I know - haven't been out for years.....

Every year our firm has a Christmas do in the local Delta Hotel. It's a 200 odd people affair with everyone from production line people to the CEO. Given that we're a company with an engineering or techie culture, normal business clothing ranges from dress pants/chino's to short sandals and flip flops depending upon the person. The invite to the do was 'semi formal' so I figured nice pair of dress pants (thats trousers to you wannabe expats) and a decent shirt would fit the bill. Sort of what I wear to work but on the dressier side. Was I wrong? Not half. Everyone was suited and booted or Cocktail dressed to the nines, so much so that I didn't recognise half of them!

Mrs AX, who had gone in wearing the female equivalentish to what I was wearing (pants, top, dressy cardigan) was not impressed. This year, she's already announced that she'll be having her hair done for the event and I shudder to think about the clothes shopping required. It seems a little bizarre, dressing up more to have fun than to work but this year for me I'll have to be a suit albeit without a tie. I do have some standards you know!

AX

Seriously, I would think a Gala dinner to be proper smart like, just like at home.

Suit, dress shirt, tie, polished shoes for Him. Dab of Old Spice.
Nice frock for the lass. Bit of slap. A few nice and sparkly trinkets.

Hey presto, you shall go to the ball!!

I'm with AX on this. I guess it depends on the region but certainly in atlantic Canada even though people tend to dress very casually at work most folk would generally dress up for something called a "Gala Dinner". Suits and cocktail dresses. Just one level down from a black tie affair I would say.

As Christmas is approaching too this is probably a good opportunity to warn new expats about school events. For the Christmas concert, etc the kids (here anyway) do get dressed-up. Trousers and smart shirts/sweaters and dresses for girls. Hair neatly styled etc. First winter here we sent ours in regular clothes (long-sleeve T-shirts and jeans) and they looked seriously underdressed and were not happy with us.