office no, no…or yes? [bare arms]

While I love summer weather and I love being outside, I pretty much hate dressing for the office in the summer.  There are a couple of reasons:  First, the weather outside versus the temperature in the office reminds me of being in school again.  You want to wear shorts because it is hot as Hades outside, but because it is so hot outside the building is running the air conditioning so you are working in a freezer, thereby causing you to need a sweater…or eight.   So now you are running around the office in shorts….and eight sweaters.  Which never worked for anyone.

It is a lose, lose situation.

Second reason?  I will admit it.  I am a fall/winter kind of girl.  There is nothing I love more than piling on as much of the clothing I have in my closet at one single time.  Bag lady chic, I like to call it. 

I am sure the hus wants to die for as many times as the words “I really need more sweaters” have come out of my mouth.  I lurv layering.  Point being?  Summer dressing is just plain miserable for me because I always want to put on something else.  And that something else is usually an over-sized, double weight, furry, fuzzy, weigh-you-down and warm-you-up, angora sweater. 

You starting to see the problem?

And the last and FINAL problem with summer office dressing?  You guessed it.  The flippin’ dress code.  Which brings me to my point with all this.  I vividly remember working in my father’s office when I was fourteen for a week one summer, and getting scolded by one of his colleagues for wearing a sleeveless shirt.  “You have to dress professionally here.”  So, for the rest of my life, it has been clear to me that sleeveless garments were a no, no at the office.

Until recently….  

I have seen women of all types (assistants, associates, managers, partners,  etc.) running around the CC office park with naked arms out for all of world to gawk at.  Exposed.  Granted, they all are doing it in classic Banana Republic shells, but that is neither here nor there for me.  I am more interested in the very idea that the exposing of the arm is now considered business casual…..  Is it?

Now, for just about the first time on LAW OF FASHION, I actually did not wear this to the office.  Please do not hold it against me.  Instead, I am  offering this edgy bohemian nonsense up as a conversation starter.  Mostly because I am thinking about wearing it to work….and also because I won’t  pass up the opportunity to stretch the rules.  Because if naked arms are OK, then…….. so is this?

What do you think?  Are bare arms an office no, no…..or a yes?