smart casual 正式與非正式之間
「smart casual」一詞最早源於二○年代的美國。從五○年代開始，專指輕鬆又不失專業形象的上班穿著風格「business casual」也出現，兩者意義接近，都是指有別於嚴肅正式的套裝或西裝穿著。雖然現在許多標榜自由活潑風氣的產業，都允許員工不必一身西裝、領帶上班，但我們日常生活中也有不少適合「smart casual」的場合，譬如朋友生日聚會、某些非正式會議、婚禮或辦公室週五的「便服日」等，基本上，只要是白天的非正式場合，這都是被推薦的風格。
從穿著元素解碼「smart casual」，男士穿著包括長褲（牛仔褲也可以）、長袖襯衫（不一定要打領帶）、皮質休閒鞋、襪子、皮帶、金屬雙排釦西裝外套（更加輕鬆的場合也可穿運動外套）。
對女士來說，下身可選擇寬鬆長褲、牛仔褲或裙子（長短均可），上身則可以短外套或夾克搭配高領上衣、細肩帶背心、馬甲或毛衣，搭配靴子、有質感的平底鞋或低跟鞋皆可，配件更能凸顯個人特色，例如時尚感的皮帶、耳環等，可發揮畫龍點睛之效。

Smart Casual: The Transformation of Gourmet Restaurant Style in America

When you imagine a gourmet experience, what comes to mind? An elegant restaurant, perhaps, with a single candle flickering at the center of a luminous white tablecloth? Maybe a quartet plays somewhere in the romantic distance, as the waiter slips a perfectly plated appetizer of escargot before you, and you proceed to nuzzle them out of their shells with silver tongs and that dainty fork? Perhaps this isn’t your image. Perhaps yours includes a view of the Pacific shore or the skyline of Manhattan or a wine list as long as actuarial table. But does your image include a taco truck? When Food & Wine magazine declared Roy Choi on of its “Best New Chefs” of 2010 for the food he was serving up in his Kogi BBQ truck, it signaled something like a sea change had happened in our idea of gourmet eating.

And that’s the very change that Alison Pearlman explores in her book, Smart Casual: The Transformation of Gourmet Restaurant Style in America (University of Chicago, 2013). As she puts it, “Between 1975 and 2010, the style of gourmet dining in America transformed. Increasingly, restaurants of ‘fine’ dining incorporated food, dÃƒÂ©cor, and other elements formally limited to the ‘casual’ dining experience.” The result, as Pearlman shows us, is a gourmet experience “replete with eroded hierarchies and pointed style contrasts, convergences of haute and ordinary.” And, we might add, taco trucks. In a keen investigation of every element of the dining experience, from menus to molecular gastronomy, Pearlman’s book reveals the surprising nature of what fine dining means for us today.