What to wear to parents’ evening or a PTM

What the evening is really like

Knowing the setting answers most of the question. You queue in a corridor, often in a coat, then sit at a low table on a chair made for a ten-year-old. The lighting is bright and flat. Halls are warm and crowded, and you may walk between several rooms and up stairs to see different teachers. Many parents arrive straight from work, some with younger children in tow.

In Pakistan, a parent teacher meeting is more often held in the morning, frequently on a Saturday, with the same queues and the same small chairs.

What tidy and everyday means, piece by piece

If you want a checklist, this is it.

• Fabric: cotton, cambric or lawn in warm months, khaddar or another winter cloth in cold ones. Pressed, with no fading or pulled threads.
• Colour: any calm colour or everyday print.
• Embroidery level: none, or a little at the neckline.
• Kameez length: around the knee. On a low chair a very long, narrow kameez gets sat on and a very short one rides up.
• Trousers: straight trousers or a shalwar with room at the knee, since your knees will be higher than your hips on that chair.
• Dupatta: a light one, or none with a kurta and trousers.
• Shoes: flat and quiet on a hall floor.

Three outfits that always work

Any of these can be put together from a wardrobe you already have. If you wear an abaya, an everyday abaya over any of the three is just as suitable.

• Straight from work: whatever you wore to the office. A plain office kurta and trousers needs no change at all.
• From home: a printed cotton suit, ironed, with its dupatta over one shoulder.
• Half and half: a knee-length kurta over dark jeans with loafers or trainers. Our guide to kurtas with jeans has more combinations.

What to save for another day

Party wear draws attention in a school corridor, and it is uncomfortable on a child’s chair. Leave heavy embroidery, shiny fabric, trailing sleeves, high heels and jewellery that jingles for the weekend. Strong perfume is worth skipping too, in a small room where you sit close to someone across a narrow table.

School events that do ask for a step up are prize-givings, annual days and concerts, where a light festive suit is welcome, and sports days, where the priorities are sun, grass and flat shoes.

If your everyday suits need replacing

Nobody needs a new outfit for a ten-minute meeting. If the search through your wardrobe shows that your everyday suits are tired, though, that is worth putting right for the whole year of school runs, appointments and errands. Our everyday page shows the kind of plain, washable pieces that fill the gap.

Through our custom stitching service, suits and kurtas are made to your measurements in Pakistan and shipped to you. In a quote request, give the fabric, the embroidery level and the kameez length for each piece. Making takes 5 to 7 working days from approval and full payment and shipping time is extra, so this is an order for the term ahead, not for next week’s meeting.