I'm a Ph.D. candidate in a theoretical field, so there is only math and programming involved (as opposed to a wet lab). The environment is very casual, everyone just wears jeans and a t-shirt everyday. Sometimes I dress semi-formally (e.g. a dress shirt tucked into nice slacks) just because I like to. I notice people tend to give me quite odd stares when I do this. In the blue hair thread, a highly voted comment remarked:
I only remember one situation in my field where somebody’s looks were commented on and that was somebody wearing a tie and a suit as a PhD student.
and further in the conference appearance thread (which is a dressier occasion than daily lab work):
if you are young (<30) , wearing a suit and a tie would probably seem a little weird.
I'm likely over-thinking this, but is it inappropriate for me to wear dressy clothes in the lab? Obviously it's not offensive or anything, but I wouldn't want to make anyone else feel uncomfortable or have them dislike me for what I wear. Any thoughts?