What it means
لباس رسمی (lebâs-e rasmi) means formal attire or official dress: clothing that is appropriate for professional, governmental, ceremonial, or high-stakes social events. Both components of the phrase are Arabic loanwords: لباس (lebâs) means clothing or garment, from Arabic لِبَاس (libâs), and رسمی (rasmi) means formal or official, from Arabic رَسْمِيّ (rasmî). The opposite is لباس غیررسمی (lebâs-e gheyr-e rasmi), meaning informal or casual attire, or simply the colloquial اسپرت (esport, from “sport”), which Iranians use to mean casual clothes.
How to use it
- مراسم با لباس رسمی برگزار میشه. (marâsem bâ lebâs-e rasmi bargozâr mishe.) “The ceremony will be held in formal attire.”
- لباس رسمی داری؟ مهمونی امشب رسمیه. (lebâs-e rasmi dâri? mehmuni-ye emshab rasmiyeh.) “Do you have formal clothes? Tonight’s party is formal.”
- تو اون شرکت همه لباس رسمی میپوشن. (tu un sherkat hame lebâs-e rasmi mi-pushn.) “Everyone in that company wears formal attire.”
- لباس رسمیام رو خشکشویی دادم. (lebâs-e rasmi-am ro khoshkshuyi dâdam.) “I sent my formal clothes to the dry cleaner.”
Cultural note
In Iran, what counts as لباس رسمی for women includes the mandated hijab as a baseline: a formal look might be a long tailored coat (مانتو, mânto) with a tightly wrapped headscarf (روسری, rusari), while for men a suit and tie (کراوات, kerâvât) signals formal Western-influenced dress, though ties remain politically charged in some official state contexts after 1979. Government employees and many businesses require formal attire, and wedding invitations often specify the dress code explicitly. The phrase appears frequently in workplace policies, event announcements, and dress-code signs at official buildings.