NEW YORK - The "corporate culture" at Rebecca & Drew, a small fashion brand specializing in fitted button-down shirts, is hardly buttoned up. A suit would look out of place, even on a prospective new hire.

Here, as with many of the small businesses that the federal government sees as a potential bright spot in a difficult job market, the best interview "suit" wouldn't be a suit at all.

Still, say style experts, the freedom for a man to skip the tie or a woman to trade the jacket and skirt for a dress and cardigan is not an excuse for poor grooming or overly expressive clothes.

"It's something I grapple with," says Rebecca & Drew co-founder Rebecca Matchett, who doesn't wear suits for interviews. "But running a small business, it's important to 'dress' for work. It puts me in the right frame of mind and it sets the tone for the office."

Her solution revolves around a crisp white shirt that she pairs most often with trousers or a pencil skirt, but no jacket.

"You start with high-quality basics and then it's easy to look pulled together and professional, but without the crutch of a suit," says Matchett, who also serves as an adviser to Dress for Success, a nonprofit organization that helps outfit women as they re-enter the workforce.

The smaller the business where you have an interview, the more important it is to find someone who knows the culture, advises Pamela Fiori, editor in chief of Town & Country magazine. With a large company, she says, you can usually do pre-interview research by mingling outside the building, just to get a sense of how people dress. That's much harder at smaller places.

In many cases, it's OK to ask about the dress code when scheduling the interview, says Brandi Britton, regional vice president of the administrative staffing service OfficeTeam, based in Menlo Park, Calif. "Usually people are not put off by that."

Don't upstage your potential boss by wearing expensive or flashy clothes. Fiori says she would bypass any obvious designer items, as well as anything that falls into high-fashion trends.

Your wardrobe probably includes the makings of an appropriate interview outfit, says stylist Lloyd Boston, host of "Closet Cases" on the Fine Living Network. He suggests taking elements of suits and mixing and matching them as separates - say, pinstripe gray trousers or skirt with a black jacket. In a creative field, dark denim trousers paired with a jacket also might work.

Boston says women wearing button-down shirts should avoid a boxy shape and find styles with contoured seaming or darts. Pay attention to fit and fabric by seeking out cotton-Lycra blends that will hold their shape and reduce wrinkles.

For men, he recommends a strong collar that stands above the jacket. In most cases, a V-neck sweater would do under a jacket as a more casual stand-in for a tie, he says. A sweater-and-tie combo could replace a jacket.

If you end up overdressed, take your jacket off in the reception area. But for interviews, it's always better to be overdressed than underdressed.