Imminent death of business casual predicted. News at 11!
There’s a rumour doing the rounds lately about the death of business casual. If you follow fashion at all — beyond checking ThinkGeek’s latest offerings — you might’ve heard that tailoring and classic styles are the big thing lately. And people are saying that with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, the excesses of the late nineties have faded and traditional business attire is on its way back.
I don’t know. The guys I work with mostly still wear jeans, and I don’t see that changing any time soon. But speaking for myself, I recently got fed up with wearing tshirts all the time. For one thing, ordinary tshirts look like complete crap on anyone who’s not shaped like rectangle. The slightest hint of curves — and I’m talking about both the female kind and the traditional sysadmin paunch — and the tshirt fits badly and just looks slobby. In the end I gave up in disgust. All my tech company logo tshirts, even those I remember most fondly from the Good Old Days, are now mouldering in a box, and I’m wearing shirts with real buttons every day, along with what I think of as “proper” shoes: the kind that need polishing.
There’s nothing stopping me from wearing tshirts and sneakers, of course, but… I just got over it, somehow. In fact I’ve been getting over it for a few years now, gradually moving away from the cargo pants and army boots and towards something more closely approximating what I used to wear for interviews. What I used to wear for interviews when I didn’t do them in my dressing gown from ten timezones away, that is. And if I keept heading in this direction, eventually that’s going to mean suits.
Perhaps it’s just a phase, but it seems to be one that other people are sharing. Word is that suit sales are picking up all over the place, and even streetwear companies seem to be pushing tweeds and pinstripes and argyle sweaters, a style referred to, I am reliably informed, as “grandpa fashion.”
So let’s say you’re one of these people who’s pondering a return to the business suit. Or more likely, if you’re the age of most people in the tech industry, you’re thinking of getting one for the first time. It’s rather daunting if you don’t know what you’re doing, but it needn’t be.
[For what it's worth, I just deleted about six paragraphs of me rambling on about clothes. Don't thank me... send cash donations.]
Here are a few online resources to you from listening to me lecture:
- Ask Andy About Clothes. Andy is a knowledgeable guy, and it’s not just that he knows lots about men’s fashion but that he expresses it clearly and succinctly, laying down the “rules” of what’s commonly acceptable. The forums are very active, though the fashions preferred by visitors to this site are often on the conservative side.
- Style Forum is even busier, and a bit more “fashion forward,” as they say. It seems to be a younger crowd. I’d recommend Ask Andy for the basics, then Style Forum if you want to ask questions, as I think it would match better with the high tech crowd.
- English Cut, a website and blog by Savile Row tailor Thomas Mahon. His article on If you can’t afford bespoke… is informative, describing many of the options available at different price points.
One last thing. Most of us hate to think that people judge us by the way we dress, and in theory we should be judged based on the quality of our work. Online interactions help with this, of course; I can’t count the number of people I’ve come to respect purely through my experiences with them in email, IRC, and so on. So I’m not saying that you should be wearing a business suit. The geek world is still the least likely to expect it or appreciate it. But if, on the other hand, you’re as sick of wearing some bankrupt dot-com’s logo across your chest as I am and want to do it, I hope the above will give you a few pointers.
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I am a final year Uni student writing a feature about modern etiquette. I love the comments you have made on this blog and was wondering whether you would be willing to answer some questions I have regarding modern manners, espcially ones related to modern technology, mobilep phones, email etc?
thanks, and keep up the fab blog entries.
Do you know of anything akin to your first link for women’s clothes?
Ellie, I’d be delighted. Just email me at skud@infotrope.net.
Monica, women’s clothes are much harder. *sigh* Things keep changing, unlike the conservative end of men’s dress, which has hardly moved in 50 years. I can’t think of a single website or even book that speaks definitively on the subject, but most etiquette books (the thumping big ones like Emily Post, not the wedding ones that come in pastel covers) will have a section that at least makes an attempt to cover it. But really, your best bet is to find a friend who knows what she’s doing and ask her for advice. (Note that the Ask Andy forum does have a women’s discussion area… you could probably do worse to ask there, though the traffic isn’t very high.)
In my environment, suits or even formal shirts would be seen as … stodgy and would alienate me from my fellow operations staff. I’ve compromised a bit. I’m wearing nice polo shirts most days and I’m starting to phase in nicer slacks. I’m still wearing all black and I’m still wearing boots. At least they’re nice boots. But I’ve always had a bit of a boot and black fetish :)
Sungo, good to see you here!
Your polo shirts and slacks sound great, and boots of course are always good ;) I’m glad to know I’m not the only one of my acquaintance who’s been dressing up a bit lately.
I had an internal interview at work (for a department transfer that I just completed) so I dressed up a bit. I noticed that I was walking taller and feeling more professional. I love jeans and tshirts but they make the work environment feel like a college dorm room. I want my workplace to feel a bit more … adult than that.
Regarding “the death of business casual”, be sure to read Paul Graham’s essay “The Submarine” http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html. Don’t believe everything you read ;)
Eugene,
It’s certainly true that most of the “death of the suit” articles are PR-induced, but on the other hand, I didn’t go looking for them until a few years *after* I got sick of wearing cargo pants and dot-com logo tshirts to work. I’ve talked to a number of friends who’ve done likewise (Sungo, above, is one example) so while one should always treat the media (mainstream or otherwise) with caution, it doesn’t necessarily follow that they have no connection to reality whatsoever.
K.
Where I work, it’s company policy to be “business casual” except for “denim Fridays” or unless you have direct contact with external customers. Honestly, I tend to waffle between wanting to go more casual (every day a Friday) and wanting to go back to a long sleeve shirt with a tie. Usually, the casual thing is because I truly hate dress shoes. But the shirt-and-tie thing is because, like sungo, I find that I walk a little taller and have a little more professionalism when I’m dressed nicely. Hmmm, maybe I should get a government grant to study the effects of dress on productivity…
business casual is too confusing. Business casual is also a sure fire way to get a “casual” paycheck
[...] visiting!I’ve covered dress codes a bit before: business casual, business casual for women, the alleged death of business casual, and what to do if you don’t have a dress code at [...]