A couple of weeks ago, I declared the imminent death of the tie in mainstream menswear. That inspired Bruce Boyer—the authority on classic men’s style—to send me an unpublished essay he wrote almost two decades ago about the emergence of casual wear in the office. I am proud to post his essay on The Hogtown Rake; it is just as relevant today as when he wrote it, while also a time capsule from the start of “Casual Fridays.”

Casual Dress and the Workplace
By Bruce Boyer

There has been so much ink spilled in the media, so much confusion and frustration in the business community, and so much fear and loathing in the garment industry over the subject of casual dress in the workplace it would seem to take a Solomon to sort it all out.

In essence, I take casual dress to be something other than either the traditional business uniform of dark suit – light dress shirt – neat tie – black lace-ups on the one hand, or than spectator sports wear on the other. It would seem the good people at Fairchild Publications nailed it years ago when the Daily News Record  tagged it “The Third Wardrobe”.

But this description tells us more about what the third wardrobe is not, rather than what it is. There is no end of questions. Let us not jump initially into the more aesthetically subjective ones – whether neck ties are more attractive than polo shirts, that sort of thing – rather, let’s begin with the fundamentals. What is casual business wear anyway? Why is it being recommended and by whom? And what is it supposed to accomplish? It is particularly this last question that’s so fascinating.

Let’s assume for the sake of argument that we all know what “business casual” is; we don’t, of course, no one does, but play along. And let’s further assume that the employer fully endorses it. We’re not sure about this either, but stay a moment. It’s the last question that I find so delightfully intriguing and slippery: what is casual dress in the office supposed to actually accomplish? In other words, why is it being recommended? The answer to that question is rather teflon-like.

Some social critics more cynical than I have argued that this trend has been nothing more nor less than a shrewd move by employers, who view a  “dress down” policy as giving a fringe benefit to the employee, one that costs the company nothing. Just another management tool, as it were, akin to cheap beer at the company picnic.

But let us not take the low road here. In fact, I’ve spared no effort and dogged spade work to dig up all the reasons I could find to legitimatize the case. I’ve tried to streamline these arguments into simple statements that get to the heart of the issue. Employers like the idea of casual dress in the work place because they believe:

1. It will be less expensive for the employee
2. It will offer more options for self-expression for the employee
3. It will provide more comfort for the employee
4. It will engender esprit de corps among the employees
5. It is a feel-good policy for everyone
6. More work can be accomplished by the employee in a relaxed environment
7. It’s a good morale booster

These reasons are, I would hasten to point out, assumptions that have not been fully tested, so they remain unproved, and my own suspicion is that several of them are flat out wrong. At any rate, we’ve already gone through a tsunami of consensus even in the highest levels of the corporate world. I will leave it to you to discuss the truth or misguidedness of these assumptions. I have other fish to fry.

You may or may not be aware that, while all of this accoutering business is being fought out in the business world, public schools across the country, particularly those in larger cities, are on the verge of instituting uniform policies. After years of allowing parents to dress their children any way they want, which by default means that the children themselves dress any way they want, school boards are seriously thinking of adopting policies that would mandate uniforms for all students. This is indeed seen as a revolutionary step in public policy. Philadelphia and New York City already have district-wide policies in place. In Miami, upwards from 60% of public schools require uniforms, and in Chicago 80%. You can bet others are poised to follow.

Why is this a growing trend? I have also collected the reasons given why many educators, school boards, and families of students are in favor of uniforms in the schools:

1. It will be less expensive for the student’s family
2. It will engender esprit de corps among the students
3. It is a good morale booster for the school and students
4. More work can be done by teachers and students in a disciplined environment
5. It is a feel-good policy for everyone
6. It will offer more fruitful options for self-expression for students

Sound familiar? Now I have a simple question. Am I nuts? Or are we a little, what’s the word psychiatrists use, oh yes, conflicted about all this? How is it we argue on one hand that public school students will have more money, work better, have a greater sense of friendship, and feel better wearing uniforms, while grownups will make more money, work better, and feel better by endorsing sartorial anarchy? Have we got a teensy socio-political problem here? I think we do, that’s what I think.

Nobody asked me for my own opinion about this, so here it is. My own feeling is, I like it when people openly identify themselves, and the quicker they do it the better I like it. I don’t like anyone who handles my money for me, bankers and stock brokers for example, to look like someone who’s going to steal it or go off on a very long vacation to Mexico. I don’t like physicians to wear cut-off jeans and flip-flops and look like their surfer sons, and I prefer my senators to look senatorial, rather than like some bouncer in a brothel. Please don’t ask me to waste my time trying to figure out who you are, is my feeling. Tell me up front, and let’s get on with it. If you’re a good accountant, you should look like a good accountant, and that means talking and acting and dressing like a good accountant. It makes my life easier.

But that’s just how I like it, and so I suppose I am on the side of the schools in all this. But it is all very much more difficult these days. It used to be rather simple and time-saving: a man would get up in the morning, put on his business uniform – dark suit, white shirt and tie, black cap toes – and go to work. If he wanted to incorporate a few personal touches, like a natty pocket square or somewhat intricate wristwatch, fine. But he didn’t need to spend a great deal of time worrying whether or not his mock turtleneck was appropriate with his canvas gamekeepers jacket, or whether he should wear his leather blousson with the pastel gabs or the jewel-tone, narrow-wale cords, or what sort of footwear would be appropriate with the peacock blue stretch denims. Today, with all the high-tech innovations and information at our fingertips, it would seem that many men actually don’t know what to wear. I mean, they can’t dress themselves because they no longer know what’s appropriate for virtually any occasion except weight-training.

I suspect there is a great irony in all this. Lord Chesterfield admonished his son that in society, “it is preferable to take people as they are, rather than as they really are.” But, in an age in which so little is inappropriate – appropriateness itself seems such a Victorian word –, men don’t seem to know what’s relevant and what isn’t. And if everything’s relevant, nothing is. It’ll all shake out eventually of course, everything does. But in the meantime, designers and consultants couldn’t be happier, and are positively salivating and rubbing together whatever it is they rub together at the thought of all those corporate seminars on dress they’ll be running for big bucks.

It used to be that most men wanted clothes that were durable, comfortable, easy to wear, cost-effective, and flattering in a quiet sort of way. Spending hours coordinating a “Look” was just not in the game plan. Business men knew the appropriate look. It was a uniform, but it seemed to make life easier, just as school boards are discovering. Today we are momentarily hell-bent on going the opposite direction: perceptions need to be spun, realities are taken to be virtual, and we are all individuals with our own aesthetic without a seeming regard for the group. Deal with it.