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Americans began the 20th century in bustles and bowler hats and ended it in velour sweatsuits and flannel shirts—the most radical shift in dress standards in human history. At the center of this sartorial revolution was business casual, a genre of dress that broke the last bastion of formality—office attire—to redefine the American wardrobe.
Born in Silicon Valley in the early 1980s, business casual consists of khaki pants, sensible shoes, and button-down collared shirts. By the time it was mainstream, in the 1990s, it flummoxed HR managers and employees alike. “Welcome to the confusing world of business casual,” declared a fashion writer for the Chicago Tribune in 1995. With time and some coaching, people caught on. Today, though, the term “business casual” is nearly obsolete for describing the clothing of a workforce that includes many who work from home in yoga pants, put on a clean T-shirt for a Skype meeting, and don’t always go into the office.
The life and impending death of business casual demonstrates broader shifts in American culture and business: Life is less formal; the concept of “going to the office” has fundamentally changed; American companies are now more results-oriented than process-oriented. The way this particular style of fashion originated and faded demonstrates that cultural change results from a tangle of seemingly disparate and ever-evolving sources: technology, consumerism, labor, geography, demographics. Better yet, cultural change can start almost anywhere and by almost anyone—scruffy computer programmers included.
The answer, apparently, is Nerds! NERDS!!
(Score: 1) by mechanicjay on Friday May 26 2017, @08:00PM
Subject is a bit of joke, but one of my casual interests is men's fashion over time. In the discussion of the general societal move (not just in the workplace) from formal -> casual dress, the Leisure Suit is actually a very interesting concept that ultimately dead-ended. I've worn regular suits, my regular dress is jeans, t-shirt and a flannel (open or buttoned depending on weather/circumstances), I also own a few vintage suits and a an honest-to-goodness 70's leisure suit.
My take is that it all comes down to comfort. The Leisure suit is actually ridiculously comfortable to wear. Soft flexible materials, which through the advent of (then) modern technology is formed into a neat presentable look. But you might as well be wearing a pair of sweatpants, they're so comfy. As the visual requirements bar lowered, we didn't need the kinda-formal looking comfy combination that was embodied by the leisure suit. We've just moved to wearing comfy stuff that happens to be casual looking as well.
In summary, modern materials and techniques make stuff more comfortable in the 60's. That is applied to the suit, but stops quickly as people stop caring about the formal look and move to a much more casual look quickly.
p.s. If any readers would like to clean our their closet of 70's men's fashions, let me know.
My VMS box beat up your Windows box.