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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: 3, Interesting) by DannyB on Friday May 26 2017, @08:19PM (2 children)
We may just have a different POV on this. People who dress in a suit and tie, to me, signals that they are inferior and don't know it. It is a prejudice. A learned one. I don't feel inferior in the least. I am quite confident in the work I do and my ability to do it. I am also quite confident in the suit's inability to understand it. Fortunately, the people who once wore suits, generally don't.
The suit says to me that this person lives in a whole different world and is out of touch with the world I live in.
It may mean something different to you, but I think this POV is a small minority. Or, it is the suit's POV, from, as I said, a whole different world than the nerds live in.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by NotSanguine on Friday May 26 2017, @09:34PM (1 child)
I'm not a "nerd" per se. I am a technologist and an engineer. I am a lover of science and technology and I (at least I do my best) modulate my beliefs views based on empirical evidence.
I don't subscribe to the idea that what you wear or what your job or hobbies may be defines you as a person. It certainly doesn't define me.
I'm just a human, with my own quirks and peccadilloes. I think that making broad generalizations about the quality of a person based upon external attributes, while a popular pastime, is an inferior mechanism for assessing others.
I don't immediately reject as "other" someone wearing a suit, nor do I do so for people wearing their baggy jeans around their knees. Just as I don't make assumptions about the quality or intentions of others based upon their skin color, language or place of birth.
In my mind, each individual is worthy of simple human respect, regardless of external indicators, unless and until they prove themselves to be unworthy of such respect.
That said, this is what I think and believe. I do no demand or expect this from others. Each individual needs to decide for themselves how to deal with others.
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday May 30 2017, @03:58PM
I think I said somewhere here that my view of suits is a bias, a prejudice. Just the reverse of people who think nerds should wear suits, or even dress up. I optimize for comfort. I have specific goals (business goals) to accomplish.
To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.