Ask Mike: Casual Beginnings
Hey Guys,
My work uniform consists of jeans, sneakers, t-shirt, and, if I’m feeling like a rebel, a baseball hat. I’m lucky, because around here just about every day is casual Friday. Today, as I arrived in my usual slovenly attire, I got to wondering how “Casual Fridays” and the larger trend of “business casual” got their start. Does any one company deserve credit?
There’s a lot of information on the Web devoted to this topic. One article credits Levi Strauss. According to the author, “the origin of business casual is credited to Levi Strauss and to the ‘dot.com boom’ by American Business Fashions.” The official Levi Strauss site agrees, claiming its Docker’s brand, introduced in 1986, “was at the forefront of the business casual trend in the United States.”
Interesting, but not everyone agrees that Levi’s started the khaki revolution. Wikipedia writes that casual Fridays began in the 1950s “as an attempt to raise worker morale in the new white-collar office environment.” The trend became more popular in the 1970s thanks to massive advertising campaigns from clothing manufacturers.
WiseGeek agrees with Wikipedia, writing that “the principle of Dress-Down Fridays” probably started in the 1950s. Meanwhile, a partial article from HighBeam Research (I didn’t want to pay to have access to the entire piece) writes that casual dress “has been correlated with the egalitarian movement that permeated the industry in the early 1980s.” The idea, apparently, was to blur the class distinction regardless of one’s salary or corporate rank.
USA Today hosts an interesting article on how the unwritten rules of business casual rules can be murky. Some folks think sleeveless tops are OK, while others find them inappropriate. Still, according to the article, 60% of employers allow at least one dress-down day per work week. Personally, I’d rather have five.
Thanks for reading,
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Good blog. I’m actually in a Polo Shirt, Jeans Shorts, and Boating Shoes. I work in the Back Office as an Accountant for a local Wireless Company.
Our company (internet hosting and software development) allows us to wear jeans 5 days a week. It was partly a survival strategy, as some people who had a choice between working here and working at a smaller company that already allowed jeans 5 days a week were choosing the other companies because of the relaxed dress code.
I have no idea, but to whomever did start it, I am grateful. Right now, I wouldn’t be wearing the best jeans in the world if it were not for them!
I work at a University so our dress code is pretty darn liberal. I imagine it’s because we have a lot of student workers and such that blend in with the student population. I’m wearing a tube top, skinny jeans, and flats. I have a little bolero knit sweater as a cover up. We can wear short skirts as well as spaghetti straps. I don’t know about shorts yet…haven’t tried.
I’m glad to have more casual work attire. I don’t have the energy to dress up every day.
Businesss casual is so much more comfortable. Plus it’s expensive to dress up for work and wear a suit! I hope my next job I get to wear jeans. You’re lucky.
I have broken down the barrier between casual Fridays and the rest of the week at numerous jobs. Hehe.
I agree that at minimum – one day a week is nice to dress down. It is a lot of effort and expense to dress up every day not to mention uncomfortable, especially during hot summers. But, there is a thing as too casual. I went to an interview a few weeks ago in which the employer was wearing a black halter top and black capris with no socks and in black heels. Wow. It was something that would be the sort of thing to wear to a bar and grill on a Friday night but not to work and soooo not to give an interview wearing. It made me feel kind of uncomfortable and didnt put my attitude about the job any better….lol.
But, I do agree that it is so much more practical of a choice to have casual days at work. And, it really does lift moral and the bond between coworkers.
I work at a steel business and sit at the front desk. My title is the Administrative Assistant. I wear jeans 98% of the days I come to work and my normal footwear are tennis shoes. A nice shirt is my only requirement. Since we don’t deal with the direct public they are laid back about our work attire. When I first started this job I dressed up every day and it was totally stressful getting ready in the mornings. I chose the more casual style, for my sanity.
Just wanted to share my articles from Associated Content with other possible members of same Website. Thank you.
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I just adore my skinny jeans and everything in harmony with them everywhere i go,let´s say not too casual and it is all about fashion… when casual is more expensive now than…formal
More… — just look at Zuckerman and …really would love to see …Gates …less formal,i love him and think his spirit is young(he looks so tired in formal…suit)!
As obviously the “standards” of casual Friday and its practices have been around well before the 80’s, I still pesonally credit ‘ “dot.com boom’ by American Business Fashions.” ‘ as the progenitor of the 1980’s and forward rise in popularity and nationally recognized standard of business practice as a boon to its employees as if it is equal to the other benefits of working for such a company that nornally observes business dress attire as the norm for all of the other working days.
The dot.com business sought to break out fo the standard corporate stiff white collar mode. Thus, creating a wide variety of dress from its owners, CEOs, employees that could range from casual standard attire to extreme fashion “statements” of arriving to work in pajamas and slippers. In addition to the casual dress, the dot com biz sought to allow “play” during work time to promote the creative juices to flow without the stringencies of being in that round pigeon hole.
It was a waving of your fingers on your nose to those Fortune 500 companies to show them, dress does not always necessitate success. Quality productivity is the key to success no matter what one wears was the message the dot com biz was trying to convey. If your employees morale is up beat, you’re going to get a whole lot more out of them than just the nose to the grindstone mentality.
Therefore, more than just Casual Friday was born out of this renegade corproate rules. It also bore the need to allow employees to have play at work which some corporate offices now observe in the translation of kids at work, gyms at work, personal cafes, etc.
My uniform consists of my black top and my black pants and my black belt. I am an instructor of Martial Arts.
Casual Fridays is the best! In my office, I can wear anything I want (just not anything too lewd because I work with mostly guys) — I’ve been wearing summer dresses and flats and I love it. Makes my job more enjoyable and a lot easier. When i worked in retail we had to wear business suits all the time, it felt awkward and I hated it.
I haven’t tried shorts yet either, but I don’t think they would mind. One time we had a client meetiing — I was wearing a spaghetti strapped dress. No one reacted questioningly, I think it’s also because of the laid back culture of Los Angeles.
If you want to dress like a tramp at work, be my guest.
i think the whole idea of casual fridays is really cool.
sometimes it gets tiring to wear formal attire to work.
sometimes you just want to relax.
I dress really well from Monday through Thursday and then have instituted “beach shirt Friday” in both of the offices where I work for the past three years. I love it, and so do the rest of the staff and our clients.
It would be more comfortable if I could do it every day, but I think there is still something to be said for looking like a pro a few days a week (especially in my line of work as a consultant).
I work for a large communications company and it seems to me everyday is like causal Fridayere. We are in a call center on one side and samll business in the other tower. We rarley deal with the public so there’s a mix of attire but definitely not dressy, dressy everyday.
Years ago (early 90s) when I worked at a bank that still required the ladies to wear skirts and panty hose we were allowed to do “casual Fridays” by wearing jeans, a bank logo polo shirt and to do so were required to give $2 to the bank’s favorite charity (United Way). Casual Friday finally at least evolved to allowing the employees to suggest and vote on different charities for everyone’s $2 to go to. My favorite was March of Dimes which even gave us all buttons to wear that said Blue Jeans for Babies.
We even had an occasional customer donate to that Friday’s cause as they learned what we did on Friday’s.
God, I wish you’d shut up.
All that I want is to simply find a job where I can wear chaps and a bedazzled vest.
I didn’t know you work for the same company as me!
hi 2 all he he he he
I wish we could wear casual attire from M-T we do have casual Friday’s. I think it is very important just to feel comfortable with your wearing (Thomas Edison wore loose comfortable clothing)
Hi,
I am running a retail outlet named MANerz club in Pakistan. I drived it from Man and Manners. Although I started from formal dressing but then I realised the trend of casual wearing in offices. People come to me and ask for polo shirts with collars. A nice pair of simple Jeans is more valuable than a dress pant.
Casuals are replacing formals.
good
I am an Environmental Health Officer with the National Environment Agency here in Singapore, and we do have uniforms here, but hardly they do follow. I have given mine for measurement from my office. So, still awaiting for uniform kit. So for now all we can wear is blue jeans and sneakers and the office Tee.
i would take it easy dude.
I Wear “Statement” Clothing.
Sometimes very ‘delicate’; other times ‘ludicrous’.
Never ‘boring’.
Ask Mike !
As I understand things, this casual-Friday thing actually started at Hewlett-Packard; completed products were shipped out on Fridays and, in the early days, some of the engineers (the white-collar side of the business) were needed in Shipping to load finished products quickly enough to meet the delivery deadlines.
I first ran into it in “Silicon Valley” southern San Francisco bay area. The young entrepreneurs, like Jobs and Gates, were college drop-outs who didn’t care to be a “suit.” Valley companies followed the trend to attract young tech brains who also didn’t want to be “suits.”
I am a teacher. We dress up everyday, even while crawling on floors with kindergarteners. Business casual would definately be a nice change and MUCH cheaper to buy and to clean!
I’ve heard it said that Casual Fridays is a direct descendent of Aloha Fridays here in Hawai’i. Although a Reyn Spooner Aloha shirt is de riguer for many Honolulu professionals and businessmen, there was a time where the tradition was to wear Aloha wear on Fridays, if you didn’t the rest of the week.
One survivor of the tradition is the song that plays on Hawaiian music stations every Friday. Everybody seems to know only the chorus:
It’s Aloha Friday!
No work till Monday!
De doop de doop,
De doop de doop de doop de doop de doop.
Another vestige is in school dress codes. At least one middle school on Maui requires their students to wear a school uniform. However, on Fridays, they can choose to wear Aloha shirts, mu’umu’u, or another form of Hawaiian dress (holoku, holomu’u) instead. There is usually need to stress to students that Aloha wear does not encompass T-shirt, board shorts, and rubbah slippahs (flip-flops or thongs).
When I moved to Washington, DC and became a teacher, there were teachers who tried to convince me that my students wouldn’t respect me unless I dressed professionally. I thought back to the professor I had that made me work the hardest. He was from New Zealand, he taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and he didn’t wear shoes to class. He kicked his Birkenstocks off as soon as he got to his office and walked around the department barefoot all day.
My mother once told me that you don’t dress for where you are; you dress for where you want to go. So if you’re an entry level worker and dress like a slob because you can get away with it, it will hurt you when your boss is trying to decide who should be promoted, and who has a long term future in management, because you don’t have the look of a senior manager. I employ 25 young people, and I agree with much of the insight you’ll find in this article:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/way-to-work/V-The-Dress-Code.html
I would have to say it began in the late 70’s to early 80’s… My Father worked at SRI International (once Stanford Research Institute) as a Senior Research Engineer (Telecommunications), and THEY wore SUITS or Sports coats and slacks WITH ties every day of the week from the 1950’s through to the late 1980’s.
He used to take us to the office on occasion and would jokingly snicker and sneer at the “programmers” and “lap-workers” who wore polo shirts and slacks… or GOD FORBID: JEANS !! These folks even wore sneakers or even MORE extreme: sandals !!
I think it REALLY took hold in the early-mid 80’s, when as “George” mentions, Apple Computer took off and programmers became the trend-setters as well as the backbone of many companies… Jobs and Wozniak were the “hippy-CEO’s” back then. GATES I would note was nominally STILL dressed for business.
Levi Strauss certainly CLOTHED the trend… but Mr. Strauss had been dead for almost a century.
I also first encountered it in Silicon Valley where I worked for Intel. They wanted to attract the brighter engineers and people who were smart and thought “out of the box”.
I work in the action sports industry (snowboarding, windsurfing, kite boarding, surfing, etc) and am thankful that we do not have to dress up for work. We can of course dress up, but you usually end up looking out of place if you are dressed up, and everyone asks if you have a hot date that night. The owner of the company usually dresses in jeans or shorts and flip flops so that relaxed vibe trickles down to the entire company.
If however we were in a different department where we have contact with customers or the public on a regular basis then a better dress code would be appropriate. I do dress up when we have important customers in town or vendor meetings.
Some department managers (myself included), allow workers to bring their dogs to work. They do occasionally cause some distraction, but in a high stress job a little distraction is often a good thing. Workers seem to stay with a company that offers a few perks like relaxed dress code or pets at work (days or all the time).
The company is very sucessful and employees tend to stay for years to come. I’ve been there 9 years and could not see myself working in a company where you had to dress up every day.
I don’t know where it got its start but I’m grateful it has happened.
I work in the action sports industry (snowboarding, windsurfing, kite boarding, surfing, etc) and am thankful that we do not have to dress up for work. We can of course dress up, but you usually end up looking out of place if you are dressed up, and everyone asks if you have a hot date that night. The owner of the company usually dresses in jeans or shorts and flip flops so that relaxed vibe trickles down to the entire company.
If however we were in a different department where we have contact with customers or the public on a regular basis then a better dress code would be appropriate. I do dress up when we have important customers in town or vendor meetings, but most days are casual.
Some department managers (myself included), allow workers to bring their dogs to work. They do occasionally cause some distraction, but in a high stress job a little distraction is often a good thing. Workers seem to stay with a company that offers a few perks like relaxed dress code or pets at work (days or all the time).
The company is very successful and employees tend to stay for years to come. I’ve been there 9 years and could not see myself working in a company where you had to dress up every day. Could I do it? Sure, but why do it when there are plenty of more casual companies out there to choose from.
Dress down Fridays came to my area in the late 70s because the offices and business were raising the thermostats and locking them down. It was a time when the employees could relax and not sweat. It was quickly allowed on Saturday work days. By the late 90s many non-public businesses were allowing casual dress 100% of the time. Most business not directly involved with the public all the time now allow casual on Fridays and holidays (those that costume days). Many business involved with casual trade, ask that the employees dress casual so as to put the customer at ease.
In Hawaii the practice is Aloha Friday. Every Friday is an Aloha Friday with dress code relaxed and business tends to shut down for the weekend and ohana time. Ohana is Hawaiian for Family. So most folks who dont work 3 jobs are planning their weekend party or surf time by Friday morning. Aloha shirts are consideered business attire here on Oahu.
Some people feel more confident if they are well dressed and around other well dressed people. I try to identify those people and weed them out in the interview process. My employees aren’t harassed about their choice of clothing, hair length or anything not directly related to job performance.
My organisation’s official dress code is Muslim clothing which helps a lot in one’s promotion. The other acceptable official work cloth is a 3 piece. Long pants. Long skirts. Blouse with sleeve. Preferably long sleeve. Jacket. Very professional look. But I believe the look should go hand in hand with what is inside the brain. Professional look plus intellect. Myself. I go for the simple.
i believe that casual is the best way to go.you feel relaxed and the stress goes.
I used to work as a Customer Quality Engineer. When I would show up for meetings at various customers, they often asked me why I was in a suit and tie. Most said it wasn’t necessary, certainly there were customers where looks were important, but for the most part I dressed up for visits, because I felt it was more professional.
Who cares. Such vanity. Wear what you wear or what you are required to wear. A bum can be dressed in a suit or in the clothes you describe. People will not remember your life by you clothes. They remeber you by the job you do and how you treat other people. Everything else is plastic vanity and a waste of time.
I’m all for casual wear at work. Unless of course your job requires a uniform or at least smart office wear. I can’t imagine being served in a bank by a sloppy executive. Impressions does count to many people. But why does office wear have to be uncomfortable is beyond me.
“My organisation’s official dress code is Muslim clothing”
Thats where I stopped reading.
Nice post, Mike! Personally, any day I don’t have to wear any sortof “uniform” is a good day.
I think every one should wear the closes depend to the area they are living and the climatic condition of the area.
Myself i do like to wear closes which are please me and not the people arround me!But in the world the reality is women are wearing closes to please men and men are wearing closes to please women that is the reality.
very good topic
Whoever thought of casual anything should be thrown under the bus. there’s no customer service any longer with the relaxed atmosphere; its a shame when you walk into a company and people look like they just got out of bed. I feel if you look professional you will perform in a professional manner.
your avitar is hideous
I work in an all casual environment and sometimes I miss dressing up…As much as I hated dressing up at my old job, it did make me really feel like I was at work.
Of course I could dress up and come into the office, but because most of our employees are in jeans and polo shirts, I’d spend most of my day explaining why I was dressed up instead of getting my work done.
Ever heard of “corporate fridays”? At a tech startup, where jeans, sandals, and t-shirts are the norm, some of the young employees have begun dressing up on Fridays for fun. They wear blazers, slacks, and some even put on ties.
Pretty funny stuff…
NOTE: I truly detest golf attire. This is what most people seem to think of as business casual.
I have several comments about business apparel.
First if it is properly fitted and made from natural materials (No poly or poly-blends) it is relativity comfortable.
In my occupation traditional business casual(dress pants, sport coat, shirt and tie) is the traditional norm. Where I’m working now informal (suit) is the norm.
I prefer the more dressed appearance it is much show up in traditional business attire, I feel like I’m there to be productive. Typically, my clients and prospective clients treat me in a professional manner; they seem to know that I’m a professional and I mean business.
Casual to me means no formal pattern, no class, no dirt and no flier. But need —-plain beauty, high dgree in look, simple facination and a look of love.
***Sports Ware is good —- young & lifely
****Simple Top & Bottom with Light & Dark color is a contrast beauty.
* Golf style — out of place & field…..not green
** T-Shirt & jean — give degree & class when branded
TIDY & CLEAN WITH HAPPY… SMILE is the most casual of ALL.
martial arts instructor…
Do you like Human Weapon or Perfect Weapon more?…