Photo by My Father
Muffy Aldrich's SALT WATER NEW ENGLAND

Monday, July 22, 2024

Which do you wear more often for business? Business Formal, Business Casual, or Casual?

Photo from Family Archives

In the photo above is my father (standing, back left) and his colleagues, New Haven, 1960s.  This reminded me of how much times have changed.  

So a question,  Which have you worn more often for business in the last three years?  Business Formal, Business Casual, or Casual?

41 comments:

  1. I have been retired for four years. When I worked I wore a coat and tie. Suits one or two days a week rest sport coat/blazer.

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  2. My work dress changed as the years and my occupations changed. Initially, 1972, I wore a suit in retail clothing sales. by 1980 I was in high technology and a sport coat and dress shirt sans tie was acceptable, until casual Friday appeared in the late 1990s and a golf shirt, chinos and Bass weejuns was the look.

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  3. Seems perhaps relevant to me to describe (general terms) what the business did, as that will strongly (?) steer how the people employed there will dress.

    For me in a large university science department, I was sometimes amused to find that dressing "business casual" put me somewhat more formal than the principals I worked with.

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    1. I agree with the above. It largely depends on the nature of the business you're working in (or were working in)

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  4. Started work in 1983 in Virginia and wore a suit every day selling insurance. (Now, find a salesman who dresses like that.) I had only three suits at the time: navy, grey stripe, and a light brown glenn plaid. On Fridays I wore blue blazer and tie with grey slacks. Went to grad school at a seminary and wore khakis and a shirt there. Then started working in politics and back to the suit and tie every day with blazer, tie and slacks on Friday. A new boss in 1997 was from the Pacific Northwest and did not wear a tie or jacket. I thought, what on earth? Moved to Washington, D.C., area in 2000 and dressed down b/c the rest of the office did. It was a dotcom not a political job. Kind of got used to that. Then moved West in 2003 and it was back to suit and tie 4 days and blazer/tie/slacks on Fridays. Finally, the office went biz casual in 2009 and casual 5 years later. Have not felt the same since. Finally got tired of looking different in a tie. Still have an audio cassette deck in my car and take notes on a legal pad. Nothing is as good as it used to be. Read about Robert A. Caro who dresses for the office every day in order to remind himself that he has a job. You gotta like that. JDV

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    1. Your last comment reminds me that Jerry Seinfeld says he always wears a suit and tie on stage because it's his career and he takes it seriously.

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    2. Had not heard that. Serenity now! JDV

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  5. When casual Friday was instituted, people wore jeans on Friday. When, two men wore jeans on Tuesday, the boss asked them if they were wearing pajamas on Friday? Another man did not dress casually on Friday. He thought the whole thing was silly.

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  6. Really depends on the situation! Thank you!

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  7. Yesterday it was a white linen button-down collar shirt, khaki shorts, and deck shoes. Call it Summer Survival style.

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  8. In my last job, running a state agency, I dressed pretty casually most days, wearing an ironed button down, ironed khakis, and LHS. On days I had to testify or transact other business in the capitol or the gov's office, I wore suits, usually dark grey or navy but always with tassel loafers and OCBDs, my card carrying lawyer badges. I let my employees dress pretty much however they wanted as long as it was neither immodest nor offensive. Rank and file government workers are paid at a level where not having dry cleaning or laundry bills is financially meaningful.

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  9. I still wear ties to the office five days per week. My concession to business casual is to wear suits only to two or three days per week, while wearing sport coats and ties on the other days. I enjoy dressing in the morning, and like the extra creative options that sport coats and ties (with sweaters, in the winter) provide alongside my suits. Admittedly, I think I am the last guy in the office to dress this way, but I prefer it.

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  10. We wore ties everyday in grammar school. Didn’t have to wear one in high school but I wore one wore one once a week or so. After school stocking shelves in a grocery store I wore a tie. Had to. College? Forget it. A tie never went well with a jean jacket. Off in the career world I wore a tie every day for years and years; except when I worked in the hot countries. Nobody wears a tie in the Horn of Africa. Now I’m retired. I wear a tie in church on Sundays, except in the summer. And I always wear a tie sipping chocolat chaud in Paris.

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  11. When I started working in an office at 5th Avenue and 42nd Street after college, 1988, we wore a suit and tie daily. As a lawyer, first at a public defender office, then at a large DC-based firm, dress evolved from suit/tie daily to incorporate 'casual Fridays,' which meant business casual. For us, that meant we were allowed to dispense with a tie and wear a sport jacket, though any outward-facing engagement like taking testimony, client meetings or court appearances and trials meant suit/tie. Eventually, every day became business casual. Past five years, I exited law firms for non-profit enforcement work, and the 'code' is that almost anything is possible, including denim and golf/tennis shirts for normal work and sport coats (or not) and no tie in contested proceedings and testimony. I've resisted the slide toward extreme casual dress and wear button downs and khakis or tailored trousers, and I wear suit/tie in testimony and contested proceedings.

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  12. I went from Suit, Tie & Wingtip Shoes to Blue Blazer, OBD, Grey Wool Slacks, Rep Tie & WEEJUNS Loafers to Polo Shirt, Khakis & Sperry Topsiders to Polo Shirt, Levi’s & Sperry’s over the course of 35 years in Corporate Middle Management. I just wore whatever my coworkers workers wore. When I first started, you could take off your coat, loosen your tie and roll up your sleeves in your own office, but if you left it for a meeting somewhere else, you better have that tie tight and your suit coat buttoned. By the end, I didn’t even bother to tuck my Polo Shirt into my Levi’s

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  13. I still wear tweed suits made by Haggarts of Aberfeldy (long out of business ) for most days in Winter and some Linen suits during Spring , Summer and Autumn as people on the estate expect me to do so . Not wearing a tie would be unthinkable .
    However on holiday ; much prefer chinos and polo shirts .

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  14. My business wardrobe is Western business: colored (khaki, black, grey, tan) Levi's, a nice Rockmount Ranch Wear shirt, a bolo, a blazer or sports coat, cowboy boots, and a hat, as in my photo.

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    1. Looks good. Do you ever take off the hat ?

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    2. Why don’t so many Western gentlemen ever remove their hats? We were at an indoor memorial service on the west slope of the Big Horn Mountains several years ago. A number of the attendees were smartly dressed. But they never took off their hats.

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    3. Well, it did not used to be that way. My family has been in Texas since the days of The Republic if Texas in 1837. Growing up in the 50's , men were very circumspect about hat etiquette. They had a work hat & a dress hat contingent upon the circumstances. Old Timers did not wear big hats...normally a Stetson Open Road or a Dobbs equivalent. If a person wore a big hat , they were deemed all hat & no cattle. I wear a 40 yr old weather beaten Stetson Open Road whenever the weather demands...accompanied by a brush jacket , Barbour Bedale or Berwick, Gun Check Plaid , Harris Tweed et al. It all projects gravitas & experience.

      Muffy's photo says it all.....Grown Up ....He Men ....a rare commodity today.

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    4. Don't jump to conclusions. I remove my hat indoors - "any place where rain can't hit my head." It's customary for one to wear their hat in their business portrait.

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    5. Very interesting custom. An example of how in and among these United States we differ yet we still can get along, especially here on SWNE.
      Thank you.

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  15. It was always a suit and tie for me as clients expected it (although they were rarely in a suit and tie themselves!)

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    1. At a thousand bucks an hour I think our swish offices, coffee in nice china, and well tailored suits rankled. I once suggested to our managing partner opening a spartan office near the tech startups, dressing as they did, and slashing rates and/or taking equity kickers. He preferred his gorgeous suits and ties and blue chip clients who did not dicker over bills. Casual Friday was anathema.

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  16. I still wear a coat and tie in the office, often a suit. Same for church. When going, to a nice restaurant, a play or whatever, I tend to wear a sport coat or blazer, and often a tie. Flannels and tweeds in the winter, and seersucker, tropical wools, and other lightweight materials in the summer. I am in the distinct minority, though.

    Most of my clothing came from Brooks Brothers or J. Press from the late 80s up to the early 2000s, and it still tends to garner compliments from strangers on at least a weekly basis. I enjoy dressing this way, and it seems that other people like it to. And good clothes tend to last forever, so why not wear them? Of course, I get plenty of wear from khakis, 501s, sport shirts in madras and seersucker, topsiders and the like for more casual activities.

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  17. I have been an architect for 45 years. At the start of my career, it was jacket and tie every day, a suit for days when we were being interviewed for a project. Now, all these years later, the dress is quite casual, with khakis and an open collar shirt the norm. On Fridays in the summer, some of my colleagues wear shorts and a polo shirt.

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  18. Tan britches and black boots with a tie and either a white or blue shirt most days. For big classes a white tie, shirt and britches. The uniform never changes.

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  19. Chinos (in tan, "sand," navy, or grey) and an open-collar dress shirt (usually an OCBD) most weekdays. Shoes vary, but most have rubber soles. When I have to go to court (or a wedding, funeral, or religious service), always a dark suit, white straight-point collar pinpoint oxford shirt, and a tie (usually rep or similar stripe). Lace-up black shoes. When not working (and when I have to go to my office on Sundays), I dress very casually. I really don't miss the suit-and-tie-everyday thing I did when I started working at law firms in 1982. When I went solo in 1992, I dropped that like a hot potato. I respect Jerry Seinfeld for wearing a suit and tie while on stage (as well as for his humor and talent), but we know he dresses much more casually the rest of the time.

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  20. I'll answer on behalf of my husband. He is a lawyer; his office is off of Court Square in Charlottesville. He wears a business suit and silk ties to the office on most days. Occasionally he'll wear a navy blazer or Harris Tweed. On Fridays when not seeing clients, an open collar button down oxford with khakis. At home while relaxing: khakis, shorts and polos or in cooler weather brushed cotton flannel shirts. A lot of his wardrobe pieces are quite old ... but it does not matter as they are classics and beautifully made. I have picked out most of his ties from Alyn. He really does not care for the Polo logo; most of his polo type shirts were from Triminghams in Bermuda and monogrammed with his three initials. And by the way, all of his jackets are loose fitting and single vented. We hate the trend toward tight fitting double vented jackets.

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  21. When I see "business men" in cheap suits and ties in NYC on sweltering summer days I genuinely feel sorry for them.

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  22. I still can't believe that I put on panty hose(!) and dress shoes 5 days a week for so many years. Finance in Boston was one of the last holdouts to business casual. What a nightmare.

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    1. yes I forgot about torturous panty hose

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  23. I’m a teacher and when I first began teaching we dressed much, much more formally than teachers dress now. I just recently retired, but when working it was often commented that I was “dressed up” but really I wasn’t comparatively speaking. Generally, I just felt better and more organized when I looked put together. I enjoy dressing casually at home but I do miss the time, when going out, an extra effort was made. It made going out seem special.

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  24. Been working from home since 2007, so my wardrobe has tended to the casual. Any trips to the office in DC has required biz casual with board meetings and the like more biz dress. I'm fortunate that covid didn't effect my work-a-day life much, except less work travel which is a blessing and a curse.

    What I have learned in all these years is, that I can adapt to any situation, and also also realized early on the wise words from my mother--better to be over dressed than under dressed. When in doubt, wear a blazer.

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  25. When I became self employed many years ago I
    adopted my own version of casual dress. Depending
    on the season and the task at hand it could be jeans,
    khakis,cords or flannel slacks paired with anOCBD and
    either a blazer or tweeds and sweater for colder months.
    A good sport coat goes a long way in pulling the outfit
    together and the pockets come in handy. And of course,
    always good and appropriate shoes.

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  26. Started my career in a suburban Philadelphia brokerage office in 1981. Everyone wore suits , many three piece every day. It was the uniform no questions asked. Today, still in the industry but I travel regionally and wear a suit, two piece everyday. Rep ties button down Oxford without giving it a second thought. When visiting the old timers at their offices most are dressed for golf, I receive compliments weekly about remembering how to dress. My first manager told me that nothing focuses your attention like tightly laced dress shoes and and a buttoned collar.

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  27. I work for an NGO but am usually in my office with no outside contact. In the warm months I'm usually in a cotton dress or a cotton top and skirt. In the cooler months I'm usually in dark jeans or khakis, a Breton or turtleneck, and a sweater of cool enough. Always with accessorizing.. most days pearl earrings, often with my Angela Moore jewelry (I miss that company!), and/or in cooler weather a scarf. For a purse I use a Longchamp Le Pliage (they dress up and down, are a reasonable price-- especially when purchased in Europe, and come in lots of different colors) and then I also use an LL Bean Boat and Tote to carry other things to and from the office and at meetings/conferences.

    When I travel for work it is around academic conferences and I'm usually in one of the cotton dresses and then a solid cardigan if a conference room is chilly. Tip: Seasalt Cornwall has great dresses in natural fabrics (cotton, linen, etc.)!

    A few of the females I work with told me how I always look very well put-together in the dresses that I wear. Not that I want or need to stand out but I guess it is good to have a reputation for looking appropriate and nice in a work sitaution, rather than be known for being sloppy, slovenly, etc.

    It is mostly men in the field (STEM) although the female numbers have been growing in my time in this organization (it used to be that often I was the only female in the room). When I started the men wore suits and ties. There are fewer ties, shirt buttons tend to be unbuttoned, and there are more nice pants with the shirts but no jackets, and the shoes for everyone tend to be more comfortable. I tend to view this as a positive thing as often in our international locales there is not so much AC in the summer months (when we usually have conferences) and temps have gotten hotter. In addition often people are working with limited luggage.

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