Redefining Business Casual

THE NEW YORK TIMES—As fashions go, casual Friday at workplaces has had a good run for more than a decade, popular perhaps because employees could dress for the weekend a day ahead of time.

“There are no rules on Friday. ‘I can wear whatever I want,’ they’re saying,” as Mark-Evan Blackman, chairman of the Fashion Institute of Technology’s menswear design department, put it. “But of course total freedom is not allowed. Some companies say you can wear jeans. Others say khakis and corduroys.”

But there are signs that companies, and many of their employees, are tiring of the informality that casual Friday inspired and getting back to serious dressing.

“I see a return to more traditional business wear,” said Gary Brody, president of the Marcraft Apparel Group, which champions suits and ties. “People dress up more in times of financial uncertainty and intense competition. It helps their sense of stability.”

In place of sartorial anarchy, companies are falling back on “business casual” to serve as a guide for all five days of the workweek. Read article.