Casual Affairs
A survey by Dockers and Slates shows Americans ready to take business casual to the next level.
By
ANNMARIE DODD
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It's official: Business casual has graduated from a ‘90s trend to a routine habit of American life.
That's the word from the 2001 National BusinesswearSurvey commissioned by Dockers and Slates, Levi Strauss’s sportswear brands. While Dockers is renowned for the strength of its surveys ― the last one was issued in 1997 ― this is the first time brother-brand Slates has also attached its name to such a study.
And the results of the study boil down to this: People love dressing casually, and they understand that it needs to evolve.
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The research, conducted by Lieberman Research Worldwide, shows that both men and women, ages 25 to 50, are struggling to make sense of casual dressing ― to figure out how dressing for a family barbecue differs from what to wear to a business lunch. But they definitely don’t want to go back to the dressy past. In fact, only 5 percent of the 1,000 polled said they want to return to their suited ways.
Most of the other respondents said they have embraced the idea of one, seamless wardrobe. And that wardrobe can be filled with Marc Jacobs or Natural Issue and can come from stores as different as Jeffrey and Kohl’s.
"Business casual is not just khakis and a polo shirt anymore,"says Bobbi Silten, president of Dockers and Slates. "If you just learn to cook, at first you may not know all the utensils. Or the difference between extra virgin olive oil and run-of-the-mill olive oil. You cannot delineate what you need for what. But, give it time and you learn, and then you know. This is the stage we are at with business casual. The basics are down."
Research indicates that a "new center" of dresssing has emerged, one made up of sportswear that can easily move from a morning meeting to after-work drinks, Silten says. For men, the core wardrobe consists of five pieces ― dress pants, khakis, a dress shirt, a polo shirt and a sweater. Women replaced the dress shirt with a blazer in their top five list.
According to Dockers/Slates’ research, casual-dress policies rank as the second-best workplace incentive to offer employees (flexible hours ranked first). Among those polled, 60 percent said they feel more productive when they are comfortable and 58 percent also claim casual-dress policies improve office morale.
"These numbers are the most important when assessing how people feel," says Silten. "Put them together and it shows that people feel life is demanding and they don’t need it compartmentalized for them anymore. We each need the flexibility to exercise our own good judgment ― I know when it’s best for me to work and what I should be wearing to get the job done."
Human resource managers, too, are taking this message to heart, according to Dockers and Slates executives. Informational mailers on the various degrees of casual dress ― outlining the differences between run-to-the-market weekend wear and clothes suitable for hardcore business meetings, PTA meetings and after-work drinks ― were recently sent to 5,000 HR executives at companies with more than 1,ooo employees. The flyer noted that more style advice was available, and so far more than 1,500 HR managers have gotten back to Dockers and Slates requesting further guidance.
Meanwhile, Dockers and Slates are taking their style show on the road to meet directly with the fashion-impaired. The companies have teamed up with InStyle’s Chic Simple staff and Glamour magazine for a Style @ Work summer tour to major U.S. cities. The 18-wheel truck, equipped with a wardrobe closet and dressing room for style makeovers, made its first stop last week in Atlanta's Highwood business district.
Over the next two months the truck will travel to high-traffic business centers in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose and San Francisco, Levi Strauss’s hometown.
"We are not going back to the way things used to be. When I started working, women couldn’t wear pants," says Silten. "It’s like we can’t think of life without our cell phone and e-mail anymore. This ‘new center’ is the place we will all have to explore. After the customer clearly understands the delineation of casual dress, then he is going to ask for a greater range of what [he can wear] and where he can shop."
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