Shame Dressdown Friday is now uniform every day

Straight-talking, common sense from the front line of management

QAs a proud City worker for the past 30 years, I take a special pleasure in picking out and wearing a new suit. However, it seems that such attire no longer, well, suits people anymore. My younger colleagues dress down to such a point that Kiwi is no longer selling its shoe polish on UK shelves and even my dry cleaner is struggling to stay open. Much as retail shop staff wear a uniform, isn’t the suit also a livery of a kind? Is it really time for me to retire my suit to its hanger?

APeople in photographs from 75 years ago look dramatically differently from today. A typical crowd of commuters were mainly men, dressed in suits, smoking a cigarette and wearing a hat. There wasn’t much difference in summer, even on the beach. The suits were more casual, some hats were replaced by Panamas and boaters, but most men still smoked a cigarette.

Fifty years earlier, at the beginning of the 20th century, office workers wore waistcoats, a pocket watch and detachable collars, which were cleaned every day, with shirts only washed once a week.

It was hats for all. Top hats at Ascot, bowlers for bankers and civil servants and trilbys and pork pie hats for other commuters. You never saw a baseball cap but manual workers wore soft flat caps, which dates to the 16th century when males aged over six were fined if they didn’t wear a cap on Sundays.

There was a dramatic change in the 1970s. At the beginning of the decade business was still booming at Hepworths, Burton and John Collier (“the window to watch”).

Every man needed a two or threepiece suit, including those that wore overalls to work. They needed a suit for “Sunday best” and special occasions – nearly 90pc of John Collier’s sales came from made-tomeasure suits selling from £17.99, made in local factories and delivered back to the shop within 10 days.

By the mid 1980s most of the suit sales had gone and John Collier’s name disappeared from the high street. Casual clothing became the fashion and formal business attire was being replaced by denim jeans and trainers.

Footwear has seen a similar revolution. Before the beginning of the 1960s, nearly everyone wore all leather footwear made in the UK. Businessmen bought traditional shoes from factories in Northamptonshire, made by quality manufacturers including Church’s, Loake, Barker and Crockett & Jones.

But buying habits changed with the development of moulded rubber soles that sold at £1.99 and carried a six-month guarantee. Leather shoe repairs have declined ever since. But we continue to repair plenty of quality shoes in the centre of London and people still clean their shoes – despite the departure of Kiwi, our shops are selling plenty of polish.

The suit’s decline has been bad news for dry cleaners, who suffered a 20pc drop in demand following the smoking ban in 2007. But that was nothing compared with their 75pc sales slump during lockdown.

There was a time in 2020 when we wondered whether our dry cleaning shops would ever see suits again but recently some smart office staff are drifting back, although many still sport the casual outfit worn when calling at the gym on the way to work.

Covid has created a much more casual attitude to office attire. After working from home, sometimes in pyjamas, it is hardly surprising that many executives are returning to work in jeans and a T-shirt. Companies that allowed “dressed down Fridays” now permit scruffy clothes all week and, on Friday, no one turns up at all.

Many reasons determine our choice of work day clothing. Some must comply with employer guidelines, especially when the role is customer facing. Others, whose boss has surrendered to colleague power, are free to please themselves.

Placid people will follow the majority, confident colleagues dress to feel comfortable and eccentric extroverts will hope to stand out. Very few of these executives will wear a suit, a waistcoat, or a hat unless the suit comes back in fashion.

But for some commuters (like you) suits are still important. A suit boosts confidence, gives pride in appearance and provides a proper presence when talking to customers. Lockdown has lowered our standards. I am suspicious of recent reports claiming that a four-day week improves productivity. From what I have seen, working from home harms a corporate culture and hampers performance.

So, whatever you wear, get back to the office and look the part by wearing clothes that give you the confidence to do a good job. The suit still sets a certain standard. People who are proud to wear a suit usually take pride in their work.