December 16, 2008
Retailers: Men Dressing for Success Again
Every couple
of years, it seems, a story comes out that discusses how men are going
back to suits and ties in business settings and leaving the life of business
casual Oxfords and khakis behind.
Of course, sales numbers
haven’t really supported anecdotal information from people such as Gregg Andrews, fashion
director for Nordstrom.
Mr.
Andrews told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "Men are looking
to dress up again. Men are more comfortable admitting that they’re concerned
about their appearance."
While
Mr. Andrews may have seen interest in more formal clothing at his
chain’s stores, men’s neckwear sales were down 6.4 percent in October and
November, according to NPD Group.
December,
as it turns out, is the best selling month for ties. It is also National
Tie Month.
Mr.
Andrews said that younger men are using ties differently than their fathers
and grandfathers. He pointed to the Jonas Brothers use of ties and ascots.
Daniel Billett,
men’s fashion and grooming expert at About.com, told the Tribune-Review,
"Ties are becoming more of a fashion accessory. David Beckham wears
skinny black ties inside of his shirt so it almost looks like a necklace.
It’s becoming more of an accessory, something more playful."
Discussion Questions:
Do you see ties, suits, etc. making a comeback in business and social
circles? Do you see the state of the economy leading to men dressing up
more in the near future?
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I suppose anyone who can declare December National Tie Month probably has a vested interest in men dressing up more. I don’t see it. I went to a wedding last month. I realized I have not put on a suit in several years, perhaps the 1990s, and had to go out to Kohl’s and buy one. Casual day every day is what people like. Suits are expensive and need to be dry cleaned. In a weak economy, I don’t see suits and ties becoming popular.
I do not see ties, suits, etc, making a comeback in business and social circles simply because we have become accustomed to business casual and casual attire over last 10-15 years! Old habits die hard!
Gosh, I sure hope so! It’s much easier to assess people when they dress up. It’s not a money thing but a judgment thing. Someone who knows how to properly buy a suit, match a tie, polish shoes, etc, is someone in whom I would likely place some trust. When potential associates make a point of dressing down, they are saying to me that they place their “comfort” above service.
Give me a slob who goes to the trouble to dress up over a slob who thinks it’s cool to be a slob. If you look like a slob, my only conclusion can be that you will handle my business in a similar manner.
Casual dress can be somewhat attributed to the rise of the nerdy techie. Their abilities in a narrow field along with their not having a real life, attitude and 20 hour work shifts in cubicles allowed them the freedom to look and smell bad. As the casual dress code has spread from casual Fridays (In Jamaica, Friday is a day to dress up for work) to casual weeks something has happened. People’s attitudes and work habits have become casual. As people take less pride in their dress they take less pride in themselves. When people become unconcerned about what other people think about their dress they can become unconcerned about their job and their employer’s customers. Uniforms work and help to improve the performance of school children. Proper dress and good grooming can also improve workplace performance. If you are reading this and saying that is not me, then you are an outlier on the bell shaped curve; proper dress can help improve performance of the masses in the middle.
A banker once told me that he always looked at the shoes of the customer wanting to borrow. Whether he was right or wrong, that is what he did. If you want to impress your banker a bespoken suit from Jermyn Street would work better than a Kohl’s rack job but a great balance sheet trumps all.
I too have read that during economic recessions men’s dressing choices trend toward the conservative. As others have noted, this seems to make intuitive sense from within the perspective of becoming less risky in general.
Casual clothing choices at work derive from a sense of comfort…a relaxation of norms and strictures during times of success. Delving even deeper, there’s the possibility that businesses accommodated the trend toward casual attire as a way to contribute to job satisfaction and day to day comfort. During recessions, management often fails to remain focused on quality of life while trying to keep their business from failing.
Clearly, formal business dress attire is associated with a more “serious” approach. Will this mean a renaissance for formal business attire? Probably not to an enormous extent. Remember, business formal has always been referred to as “investment” attire for a great majority of the population. Recessions don’t tend to be times when disposable income exists to invest in major wardrobe improvement projects.
My understanding is that accessories rebound first because they represent lower price points than others and make updating the wardrobe easier.
Suits are cool again! Having said that, the entire paradigm surrounding work dress has shifted so far to the California side that it’d be impossible to get back to where we were. Take the “dressing up again” in a relative sense.
I vowed I’d never wear a tie again 18 years ago. So far, so good. But suits? You bet; very skinny and short in the hem! Love it. Again, certainly a different kind of “dressing up.”
If there are more men interviewing, then there are more suits on the street. But, beyond that, I don’t see any indication of a change from the casual. Businesses have already discovered that they can carry on very well in a casual environment.
I recently spent a week with a client. When I asked what the office dress was, I was told “business casual except for Friday, when we dress down and wear jeans.”
While there are occasions for various types of meetings that suggest a suit, I have seen no change over the lat ten years or more.
Out here on the West Coast, you can always tell who the boss is–he’s the one in the T-shirt and jeans surrounded by a group of suits. And those jeans and T-shirt also happen to cost as much as the suits, even without throwing in the $200 Eccos or Cole Haans.
I’m sure it depends on your market, your audience, and your culture.
In my small, world where business casual ran amok, business casual is now more ‘dressy’. A minimum of a shirt and tie are now required at important meetings and presentations. They’re definitely required at any meeting where the leadership is involved, and when meeting vendors or customers. They’re absolutely required when visiting retail locations.
Suits…well, we’ve left those for the officers. Nonetheless, we’re all looking and feeling a bit better. That’s my world, what’s going on elsewhere may not be the same and I’m sure it’s likely not by the sounds of the comments.
My world changed when it came time for a ‘turnaround’. When that hit, it was back to business. “Blue Jean Friday” disappeared instantly. Working from home when the time for collaboration was mandatory, ended. Fuzzy slippers and logging on when it was convenient ceased. It became serious business. Serious business calls for dressing for work. That doesn’t mean that a tie is required. What it does mean is that you are ‘dressed’ for work–not for play. The blurred lines needed to disappear. A regular work day became the norm again. It instilled focus. It instilled an ethic. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it worked. However small a part of the entire scheme of things it was–it did work.
There is nothing wrong with expecting that when you are at work, you are at work. You should look like it, feel like it, and want to be like it. Surprisingly, there was little grumbling. Moreover, there was excitement. A focus.
As a result, there was change, growth, profitability and a sustained positive outlook, even now in the midst of our current economic condition. Make no mistake about it, what was worn to work didn’t do that alone. It did however, play a role. You could certainly call it outmoded or old fashioned, but you can certainly not argue with the outcome.
And, one final point. It has not cost me any more to look good, dress for business and get more done than it did wearing khaki’s and a polo shirt. After all, we are retailers, right? We should be the best shoppers.
I agree with Mel regarding the c-store industry. When we travel to meetings, conferences, etc. I have not seen any significant differences in the men’s (or women’s) attire. Business casual has been the norm for some time and does not appear to be changing.
The only people that have had on suits in any meetings have either been the attorneys and/or occasionally, the bankers. Then again, this industry never had the very causal dress codes that some other industries had during the boom times.
Someone needs to squash these rumors in their tracks, lest I have to dress up in a suit again every day. Here in SF, even my banking clients are casual. Let’s keep it that way.
I had read somewhere that in tough economic times, men tend to dress better hoping a positive image will improve their chances at promotions, or reduce the chance of being canned.
Whether this is true or not, I would say that men are becoming more aware of how clothes can shape their image and how they are viewed by others. And this in turn does have an impact on their professional lives.
Now all I need to do is figure out a way to avoid getting my tie caught in the paper shredder.
Here we go again. As stated above these stories of men suddenly reverting to more suits and ties come up every few years (no doubt planted by suit makers!). Yet, the evidence is never there. I quickly called 3 menswear clients before writing this to get their input. Each one indicated flat suit sales. The good news was that sales of casual wear and sport coats were very strong.
I’ve taken to never wearing a tie in front of my young children…in hope that they will never fall into the abyss and buy me one for Christmas!
I suppose that you can connect this trend to the current era of economic uncertainty, and the mood of seriousness that hangs over the country. In theory, it makes sense that men (and women) will dress in a more career-conscious way if they are concerned not only about advancing but also about keeping their jobs. But as David said, the “dress for success” trend isn’t clearly visible yet, and the investment required to re-wardrobe oneself with suits and ties is running into the counter-trend of reduced consumer spending.
Sounds like wishful thinking by somebody who bought too long on suits. In the late 90s, I still felt compelled to wear a tie at industry cocktail gatherings and such, then realized I was one of the only people in the room wearing one. I still pack a tie when I travel, but I’m not entirely sure why.
During booms, it’s sloppy T-shirts and grunge wear. During busts, it’s back to business. We saw this trend during the dot com era, and we’re seeing it replay in reverse during the recession. You can track business casual to the stock market–as stocks rise, casual is in; as stocks plummet, business is back. This is a much better indicator than either lipstick sales or hemlines.
I can only speak from observation, by being involved in four national meetings over the last couple of weeks. Only at a banking convention, a convenience store group required all of its employees–both male and female–to wear ties. Every other program was still defined as casual. Except for the banking convention–and bankers seem to like ties–every other group including the C-store group had on Dockers or some other type of causal slacks.
Causal is still in.
Given the economic situation, so many people are working harder to impress, both in their current and future workplaces. For that reason we probably see more formal attire and everyone tries to look the part of the ‘keeper crowd.’
The converse of the economic environment is we’re all trying to cut back, whether driven by personal economic state or the overall pressure to use and spend less. Business clothing costs more to buy and maintain. Our bet is while we won’t see too many people spending the cash on more formal attire, jeans in the office will be out as we seek to impress.
My nineteen year old son attends a private business-focused college (Northwood University) in Michigan. Many of the professors require the students to dress in business attire on days when they will be presenting projects and papers. It gets them more prepared to be in the right mindset–which is all about “take it seriously.” On other days they still show up in their slippers and sweat pants.
I wish dress-up days for specific “presentations” had been a practice since middle school, frankly. This country needs a more serious work ethic, and wardrobing is a part of the opportunity. We could use it as an antidote to pick up retailing as well as the “mental game” of the workforce. Couldn’t hurt to try!
The most successful businesses ignore what their folks wear and focus on their performance. “An empty suit” is a great insult. Jeff Bezos, Howard Schultz, Michael Dell, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs aren’t known for being sharp dressers.
Suits and Ties–ESPECIALLY Ties–seem to be going the way of the dinosaur. I will be the last man wearing a suit in America!
If you travel to Europe, you may not see a tie on every man but you do see suits and sportcoats–and a lot of ties. Unfortunately, in The US we are becoming a bunch of slovenly ill-dressed people, casual–even Jeans and T Shirts in some locales–seem to be the “norm” more and more and it is TERRIBLE! Unprofessional and unsophisticated and disheveled.
People should have a correct attitude and appearance to present to the people they are meeting and dealing with–and that goes for professional people also, such as Doctors!
If you are sartorially challenged and can’t put together a successful wardrobe then get help at an appropriate store where associates are employed to help with these matters. But That is a big problem also; people at department stores these days are simply cashiers a lot of the time and the “teen” stores such as A&F, where serious people should not even be purchasing clothing for work, are worthless. Appropriate avenues DO exist for this type of help, such as Brooks Bros. and Jos. A. Banks, Ann Taylor, Talbots, etc.
As we become more and more relaxed and more forgiving of “not knowing of,” or for people not desiring appropriate behavior and decorum, we will continue to have more problems with people looking like a mess and people acting inappropriately in public and work situations.
I think it is not a good thing! I also do agree that the tie is rapidly dying or dead and the suit appears to be following. The wane of the suit is sad.
Put a man in a good, well made suit, comb his hair, and give him a decent pair of shoes–and in almost all cases–he will look good!
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I suppose anyone who can declare December National Tie Month probably has a vested interest in men dressing up more. I don’t see it. I went to a wedding last month. I realized I have not put on a suit in several years, perhaps the 1990s, and had to go out to Kohl’s and buy one. Casual day every day is what people like. Suits are expensive and need to be dry cleaned. In a weak economy, I don’t see suits and ties becoming popular.
I do not see ties, suits, etc, making a comeback in business and social circles simply because we have become accustomed to business casual and casual attire over last 10-15 years! Old habits die hard!
Gosh, I sure hope so! It’s much easier to assess people when they dress up. It’s not a money thing but a judgment thing. Someone who knows how to properly buy a suit, match a tie, polish shoes, etc, is someone in whom I would likely place some trust. When potential associates make a point of dressing down, they are saying to me that they place their “comfort” above service.
Give me a slob who goes to the trouble to dress up over a slob who thinks it’s cool to be a slob. If you look like a slob, my only conclusion can be that you will handle my business in a similar manner.
Casual dress can be somewhat attributed to the rise of the nerdy techie. Their abilities in a narrow field along with their not having a real life, attitude and 20 hour work shifts in cubicles allowed them the freedom to look and smell bad. As the casual dress code has spread from casual Fridays (In Jamaica, Friday is a day to dress up for work) to casual weeks something has happened. People’s attitudes and work habits have become casual. As people take less pride in their dress they take less pride in themselves. When people become unconcerned about what other people think about their dress they can become unconcerned about their job and their employer’s customers. Uniforms work and help to improve the performance of school children. Proper dress and good grooming can also improve workplace performance. If you are reading this and saying that is not me, then you are an outlier on the bell shaped curve; proper dress can help improve performance of the masses in the middle.
A banker once told me that he always looked at the shoes of the customer wanting to borrow. Whether he was right or wrong, that is what he did. If you want to impress your banker a bespoken suit from Jermyn Street would work better than a Kohl’s rack job but a great balance sheet trumps all.
I too have read that during economic recessions men’s dressing choices trend toward the conservative. As others have noted, this seems to make intuitive sense from within the perspective of becoming less risky in general.
Casual clothing choices at work derive from a sense of comfort…a relaxation of norms and strictures during times of success. Delving even deeper, there’s the possibility that businesses accommodated the trend toward casual attire as a way to contribute to job satisfaction and day to day comfort. During recessions, management often fails to remain focused on quality of life while trying to keep their business from failing.
Clearly, formal business dress attire is associated with a more “serious” approach. Will this mean a renaissance for formal business attire? Probably not to an enormous extent. Remember, business formal has always been referred to as “investment” attire for a great majority of the population. Recessions don’t tend to be times when disposable income exists to invest in major wardrobe improvement projects.
My understanding is that accessories rebound first because they represent lower price points than others and make updating the wardrobe easier.
Suits are cool again! Having said that, the entire paradigm surrounding work dress has shifted so far to the California side that it’d be impossible to get back to where we were. Take the “dressing up again” in a relative sense.
I vowed I’d never wear a tie again 18 years ago. So far, so good. But suits? You bet; very skinny and short in the hem! Love it. Again, certainly a different kind of “dressing up.”
If there are more men interviewing, then there are more suits on the street. But, beyond that, I don’t see any indication of a change from the casual. Businesses have already discovered that they can carry on very well in a casual environment.
I recently spent a week with a client. When I asked what the office dress was, I was told “business casual except for Friday, when we dress down and wear jeans.”
While there are occasions for various types of meetings that suggest a suit, I have seen no change over the lat ten years or more.
Out here on the West Coast, you can always tell who the boss is–he’s the one in the T-shirt and jeans surrounded by a group of suits. And those jeans and T-shirt also happen to cost as much as the suits, even without throwing in the $200 Eccos or Cole Haans.
I’m sure it depends on your market, your audience, and your culture.
In my small, world where business casual ran amok, business casual is now more ‘dressy’. A minimum of a shirt and tie are now required at important meetings and presentations. They’re definitely required at any meeting where the leadership is involved, and when meeting vendors or customers. They’re absolutely required when visiting retail locations.
Suits…well, we’ve left those for the officers. Nonetheless, we’re all looking and feeling a bit better. That’s my world, what’s going on elsewhere may not be the same and I’m sure it’s likely not by the sounds of the comments.
My world changed when it came time for a ‘turnaround’. When that hit, it was back to business. “Blue Jean Friday” disappeared instantly. Working from home when the time for collaboration was mandatory, ended. Fuzzy slippers and logging on when it was convenient ceased. It became serious business. Serious business calls for dressing for work. That doesn’t mean that a tie is required. What it does mean is that you are ‘dressed’ for work–not for play. The blurred lines needed to disappear. A regular work day became the norm again. It instilled focus. It instilled an ethic. There was nothing wrong with it. In fact, it worked. However small a part of the entire scheme of things it was–it did work.
There is nothing wrong with expecting that when you are at work, you are at work. You should look like it, feel like it, and want to be like it. Surprisingly, there was little grumbling. Moreover, there was excitement. A focus.
As a result, there was change, growth, profitability and a sustained positive outlook, even now in the midst of our current economic condition. Make no mistake about it, what was worn to work didn’t do that alone. It did however, play a role. You could certainly call it outmoded or old fashioned, but you can certainly not argue with the outcome.
And, one final point. It has not cost me any more to look good, dress for business and get more done than it did wearing khaki’s and a polo shirt. After all, we are retailers, right? We should be the best shoppers.
I agree with Mel regarding the c-store industry. When we travel to meetings, conferences, etc. I have not seen any significant differences in the men’s (or women’s) attire. Business casual has been the norm for some time and does not appear to be changing.
The only people that have had on suits in any meetings have either been the attorneys and/or occasionally, the bankers. Then again, this industry never had the very causal dress codes that some other industries had during the boom times.
Someone needs to squash these rumors in their tracks, lest I have to dress up in a suit again every day. Here in SF, even my banking clients are casual. Let’s keep it that way.
I had read somewhere that in tough economic times, men tend to dress better hoping a positive image will improve their chances at promotions, or reduce the chance of being canned.
Whether this is true or not, I would say that men are becoming more aware of how clothes can shape their image and how they are viewed by others. And this in turn does have an impact on their professional lives.
Now all I need to do is figure out a way to avoid getting my tie caught in the paper shredder.
Here we go again. As stated above these stories of men suddenly reverting to more suits and ties come up every few years (no doubt planted by suit makers!). Yet, the evidence is never there. I quickly called 3 menswear clients before writing this to get their input. Each one indicated flat suit sales. The good news was that sales of casual wear and sport coats were very strong.
I’ve taken to never wearing a tie in front of my young children…in hope that they will never fall into the abyss and buy me one for Christmas!
I suppose that you can connect this trend to the current era of economic uncertainty, and the mood of seriousness that hangs over the country. In theory, it makes sense that men (and women) will dress in a more career-conscious way if they are concerned not only about advancing but also about keeping their jobs. But as David said, the “dress for success” trend isn’t clearly visible yet, and the investment required to re-wardrobe oneself with suits and ties is running into the counter-trend of reduced consumer spending.
Sounds like wishful thinking by somebody who bought too long on suits. In the late 90s, I still felt compelled to wear a tie at industry cocktail gatherings and such, then realized I was one of the only people in the room wearing one. I still pack a tie when I travel, but I’m not entirely sure why.
During booms, it’s sloppy T-shirts and grunge wear. During busts, it’s back to business. We saw this trend during the dot com era, and we’re seeing it replay in reverse during the recession. You can track business casual to the stock market–as stocks rise, casual is in; as stocks plummet, business is back. This is a much better indicator than either lipstick sales or hemlines.
I can only speak from observation, by being involved in four national meetings over the last couple of weeks. Only at a banking convention, a convenience store group required all of its employees–both male and female–to wear ties. Every other program was still defined as casual. Except for the banking convention–and bankers seem to like ties–every other group including the C-store group had on Dockers or some other type of causal slacks.
Causal is still in.
Given the economic situation, so many people are working harder to impress, both in their current and future workplaces. For that reason we probably see more formal attire and everyone tries to look the part of the ‘keeper crowd.’
The converse of the economic environment is we’re all trying to cut back, whether driven by personal economic state or the overall pressure to use and spend less. Business clothing costs more to buy and maintain. Our bet is while we won’t see too many people spending the cash on more formal attire, jeans in the office will be out as we seek to impress.
My nineteen year old son attends a private business-focused college (Northwood University) in Michigan. Many of the professors require the students to dress in business attire on days when they will be presenting projects and papers. It gets them more prepared to be in the right mindset–which is all about “take it seriously.” On other days they still show up in their slippers and sweat pants.
I wish dress-up days for specific “presentations” had been a practice since middle school, frankly. This country needs a more serious work ethic, and wardrobing is a part of the opportunity. We could use it as an antidote to pick up retailing as well as the “mental game” of the workforce. Couldn’t hurt to try!
The most successful businesses ignore what their folks wear and focus on their performance. “An empty suit” is a great insult. Jeff Bezos, Howard Schultz, Michael Dell, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs aren’t known for being sharp dressers.
Suits and Ties–ESPECIALLY Ties–seem to be going the way of the dinosaur. I will be the last man wearing a suit in America!
If you travel to Europe, you may not see a tie on every man but you do see suits and sportcoats–and a lot of ties. Unfortunately, in The US we are becoming a bunch of slovenly ill-dressed people, casual–even Jeans and T Shirts in some locales–seem to be the “norm” more and more and it is TERRIBLE! Unprofessional and unsophisticated and disheveled.
People should have a correct attitude and appearance to present to the people they are meeting and dealing with–and that goes for professional people also, such as Doctors!
If you are sartorially challenged and can’t put together a successful wardrobe then get help at an appropriate store where associates are employed to help with these matters. But That is a big problem also; people at department stores these days are simply cashiers a lot of the time and the “teen” stores such as A&F, where serious people should not even be purchasing clothing for work, are worthless. Appropriate avenues DO exist for this type of help, such as Brooks Bros. and Jos. A. Banks, Ann Taylor, Talbots, etc.
As we become more and more relaxed and more forgiving of “not knowing of,” or for people not desiring appropriate behavior and decorum, we will continue to have more problems with people looking like a mess and people acting inappropriately in public and work situations.
I think it is not a good thing! I also do agree that the tie is rapidly dying or dead and the suit appears to be following. The wane of the suit is sad.
Put a man in a good, well made suit, comb his hair, and give him a decent pair of shoes–and in almost all cases–he will look good!