Dress Code

What's in a dress code?

This is a topic that nobody really gives much thought about except for the practical benefits of comfort in the work place. Aren't you glad the days of suites and fedora hats are long gone? How about for women who were expected to wear dresses?

Watching the show "Mad Men", which takes place in the sexy Advertising industry in New York during the 60's, is a cultural education that I appreciate very much. The martini lunches, the way men and women interacted in the work place, and all the great perks of being a big city exec. were a pretty cool thing of the past. Woah...wait a minute. How about luxury jets, lavish get-aways, and huge 7 figure bonuses on walstreet? Ok, things have not changed much at all except to get increasingly excessive.

Most of us work in business casual environments. For most companies, this means Khakis and a collared golf shirt is acceptable while jeans and tennis shoes are reserved for Fridays. A growing tech population driven by young hot-shots and inventive ways to looking at the world don't have much of a dress code at all except to merely reflect the popular culture of the surrounding area. This means that torn and faded jeans, embroidered designer T's and sweatshirts with spiky hair are all acceptable. Tattoos are cool and piercings are no big deal just as long as you're a hot shot programmer.

There is still a bunch of people in a more traditional environment that wear suits all day and every day. Attorneys of course and in some cases sales positions as well as those walstreet brokers still "dress" for work. No wonder they get those big bonuses, they have to fill their closets with two thousand dollar suites and matching shoes.

What's in the clothes?

All I know, is that the suites make all the money. Sure there's the exception of Microsoft and Google and other "tech" oriented companies, but if you look at the top 10%, they are still the suit wearers of the world.

I guess if that's the case, I'll be showing up to the office in my Hugo Boss soon enough.