I am currently reading The End of Fashion by Teri Agins, a book recommended to me by one of my professors. I haven't gotten past page 12 yet because reading books for leisure in between perpetual textbook duty is near impossible... It's been compelling so far, though.
The book is- as you can easily deduce- about how fashion evolved. I'm not going to delve into that, though- instead, in honor of everyone's favorite day of the week, here's a history lesson on "Casual Friday":
In the early 90s, Alcoa, a Pittsburgh based aluminum company, "became the first major corporation to sanction office attire." But how did this change come about?
During a two-week fund drive, the company allowed contributors to dress informally. Employees liked dressing casually so much that the company changed the policy so that people could wear non-fussy clothes everyday.
Soon after, the rest of corporate America (ie. IBM and a slew of other corporations) followed along. Though some companies didn't completely abolish their cleaned-up dress coat, they at least allowed for one day of the week- Casual Friday- in which workers could dress however they pleased.
In a way, I guess you can blame sloppy dressing on Casual Friday. After all, it was a trend that swept the nation, helped shut down boutiques, and encouraged the masses to dress down.
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1 comment:
I wish guys still dressed up like they did back in the day, so classy.
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