Men have been buying dress up clothes. Men are even shopping for themselves instead of allowing their wives, girlfriends and…yecch…their mothers to do so. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article men are dressing up to look the part of the job the desire. They are embracing the new slim silhouette, which is highlighted in the popular show, “Mad Men.”
The show is set in the sixties in a fictional advertising agency. The characters wear those slimmer line suits and slimmer ties, made famous as well, albeit in flashier form by the Rat Pack. To emulate the trend and to look, dare I say it, like grown ups, mean have taken to the new wardrobe, which the believe is helping them land a better job and to blend in better with the younger set of executives.
Some years ago, before your employees started coming to work in Mickey Mouse Tee-Shirts and baggy khakis, there was an axiom that in tougher times, especially, you dress better so that you appear more responsible, more serious about your job. Or, as it used to be said to me, “No one wants to do serious business with a slob.” It stands to reason that you would entrust major responsibility with someone who looks worthy of handling that responsibility.
Others are dressing more serious because they realize when the grim reaper of layoffs comes whisking through their office, it is more likely that he will pass over the cubicles of the employees who are dressed more seriously. The other aspect is that this newer fashion is more classic in its design and not the kind of flashy stuff that is here today and out of style tomorrow. Which goes with the idea that someone responsible would dress in style built to last and not meant to pass out with the next dance craze.
So no irony is lost that the style that largely started with Brooks Brothers of the fifties and sixties has returned to the Brooks Brothers of the 21st Century as well as with other notable designers. Does this mean that it is the end of the slob? Where we have to put up with tank tops and chest hairs in formal restaurants? Old khakis and flip flops at the ballet and theater? Ragged tee shirts at the office? Maybe. But probably not. After all, no one ever claimed bad taste was in short supply.
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