How long before the suit and tie are dead and gone?

[Kermit power]

I work in the more conservative end of the IT industry. When I joined the company ten years ago, everyone wore a suit and tie in any office likely to see a customer. When my father worked for the same company, they actually had the colour of their suits, shirts and ties in the contract of employment.

I now can't remember the last time I wore a tie. I went to a customer meeting last week with another pretty traditional company, and just one person out of eight in the room was wearing one.

Increasingly, as well, suits are a thing of the past, and I think working from home and video-conferencing is accelerating this. After all, if you've interacted with a client when you're both sat at home in T-shirts, why would you bother putting on a shirt, tie and suit to meet them in one of your offices?

Of course some people actually like wearing a suit, and that's great for them, but the vast majority of people I know really dislike them, and only wear them because that's what custom dictates.

How long do we think it is before they'll be considered a completely anachronistic foible in the workplace in the way that a bowler hat would be today?

[Kermit power]

Simpo Two said:

If you'd get married in jeans and a T-shirt, carry on. But somehow you have to distinguish between important things and non-important things. If you feel your work only warrants scruffy, then unless you're an arty-farty or a mechanic, carry on. And you you won't even have to change when you get home, you can just slob about in your work jeans and work T-shirt.

If you only classify clothing into "scruffy" or "a suit", that just suggests a staggering lack of imagination, surely?

[Kermit power]

iphonedyou said:

This old chestnut again.

The oddly recurring theme is a sort of 'trying too hard' from people who don't wear suits and ties. A bizarre need to prove that I'm absolutely OK with this and in fact I prefer it - ha, suit wearers!

Constant references to quality of work irrespective of attire, time warps, odd appeals to popularity (everyone I know hates wearing them! - really?) and similar. Who cares; you enjoy your casual look and I'll still be happy enough wearing my suit.

Makes no odds.

I was more thinking of it from the perspective of generational shift...

I don't remember every seeing my grandfather not in a suit and tie other than when he was in swimming trunks. Even when coming out to visit us when we lived in the South of France, he'd travel to the beach in a suit and tie in the middle of summer!

My father, now in his late 70s, will always wear a jacket and tie if he has anyone other than immediate family visiting the house.

I still occasionally wear a suit at work, but can't remember the last time I wore a tie. Outside work, I'm infinitely more likely to wear black tie than I am a suit, and I'll only wear black tie maybe once a year at most.

For my sons, I suspect that they will probably have to buy a suit for initial interviews when they leave Uni, but after that, I can only imagine them buying another one at any stage in their careers if they get too portly for that first one, as what would be the point?

As for the view on nobody liking them, just look around any typical modern office. Even where people do still wear them, nobody ever wears the jacket unless they have to, do they? Those go on at the last moment when a customer comes in for a meeting, probably come off again once they're in the meeting room, and only go back on again for the time it takes to walk the customer out. If anyone actually liked wearing a suit, surely they'd wear it in the office, rather than hanging it off the back of their chair?

ajcj said:

This seems like the most sensible approach to me. I am in the office now, wearing jeans (smart black) and a good shirt (cufflinks). For a customer meeting, or an interview, I will put on a suit and tie for two reasons: it is a sign of respect to those you are meeting;

To me, it's actually a sign of laziness, not of respect. You might get lucky and find that a suit and tie is the right dress code for meeting that particular customer, but if you turn up to a customer in a suit and tie when they're all wearing jeans and T-shirts, surely that just shows you couldn't be bothered to find out what was appropriate. How does that show them any respect?

ajcj said:

I feel sharper, smarter, and more professional when I wear it.

Why close yourself off from the pleasure of putting on a really well-made suit with a crisp shirt and good shoes, and knotting a silk tie? If you have taken care, and bought quality items, you will look taller, slimmer, and more assured, and feel it too.

If you don't feel that way, fair enough, but you are missing out on one of life's pleasures, and I'll bet you have never worn a really good suit.

I've currently got two suits, both bespoke, one from King & Allen and one from Dress2kill. They might not be the most expensive bespoke suits in the world, but they're both still pretty decent suits.

They fit perfectly, and yes, they probably do manage to make me look taller and slimmer. I still can't stand wearing them! Admittedly, in my case, I'm actually allergic to wool, so as soon as I get even slightly too warm in them, it feels like I've had sandpaper glued to my skin, but even when it's suitably cool, I just don't like wearing suits, and spending a load of money on them has done nothing to change my view.

As for wearing a tie, I really hate the constricted feeling around my neck, so have to go with shirts that are so over-sized on the collar that I end up looking like I've got some sort of wasting disease which has made me lose 5 stone without having the time to go out and buy a new shirt. That's hardly the professional look I think you've got in mind!!!

[Kermit power]

CrutyRammers said:

Suits will remain because you are always going to need some sort of jacket.

What makes you think that?

Most of the time from May to September, it's warm enough to not want a jacket, and if it's raining, I want a waterproof jacket.

From November to February, chances are I'll want something warmer than a suit jacket, and again, I'll probably want it to be waterproof just in case.

If it's for carrying stuff, I'll either have a laptop bag with me, or just a mobile phone, keys and maybe a wallet. Certainly nothing that actually requires significant jacket pockets, and if it did, I'd have dozens of people on here telling me immediately that I should never put anything in my suit jacket pockets anyway as it ruins the cut of the suit!

[Kermit power]

sinbaddio said:

Interestingly just read this about the tie not being a necessity in the House of Commons;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40446102

What a coincidence! I too just read that article after someone posted it up on here a couple of hours ago!