Business casual
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Business casual, also known as smart casual, is a popular dress code that emerged in white-collar workplaces in Western countries in the 1970s in response to the energy crisis of that decade.[citation needed] Government mandates to raise thermostat settings in office buildings[citation needed] led managers to authorize employees to dispense with ties and jackets that had been part of expected business attire.[citation needed] Many information technology businesses in Silicon Valley were early adopters of this style of dress.[citation needed] It has partially supplanted business formal wear (suits and neckties, sometimes called international standard business attire), which was previously the standard apparel for managers and professionals. Trousers complete the package; jeans are rarely acceptable in workplaces as part of business casual attire, but some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs such as Steve Jobs are known to wear jeans as part of the business casual look.[citation needed] In academic and research settings, however, jeans may be worn with a dress shirt. The second from the top button may also be opened in addition to the very top button.
[edit] Definitions
In contrast with the dress code of many blue-collar and service workers, business-casual dress is not a uniform. In contrast to business formal, there is no generally accepted definition of business casual wear; its interpretation differs widely among organizations and is often a cause of confusion.
The job search engine Monster.com offers this definition: "In general, business casual means dressing professionally, looking relaxed yet neat and pulled together."
Another view is that business casual dress is a middle ground between business formal wear and street wear. Examples of apparel combinations that are considered appropriate for wearing to work by some organizations that consider themselves to be using a business-casual dress code are:
- for women: capris/long shorts are acceptable as casual dress and regular dress if they are "tailored" and of a dress pant material (usually not denim or heavy cotton) or a tennis shirt and trousers
- for men, a combination of collared shirt (perhaps a tennis shirt instead of a dress shirt) and cotton trousers (such as khakis) with a belt, shoes (such as loafers) without socks are generally acceptable.
Neckties or cufflinks are generally not part of business casual dress. The acceptability of shorts and jeans is variable, but will accept men who wear jeans with a sportcoat. Bermuda shorts or khaki shorts are usually accepted with a collared shirt and belt. Software, Internet and some high tech companies accept blue jeans and a collared shirt as business casual. A more relaxed style of business casual is business casual-casual.
