Dress down day

Formal workwear is back in style, but only for some of us

TODAY, BOYS AND GIRLS, we focus on the hottest issue in professional life today. Yes, pantyhose. Designers come and go. Fashion fads are born and die. But the uniform of working females has remained unchanged since they first evolved in the primordial swamps: dark suit, white shirt, black shoes, and Hanes Absolutely Ultra Sheer.

Even during the casual dress madness of recent years, office workers of both sexes kept formal clothes secreted nearby. When a client hove into view, men would slip on jackets, while panicked women would roll around on the floor trying to pull up leg garments which were even less cooperative than a stoned Lindsay Lohan on a Friday night.

But everything changed after a statement by Michelle Obama, the World’s Most Powerful Man. (Okay, technically she’s not a man, but since she gives the orders to the planet’s top guy, she deserves the title.) Mrs Obama said LIVE on television: "I stopped wearing pantyhose a long time ago." Hosiery was abandoned by women world-wide for a year or so.

But now sales are starting to rise again. The wearing of suits and pantyhose are back in vogue.

This cycle reminded me of the “Dress Down Day” memos that were issued by human resources departments in the 1990s.

Where I worked, the policy lasted exactly two days.

Email 1:

5pm, Monday.

Dress Policy:

From tomorrow, a casual dress policy will be implemented company-wide. Enjoy leaving your dark suits and white shirts at home!

Email 2:

9.30 am, Tuesday.

Dress Policy Amendment 1:

Thanks for supporting the new policy. But please note: jeans and t-shirts should NOT be worn.

Email 3:

9.50 am, Tuesday:

Dress Policy Amendment 2:

When we said jeans and t-shirts should not be worn, we did not mean that we wished you to remove those garments. Would the humorous gentlemen in the junior division please note: the rest of us definitely do not wish to see your baggy underpants and saggy singlets!

Email 4:

9.59 am, Tuesday:

Dress Policy Amendment 3.

Urgent. We were all very amused when the junior division took the previous email as an instruction to remove their underpants and singlets. However, may we remind them that indecent exposure is a criminal offence.

Email 5:

10.19 am, Tuesday.

Dress Policy Amendment 4:

Our in-house legal counsel informs us that indecent exposure is NOT a criminal offence in private property. However, in the interests of decorum, all staff MUST wear smart-casual clothes, such as sports jackets or mid-length dresses, from tomorrow.

Email 6:

9.00 am, Wednesday:

Dress Policy Amendment 5:

We are all highly amused that the gentlemen of the junior division have come to work in mid-length dresses today. From tomorrow, only women are allowed to come to work in dresses.

Email 7:

9.25 am, Wednesday:

Dress Policy Amendment 6:

Thank you for referring us to the Equal Opportunities Commission. No sexual discrimination was intended by the previous email. Senior Partners are meeting this morning to review the policy. Men from the junior division may retain their dresses until then.

Email 8:

11 am, Wednesday:

Dress Policy Amendment 8:

The dress casual policy is cancelled. All staff are required to wear dark suits and white shirts from now on.

It’s the circle of life.
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ON A DIFFERENT TOPIC, thanks for the great postings in the comments column yesterday. Angela – yours was a complete funny column in itself. It’s a miracle how you do it so fast.

Foxlore – you come across (like TS and sej) as one of those hyper-intelligent people who know vast amounts of facts, many of which are probably entirely useless, but are amusing nonetheless.

Thanks also to the other commentators. I felt sorry for Fardel and Australian readers, hit by huge tax bills. The entertainment gossip columns this morning say that a new episode of Pirates of the Caribbean has been greenlighted, so hopefully that will send fresh dollars to your island, Fardel.
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(Illustration at the top comes from Virgin TV and shows a real company in Newcastle, UK, where dress casual day became dress naked day)

Technorati Tags: dress down day,dress casual,pantyhose

Comments

[Dancer]

I was mildly insulted when I saw the following clause in my contract of my new job:

Female employees should wear suits, preferably dresses rather than pants unless in extreme cold weather. They should have on light make-up and long hair should be tied back. Glasses should not be of the thick rimmed variety. Staff should look presentable at all times.

And this is NOT an office job but a sweaty, yelling and shouting teaching job.

Pondering whether or not I should sign, I decided to do the typical Asian thing - most rules exist on paper only. I took the gamble to my wardrobe and signed anyway. Sure enough, after careful observation of my new habitat, I found that female staff tend to ignore that clause.

The male workers were, surprisingly, much more obedient, wearing suits and ties everyday. I wonder why that is.

[Jason]

I've never found pantyhose on a woman attractive. I always thought they looked silly. The other thing that has puzzled me in HK, is why local girls, counter-intuitively wear them in the hot, sticky summer, but not in the winter when they go bare-legged. HK...a city of dichotomy.

And I'm sure we've all seen this photo make its rounds through our in boxes:

http://officelegends.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Casual-Friday.gif

[Dancer]

What's more, a lot of pantyhose wearers in Hong Kong like the neon purple / yellow polka dots / Hello Kitty varieties. Honestly, what kind of outfits can match bright red and white Hello Kitty pantyhose?

[Jason]

I've thought of starting a website called: Why HK girls shouldn't dress themselves. I saw another example today on the way to work. Hot pink top, bright purple stockings, day-glo orange shoes. I'd swear a box of crayons threw up on her.

[farah]

back at my first office guys had an uniform of black touser and white shirts while the girls could dress smart but conservatively. so one winter (the only winter in that office infact) when i wore jeans to office i got stares not because of the jeans but because of the outfit itself.

[fardel]

"The more things change, the more they stay the same"

[Angela]

Jason is very observant. I think I will have a use for that in the future -- did a crayon box threw up on you this morning?

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Imagine, I read today’s post and for a split second thought Nury had read my mind. Just yesterday I wanted to email him to ask him to write about office dress code and this morning, voila! Must be ESPN at work here…not the sports channel, Extra Sensory Perception Network!

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I never wear stockings anyway, no love loss between me and hanes.

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Over the weekend my gal friend told me that she might be starting a new job soon and was told that dress code requires “closed shoes” as opposed to open toed, open back, slip on wedges that comprises my office footwear.

I swear there is a conspiracy going on here. HR people are the minions of the shoe manufacturers. They told us we have to wear painful shoes to work, which caused unsightly and painful corns and calluses that has to be treated with products and medications the shoe manufacturers also produce.

Hello? Robert Ludlum? I need you here to investigate the shoe conspiracy. Might make a good sequel for the Bourne trilogy.

It’s like Microsoft releasing patches and those software companies selling anti-virus. Why don’t they design practical patch-less, virus-proof applications to begin with?

Why can’t shoe designers design comfortable, non-corn and non-callus causing shoes that are also fashionable? Aren’t they creative enough? not motivated enough? or because they are men who will not wear their own designs. With the amount of money women (this writer excluded because I only buy shoes once a decade and never spend more than $10 a pair but I am speaking for women in general – who died and made me the queen?) spend on shoes we deserve the best, most comfortable and fashionable footwear human mind can design and human will can invent.

We have sent people to the moon, and they are trying to convert human waste into rocket fuel but we can’t design comfortable closed shoes for women???
I am ashamed to be a part of this human race. Horse shoe might just be more comfortable. I have never heard of a horse who complained of corns and callus.

When Neil Armstrong said “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” he was just verbalizing what every woman who wears sky-scraping stiletto heels was thinking with every hips-swaying step she takes. Only she was thinking “one small step for a woman, one giant leap for womankind”

When Sting croons “every breath you take,.... every step you take” he was watching his wife struggle with a pair of wobbly kitten heels.

I am part of a new generation (the other two members are both my sisters) of liberated oriental females who refuse to go back to foot binding in the name of vanity, we all wear sandals everywhere.

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I think a man wrote the women’s office dress code. Why else would it require toes to be covered (closed shoes) but legs and thighs exposed (mini skirt) and cleavage displayed (open neck shirt). And the panty hose, let me tell you that it turns men on when they imagine what’s underneath the sheer silk and how it will feel under his palm. It's a material for his strip tease fantasies.

Have I got you all men figured out or what? Ha!!! I aint a truck driver for nuthin!

[Angela]

Nury, I have to think fast and type faster, before the boss arrives.

Necessity is the mother of Creativity. That's why they have the same last name, Ity.

Aaarggh... I can hear my father speaking through me, telling his corny jokes. Anybody knows how to contact Dr. Phil?

[Dancer]

I once spent years wearing those ugly but extremely comfortable 'health' shoes after a foot surgery. My male 16-year-old students once asked me, 'When you get well, will you wear different shoes?'

I didn't think much of it and said, 'maybe'. I was really surprised by their response. They clapped their hands with glee and skipped: 'Oh, thank god! You will one day change your shoes'.

Honestly, I didn't find them that repulsive.

@Angela
I'm with you on sandals. However, now that I'm so used to unrestricted toes, I could not longer wear closed shoes.

[Foxlore]

@Uncle N - thanks for your compliments, though I would have to say I am both far less hyper and far less intelligent, than you give me credit for. Though as a youth, my mother always said that the fact about me is that I was amazingly useless (*she loves me nonetheless) ;-)

And since the discussion has moved over to shoes for the moment, I have been contemplating picking up a pair of these running shoes on my next trip to the states. I have had a standing policy to never pay more than US$30 for shoes, but these might be worth it just to see the reactions around the office and strolling around HK. ;-D

[Christy]

Wasn't there a rule many many years ago that says HK female teachers have to wear dresses/skirts and pants are not allowed?

And why is it that HK school uniforms require girls to wear ties? I'm used to it but when I mention this to friends from other countries, they can't believe it...

[fardel]

There is a comfortable, closed shoe which was designed long time ago , before the dawn of designers,
They were designed and constructed by "red skinned indians" otherwise called native american, out of Buffalo skin ( the native american's cow)
They are dressy looking , comfortable,
they can be a match with office wear , with jeans, short pants , bathing suits,.
They are the best choice for boating;
They stay comfortable even when wet.
They can be used for hiking as well
they do not hurts the feet,
They are unisex.
I am surprised that you , the women on ten stories high shoes did not choose/impose this style
They are called mocassin

[Angela]

I think I misquoted myself...as usual. One day I might just sue myself for libel.

should have been:

"one small step for a woman, one giant leap for women's-shoes-manufacturers-kind"

[fardel]

Suit yourself (°_°)

[Angela]

mocassin is cherokee word for comfortably-ugly

[TS]

A few shoe related thoughts:

A man will walk in a new pair of shoes to fit his feet.
A woman will walk in her feet to fit a new pair of shoes.

The Universe Hates Me,
Rule #1
If you are in a hurry, your shoe lace will tie themselves into an untieable knot.

The foot binding tradition was probably invented by a man frustrated with all the shoes his wife kept buying.

[Christy]

I remember reading in a Economics book that foot-binding was probably to reduce transaction costs -- the costs incurred if the bride (read "slave" here) runs away.

[Mike]

I couldn't resist quoting Steve Martin

CRUEL SHOES

Anna knew She had to have a new pair of shoes today, and Carlo had helped her try on every pair in the store. Carlo spoke wearily, "Well, that's it. That’s every pair of shoes in the place."
"Oh, you must have one more pair. . . .”
"No, not one more . . . . Well, we have the cruel shoes, but no one would want to try . . .
“Yes, let me see the cruel shoes!"
"No, you don't understand, you see, the cruel shoes are . . .'
"Get them!"
Carlo disappeared into the back room for a moment, and then reappeared carrying an ordi­nary shoebox. He took off the lid and re­moved a hideous pair of black and white pumps. But this was not an ordinary pair of black and white pumps; both were left feet, one had a right angle turn with sepa­rate compartments that pointed the toes in impossible directions. The other shoe was six inches long and was curved inward like a rocking chair with a vise and razor blades to hold the foot in place.
Carlo spoke hesitantly, ". . . Now you see . . . they' re not fit for humans . . ." "Put them on me."
"But... "Put them on me!"
Carlo knew all arguments were useless. He knelt down before her and forced the feet into the shoes.
The screams were incredible.
Anna crawled over to the mirror and held her bloody feet up where she could see.
"I like them."
She paid Carlo and crawled out of the store into the street.
Later that day, Carlo was overheard saying to a new customer, "Well, that's it. That’s every pair of shoes in the place. Unless, of course, you'd like to try the cruel shoes."

[Chamin]

In Japan, workers are asked to wear smart casual (short-sleeves, no necktie), so that they can be comfortable, air-conditioning can be reduced and energy preserved. Some banks ask female workers to dress in Yukata (traditional summer dress), which is much more casual and comfortable.

But 80% of the guys wear full suits and suffer. The ex-prime minister went on TV with casual clothing to make them change, that did not work either. Most of the guys seem to be scared to look different, it seems.

For me, a necktie is a torture that I am willing to go through only during interviews and graduations.

[Chamin]

Hm, I forgot to mention that the above dress down campaign is for summer, and is called "Cool Biz".

There s another one called "Warm Biz" for winter, where you can add more layers to allow reducing heating.

[Karuna]

Chamin, In Japan is it common to see women in traditional dress ?

[Chamin]

Hi Karuna,

Japanese ladies wear three types of traditional dresses; Kimono, Hakama and Yukata. The first two (expensive, take more time than a saree to wear) have now become formal dresses and are worn only for special occasions like weddings, coming-of-age ceremonies, etc. Some of them like to wear kimonos and visit ancient temples, so it is more common to see girls in kimonos in historical sites.

Yukata (meaning "bathrobe") is worn at homes even now in many places. Many hotels, especially youth hostels, provide them. More colorful Yukatas are worn during summer festivals (every town has one) and fireworks shows. Some banks ask workers to wear them in summer, as it is really comfortable.

[Karuna]

It seems in Asia, only Chinese women do not wear their traditional dress !

[Angela]

In SG some women still wear cheong sam, especially for visiting during CNY. And sometimes also for wedding and other formal occasions.

[fardel]

Here , casually dressed is mostly casually un-dressed .
Being a French tropical island ,french fashion and warm weather are a good combination for ladies to show their " volumes " and shapes;
Every day is a fashion show.
Sorry, I cannot send pictures.
It is for "my eyes only"

[Jordan 15 sneakers]

Thanks for posting, I really enjoyed your most recent post. I think you should post more often, you obviously have natural ability for blogging!