OFFICE WEAR The casual look at companies undergoes a needed makeover

With economic uncertainty, business wear has gotten more serious.
LONG ISLAND NEWSDAY
NEW YORK -- Several years ago during the dot-com heyday, John Kennedy, a Manhattan lawyer, sometimes wore a dark-blue suit to meet potential Internet clients. But he realized that his conservative clothes were a strike against him before he even shook hands.
Recently, Kennedy has pitched business in his usual casual open-shirt attire. But how the tables have turned. Now Silicon Alley executives are the ones often decked out in suits.
If dot-com dressing has gone from gray flannel shirts to gray flannel suits, it's no wonder that Fortune 500 executives are dusting off their silk ties and pinstripes.
"I would say there is a trend now toward a little more business dress," said Kennedy, 53, a partner in the technology transactions group of Morrison & amp; Foerster, a California-based firm.
While there isn't a stampede toward formal office attire, clothiers and business executives say the workplace uniform is heading that way. In many offices, men are wearing jackets, ties and dress pants more frequently than a year ago.
"Business casual" took several years to catch on -- it started with casual Fridays, evolved to casual summers, then became casual everyday. Likewise, a return to the button-down look will also take time, observers say.
Lehman Bros. is one of the few major firms that has officially reverted to a formal business dress policy, at least for offices that clients visit. Men were told last month to don suits and ties and women to wear suits, dresses or "equivalent attire." The shift is due to a rethinking of work environments and more contacts with clients as the firm has grown, a memo explains.
According to a recent survey of more than 200 large U.S. companies commissioned by the Men's Apparel Alliance, a nonprofit group of retailers and manufacturers, 56 percent have a business attire policy, requiring suits and ties for men and suits or dresses for women. More noteworthy, 19 percent reinstituted the regimen in the past year.
Why it's changing
Observers cite many factors driving the trend. Internet companies helped lead the dress-down movement and other industries followed suit to attract workers. But with the collapse of many dot-coms, the relaxed look is becoming a style to avoid.
Moreover, as the economy stumbles, more people are hunting for jobs or trying to keep the ones they have, and appearance counts. President Bush wears a coat and tie in the Oval Office and expects his staff to dress "professionally," which some say sets a tone for the nation. Also, people took advantage of relaxed dressing, coming to work in jeans, T-shirts and sandals, so there's been a backlash. And, finally, fashion is fickle.
Some stores are starting to see suit sales pick up. In the last decade, sales of men's tailored clothing fell 13 percent as CEOs came to work dressed for the golf course. The business hit bottom last year, "so any movement upward is big news," said Marshal Cohen, president of NPDFashionworld, a unit of market researcher The NPD Group of Port Washington, N.Y.
In 2001, the number of pieces of tailored clothing sold grew 12 percent, according to NPDFashionworld. But dollars spent slumped. So while men are buying more, they are spending less, NPD says.
The average price of tailored clothing has fallen 12 percent in the last year, Cohen said. Sales are prevalent. Brooks Brothers suits are going for $199. And more men are shopping at warehouses and discounters.
Anecdotally, some merchants say they find customers gravitating to pricier apparel.
Increased productivity
In the recent dress code survey, executives said they believed snappier dressing would lead to a 3.6 percent productivity gain. And 17 percent of respondents said productivity could climb as much as 40 percent if a business dress code were mandatory, according to the Men's Apparel Alliance.
But Scott Lanham, a managing director of Wachovia Securities in Manhattan, isn't convinced. "I don't think it (casual dress) promotes a more lackadaisical work environment," said Lanham. Rather, the casual style provides "more flexibility," said Lanham, 43. He hasn't bought a suit in two years and has no plans to buy one any time soon. "I have eight in my closet" and rarely wear them, he said.
But for every casual guy, there's a formal one. Inigo Domenech, 29, a vice president at Citibank, bought a gray wool suit at Moe Ginsburg a few weeks ago to hang with 10 other suits in his closet. He buys one every three months.
"I like wearing suits. I'm a banker. I've got to be serious. It goes with the job," he said.
Kennedy, the technology lawyer, reviews his day's activities before getting dressed in his Westport, Conn., home.
"The basic default rule is business casual and you'll find yourself appropriately dressed nine out of 10 times," he said. "Two or three years ago, it was pretty predictable who would wear what and why," he said. "It's much less predictable now."