What happened to the age of being well-dressed for work?

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Is it casual Friday at your workplace? Is it casual Friday every day?

We may love watching shows like Mad Men, but we apparently don’t like to actually dress that way and our slacking dress code is hurting the business of being well-dressed.

A report in the National Post suggests haberdashery has taken a hit with many dry cleaners, tailors and, yes, hatters disappearing. The tailored, crisply-starched white shirt and tie were once workplace staples; they have been replaced by jeans and sneakers in many shops.

Of course, there are exceptions, including our dapper Richard Dettman in the News1130 Business Centre. He has rocked the bow-tie, ever since he learned how to tie one for his wedding.

“I vowed I wasn’t going to wear a clip-on because I wasn’t a waiter or a five-year-old-boy,” he explains. “That kind of stuck with me over the years. I don’t wear them all the time but I do occasionally, and I see they’re coming back.”

“I always enjoy dressing better. It’s a highly subjective thing. It’s what I feel better in and more comfortable in,” he adds.

Another newsroom co-worker shows most of the newsroom up on a daily basis, coming to work each morning tailored to a tee.

“If you look like you are professional and doing your job well, that will come across in the work that you do,” maintains News1130 reporter Dan Burritt while standing in front of his well-stocked closet.

“Why don’t we peer in right now and take the listeners into the bowels of my personal life! I am wearing a cravat for this interview, in the interest of full disclosure,” he laughs.

“Lets see, ties… We’ve got the green paisley, the red paisley, the orange and the slate grey. It’s not all Mad Men-esque; you can have a bit of fun or get a few things handed down from dear old dad,” he describes.

Dan is probably one of the few 30-year-old men around who regularly uses the term “slacks” and he points out you can really have fun with socks.

“What you can do is mix it up with some fun socks. Whether it’s striped [or] speckled, you can do a little bit of misprint with psychedelic colours,” he explains.

“It helps me do my job better; it’s an attitude thing. I feel better when I’m dressed to a slightly higher degree than the sweat pants and flannel which adorns most of our industry,” he tells us.

Borrowing from an old industry saying, most of us do have a wardrobe made for radio. That’s the trouble, according to the National Post.

They spoke with one dry cleaner, going out of business after almost 60 years, lamenting the ‘Wal-Martification’ of our clothes: “Buy one year and throw away the next.”

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