Khaki Trousers & Casual Friday
The Origins
Casual Friday was an American and Canadian phenomenon that took off in the early 1980s, and later spread to other parts of the world, wherein some offices celebrated a semi-reprieve from the constrictions of a formal dress code. While during the rest of the week, formal wear was the norm, ‘Casual Friday’ meant workers were allowed to adopt a more casual style of dress. Some companies allowed jeans, t-shirts and sneakers whereas others took a stricter outlook.
According to historians, Casual Friday had its origins in the 1950s, when bosses thought it would help raise worker morale and in turn boost productivity. It later gained momentum with the widespread manufacture of cheap clothing outside the US during the mid-1970s.
In 1986, Levi Strauss & Co. realized a gap in the market and launched Dockers®, an entirely new category of casual clothing. Dockers® coined the phrase ‘smart/casual’ and with its Khaki men’s trousers, introduced a range of clothing which answered the call for a true alternative to the way men dressed.
In 1992, Dockers® as part of their marketing campaign mailed a “Guide to Casual Business Wear” to 30,000 human resources managers across the US. Almost 12 months later, it was understood that 80 percent of companies had offered some form of business casual dress policy to their workers.
Return of Formal Friday’s
A decade later, and instead of giving men some sort of freedom from the uniformity of the casual office outfit, Casual Friday presented a whole new dilemma.
What was appropriate? A blazer, polo shirt, chinos and loafers? This casual attire would have passed muster in most offices but gradually standards broke down, encouraged by millionaire IT geeks who made the idea of wearing beach attire at work cool. However, many workers, wrestling with the initiative, squirmed at their desks while their equally confused colleagues nervously compared frayed jeans, scuffed sneakers and faded rugby tops.
The death of Casual Friday brought with it a comforting sense of normality and made decision making a simple task once again. What could be easier than selecting one of the two or three suits in the wardrobe, the familiar whit or blue shirt and an inoffensive tie?
The return to “formal Friday” followed the burst of the Dot-Com bubble. In essence it was a backlash by many companies against what began as a clever exercise in guerrilla marketing by Dockers®. Certainly, it put the Dockers® brand on the forefront of male consumer’s minds, with on average eight out of 10 Americans owning a pair of Dockers® trousers.
Suit makers quickly reclaimed the high ground as companies decided they needed employees to reflect a more formal and businesslike image and regain the respect of clients. Savile Row in London, for example had never been so popular, as tailors such as Hardy Amies, Norton & Sons, Kilgour and Anderson & Shepherd, picked up on the ‘Casual Friday’ backlash across Europe. At the same time, the formal tweed blazer, often associated with the upper-middle classes of society made a welcome return, but was contemporized and worn with Khaki pants rather than formal dress trousers. The tie, often the bane of existence for many man turned casual, worn with jeans, Khaki trousers or even sportswear. The Khaki trend, therefore, had almost gone full circle.
Khakis comeback
In 2008, Khaki trousers quickly made a comeback after a decade out in the fashion-style wilderness. Khaki began to establish itself in the collections of haute couture designers as well as on the High Street. Realising the consumer demand, Dockers® launched its lucrative limited edition portfolio in 2009. The following year, many denim brands realising the popular Khaki trend also began to include men’s Khaki trousers in their collections.