Casual look that doesn't suit everybody

The man was a New York Tycoon. The sort of man I might grow up to be if only I had a head for business. Some weeks ago the Tycoon changed. Instead of a grey flannel suit he now wears a rather improbable pair of designer jeans and a stiffly pressed polo shirt. The man is still there, but the Tycoon is dead - a victim of New York's recent obsession with "business casual" dress.

It all happened so quickly. For as long as anyone can remember, New York men wore suits and ties to work; women the equivalent. The only exception was "casual Fridays": the tacit understanding that on Fridays during the summer one could go "casual", so as to make a faster escape to the beaches of the Hamptons.

Somewhere - maybe in the smoke-filled rooms of the KKnickerbocker Club - there was a collective decision to raise the stakes. Casual Friday now became Casual Summer. And so, like thousands, if not millions of New Yorkers I arrived at work one day to find a memo on my desk to the effect that suits and ties would be optional from Memorial Day (May 29) to Labour Day (September 4). Like all American traditions this one was "effective immediately".

The next morning, as I thought about what to wear, I could not believe that my employer, a large law firm, would truly embrace this casual policy. And even if it did, could I, a senior associate angling to become a partner, afford to project a less professional image?

I put on a suit.

The first hint that I had underestimated the power of Casual Summer was the Tycoon. There he was with his cigar, a shadow of his former self. His ample belly, which had once been so tastefully swathed in worsted wool, was now hanging over an alligator skin belt.

Arriving at my office I ran into one of the senior partners, dressed in a dark green polo shirt and khaki trousers. "What's with the suit?" he cried. "Didn't you get the memo?"

How to save face? Not to have read or understood the Casual Summer memo would have been a terrible sin for a prospective partner. "I... I just prefer wearing a suit."

"In this weather? You must be shviting in all that!"

Yes, now that he mentioned it, I was beginning to sweat a little. At this point another partner approached, also dressed in dark green polo shirt and khaki trousers. "Hey, get this," said the first partner to the second. "He prefers wearing a suit!"

Casual Summer was a hit from the start. So much so, that pressure began to build in favour of dispensing with suits and ties altogether. After all, the argument went, if dot.com millionaires can wear trainers, why can't we? The fact that millionaires can do all sorts of things that we can't never seems to factor into the equation. The new battle cry was: Year-Round Casual.

The boys at the Knickerbocker Club hadn't figured on this development. One of the eternal truths of American culture is that the East Coast is uptight, the West Coast is laid-back. It turns out that casual dress had not erased that distinction. As the Year-Round movement gained steam New York firms were still struggling to define the rules of Casual Summer. Personnel offices throughout Manhattan issued complex guidelines describing a look that was not merely "casual", but "business casual".

My firm now had a multi-page memo explaining the distinctions between business casual (weekday version) and business casual (late-night version) and business casual (weekend version). Shirts must have collars. It would be nice if trousers were pressed. "Sports-related attire" was not acceptable. Women must refrain from "bare midriffs" and "micro-mini" skirts.

Before the summer was out Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, a 200-year-old law firm, announced that it was going to year-round casual dress. That was it. The floodgates were open. But New York-style neurosis asserted itself: would the policy be misinterpreted? So Cadwalader invited Polo Ralph Lauren, along with Esquire magazine, to hold a fashion seminar for its attorneys and staff.

And now Labour Day has passed, and my firm has adopted Year-Round Casual. The personnel office has just issued a memo explaining the fine distinctions between business casual (summer version) and business casual (autumn to spring version). Yet people still ask me why I find it simpler to continue as I always have, wearing a suit and tie to work.

I passed the Tycoon again on my way to the office. As he stood there, smoking in his jeans and earth-tone shirt he seemed to be trembling. Perhaps it was just the touch of autumn in the air.