Dressing down

By Peter Morton
Illustration: Seth

Lydia Lee, a Hamilton CA, says she likes to dress down for her clients. “For most clients, that makes it more personal,” says Lee, who shares an office with two other independent CAs. Dubbed the “new black,” business casual attire is increasingly replacing traditional business attire among professionals these days.

A survey by TheLadders.com, an online job-search service for $100,000-plus earners, found 78% of 2,245 executives polled prefer business casual style; 65% believe the trend will grow. Casually dressed employees are perceived to be creative (36%) but risk being taken less seriously (49%) and more than 70% said suits indicate seniority.

Business casual is the approach taken by KPMG Canada with its more than 5,000 employees, says Beth Wilson, CA and chief of human resources for the accounting firm headquartered in Toronto. When she started there 15 years ago, the dress code was more traditional and rigid — suits and ties for men and the equivalent for women. “Now we have a philosophy simply called dressing for the occasion,” she says, which means dressing appropriately for the environment in which you are conducting business. “You have to remember, we have a young group of employees,” she says.

Still out, at least in the business world according to TheLadders.com survey, are summer flip-flops, jeans and the like.

Larry Rosen, chairman and CEO of the Harry Rosen chain of 16 menswear stores across Canada, definitely sees a trend of upscale business casual developing. It began in the late 1990s and is increasingly crowding out their racks of suits. “Suits are still very authoritative,” he says, “so it really depends on the occasion.”

And while there are the Harry Rosens of the world to make dressing business casual for men easier, Wilson says there is definitely a gender bias in the new dressing down style. “It’s a much bigger challenge for women,” she says.