INTHEBLACK February 2023 - Magazine - Page 34
F E AT U R E
When Sin Yee Liew ASA started her
first full-time job as a business analyst at
Malaysia-based Loob Holding in 2021, the
pandemic was at a peak. The question of what
she might wear on her first day seemed less
important than which room of her home she
would work from.
In fact, the 25-year-old had spent the
first half of her career to that point working
remotely, so the dress code was not an issue.
“I could wear my pyjamas to work if I wanted
to,” Liew says.
Fast-forward more than a year, and many
workers like Liew have returned to an office
in a full-time or hybrid capacity. While
COVID-19 altered how we work and where
we work from, it also accelerated a change
that was emerging before the pandemic –
what is acceptable to wear while at work.
A CASUAL APPROACH
The gradual introduction of casual business
attire dates back to the 1960s. The Hawaiian
garment industry developed the “Aloha
Friday” campaign to encourage local
businesses to let their employees wear
Hawaiian shirts to the office once a week.
By the time of the dot-com boom in the
early 1990s, the idea had spread across the
US and had been rebadged as “Casual Friday”.
34 INTHEBLACK February 2023
In 1992, Levi Strauss & Co created the
Guide to Casual Business Wear, which was
mailed to about 25,000 human resources
managers. Sneakers, bare legs and “loud”
T-shirts were deemed inappropriate, but the
pamphlet did show professionals smartly
dressed in denim jeans and collared shirts.
The guide proved highly influential. In
a survey conducted by Evans Research in
1995, nine out of 10 companies allowed
their staff to dress casually in the workplace,
either on an occasional or full-time basis.
This contrasts with about two-thirds of
companies in 1992.
However, in the years before the pandemic,
many companies had already shelved Casual
Friday in favour of the more progressive
“Dress for Your Day” approach.
At PwC Malaysia, for instance, Dress for
Your Day was instituted in 2018. As its name
suggests, employees are welcome to wear the
clothing that best suits their activities for
the day. While a suit may be appropriate for
client meetings, for instance, a T-shirt and
jeans are considered normal workwear for
most office-based tasks.
Vinesh Naidu, human capital leader at
PwC Malaysia, says the introduction of Dress
for Your Day acknowledged the composition
of its workforce.