Shorts as office-wear is no longer as unthinkable as it once was
As summer heats up, vitriolic debates in the US are peaking. I’m talking about the rift between men who wear shorts to office and those who consider these a workwear abomination. On the West Coast, especially in the tech sector, wearing shorts to work is perhaps unremarkable.
But not in northeast US. “It’s a bizarre taboo for me," says Derek Guy, a menswear writer. “It’s normal to wear shorts, and whether you can wear them to the office depends on the office." It may be a complete non-issue for, say, graphic designers.
But banks and law firms are another matter. Yet, buttoned-up East Coasters are wondering if they can ditch the long trousers. They often point to global warming—last month was the hottest May on record.
And women have long had the option of wearing floaty dresses to work. Why can’t men show a little leg, too? But then, whether Bermuda or cargo or athletic, pleated or denim or chino, shorts aren’t just shorts, it would seem. Offices are rife with power dynamics and pecking orders, an ecosystem worthy of David Attenborough narration.
Which forms of dress are acceptable “comes down to norms, and belief systems about professionalism and how that intersects with gender, race,and body type and with other structures of power," says Ben Barry, dean at the school of Fashion at Parsons, The New School. There’s class too. Shorts may be more closely associated with those doing low-paid physical labour.
Of course, the world of tech and startups invented its own rules. There, the power move is to dress like you don’t care. But that too sends a signal.
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