Joined
·
13,646 Posts
This kinda fits in here. I have a weekly Zoom meeting with about thirty financial professionals across the industry. These are pretty senior people (age range from twenties to sixties), some are names you'd know. I'm not a name you'd know nor am I important at all, I just happened to be on this call.
When Covid started, the men's attire ranged from collared shirts with either a half-zip sweater or the ubiquitous fleece vest to a smattering of shirts and ties and even shirts and ties with a suit or sport coats. There might have been a few wearing a T-shirt or hoodie back then, but my memory isn't clear on that.
Yesterday, on that call, there was not one guy wearing a tie and only about half the men had on collared shirts, the rest were in T-shirts, sweatshirts or hoodies. Even the leader of the call - a well-known name in the business - who used to wear a shirt, tie and sport coat back when the call started was in a T-shirt yesterday (he had given up the tie a few months ago but, until yesterday, was still wearing a collared shirt usually with a nice sweater).
My guess, he's being advised by a marketing team (or style "consultant") as to what to wear, but either way, it says something. I don't see the business world - at least finance - returning to where it was pre Covid, which was moving away from suits and ties pretty fast even then.
Will the suit and tie be completely gone from Wall St. - no, but Covid will have accelerated the trend away from it. When the senior guys in the business, young ones to the older ones, wear suits and ties much less often than they did before, it doesn't bode well for the construct. (I only talk about guys because of the clothes, there are women on this call as well.)
We'll see as the economy opens back up, but from my Zoom call and a few other things I've noticed, I bet Covid accelerated the trend away from suits and ties by five or ten years.
When Covid started, the men's attire ranged from collared shirts with either a half-zip sweater or the ubiquitous fleece vest to a smattering of shirts and ties and even shirts and ties with a suit or sport coats. There might have been a few wearing a T-shirt or hoodie back then, but my memory isn't clear on that.
Yesterday, on that call, there was not one guy wearing a tie and only about half the men had on collared shirts, the rest were in T-shirts, sweatshirts or hoodies. Even the leader of the call - a well-known name in the business - who used to wear a shirt, tie and sport coat back when the call started was in a T-shirt yesterday (he had given up the tie a few months ago but, until yesterday, was still wearing a collared shirt usually with a nice sweater).
My guess, he's being advised by a marketing team (or style "consultant") as to what to wear, but either way, it says something. I don't see the business world - at least finance - returning to where it was pre Covid, which was moving away from suits and ties pretty fast even then.
Will the suit and tie be completely gone from Wall St. - no, but Covid will have accelerated the trend away from it. When the senior guys in the business, young ones to the older ones, wear suits and ties much less often than they did before, it doesn't bode well for the construct. (I only talk about guys because of the clothes, there are women on this call as well.)
We'll see as the economy opens back up, but from my Zoom call and a few other things I've noticed, I bet Covid accelerated the trend away from suits and ties by five or ten years.