A decade ago, Silicon Valley moguls pioneered a look known as “business casual.” Today, it’s a fashion unto itself, sported by systems engineers in khakis and polo shirts, tech mavens in oversized shirts and flats, and the irrepressible Steve Jobs, in his signature black turtleneck and jeans.
The aesthetic has taken off, it seems, loosening ties everywhere. But office attire, even when casual, never seems to be as casual outside the office.
In Los Angeles, casual has transformed into “casual chic,” said Laurie Pike, style director for Los Angeles Magazine.
“Fashion here is all about the lifestyle,” she said. “It’s expressive and people aren’t afraid to show a little skin.”
L.A. fashion, she said, is born of warm weather and a culture of beauty and fitness. As a rule, Angelenos steer clear of traditional attire, dressing in brighter colors and metallics, with women in head-turning prints and pumps and men in vintage Ts and designer jeans.
Pike emphasized that workplace fashion, even in the big city, is still a function of age and industry.
“You’ll still see the black two-piece suit at a law firm or PR agency,” she said, “but in a lot of workplaces, jeans and flip-flops are becoming the norm.”
That doesn’t mean Angelenos don’t spend on work wear. “People here are trying to project an image of being ‘with it’ but not trying too hard,” Pike said. “People don’t want to look like too much effort went into what they’re wearing.”
The casual chic look, she said, is seemingly effortless, but pulled together. And while people often dress for ease and comfort, they still want to look good.
“Some of the revealing cuts women wear to work would raise eyebrows in other cities, but here it’s just a part of the culture.”
Workplace fashion in San Francisco is a touch less glamorous, but also more spirited, according to Simon Ungless, director of graduate fashion at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
“S.F. fashion is artistic and eclectic,” he said. “It comes out of a free-thinking kind of crowd.”
Ungless, who produces student runway shows in San Francisco and New York, said office attire in the Bay Area is more innovative and less trend-driven than what he sees on the East Coast.
“On the streets of Manhattan, you see the magazine trends copied in hair, make-up and attire, so it all gets a little tired,” Ungless said. “They are well turned out, but a bit robotic.”
San Francisco is, by comparison, an incubator of fashion trends. “There’s a slightly more creative way of dressing here,” he said. “The young people here are full of ideas, they’re always creating something new.”
In recent months, he said, San Franciscans have started to abandon casual wear for smarter, more formal styles.
“It seems right for men to wear ties again and to look slick,” he said, adding that his designer jeans have been gathering dust in the closet, as men’s fashion has turned toward more tailored looks.
Despite their pull in the big city, these trends have yet to make their way into Silicon Valley’s high-tech offices, where business casual usually means jeans or shorts and a simple T-shirt — and no designer labels.
“I see these tech guys come in with their huge baggy shorts and their massive shirts, and think, well, that’s what’s going to be acceptable in the workplace, that’s going to be the uniform,” Ungless said.
“They come in and they’re really young, they’re all making far too much money, and if you’re VP of whatever it is, at 23, and you’re coming in to work on a skateboard, then there’s no other standard.”
Famously, employees at places like Sun and Google dress as they please, putting a premium on functionality, comfort and college-dorm plainness. Some speculate this super-casual chic is due to the high tech industry’s garage roots: Long hours shut up in a room, sitting in front of a computer, with little contact with the general public.
Sergey Brin, billionaire co-founder of Google Inc., created a stir on Capitol Hill last year when he arrived to meet with senators while wearing jeans, sneakers and a black T-shirt. A D.C. blogger commented that he looked more like the maintenance man of a Boeing 767 than the owner of one.
The outfit was wrong for the occasion, no doubt. But if the tech industry has taught us anything, it’s that style and success don’t necessarily go hand in hand.
