Jeff Stone
interviewed by Mike Agger on August 12, 1996
Read Harry Goldstein's column about how he "erodes the code" of casual day in his office.
"Some say it's just a trend and that in five years everybody will be back in suits. I don't believe it."
Jeff Stone helped launch a literary revolution in America when he co-founded the Vintage Contemporary Series of paperback books; they positioned very good writers in an unprecedented manner. After filling an executive position with Bantam Doubleday Dell, he launched an independent book production company called Chic Simple.
Chic Simple provides guides for living "well but sensibly" that cover the essential details of modern living. Their most recent book will be about work clothing.
Tripod: What is Chic Simple saying about work clothes?
Jeff Stone: Our newest book discusses casual dressing in the work place. It presents information in a multitude of ways. I was just looking through it -- and it has icons, FAQs, crisp imagery, dense back matter. I was very pleased with how much was going on that the reader might not even be aware of.
I think it's a huge area of confusion. Until recently, men and women in their thirties through fifties working for corporations had the luxury of wearing their armor every day, their suits. Then, management decides they are going to make everybody feel more at ease in the office, so now you can dress down. This new dress code just made everybody more uptight and disorientated. People still wanted to appear different, creative or powerful, but they are confused by the symbols of the new language that casual clothing creates.
Levi Strauss has done four years of surveys with over 10,000 human resource managers to learn what is appropriate, what isn't appropriate, what makes people nervous, what drives people crazy. It's fascinating stuff -- and the flip side is that you have young people who recently started working, joining corporations, and they're just as confused. They wonder things like: "Can I wear nice jeans, can I not wear nice jeans?" "How can I look like an up-and-comer if I look like everybody else?"
Tripod: Is this book helping to replace the suit with a new kind of protocol?
JS: I know it is. Society doesn't like chaos, it likes order. The interesting aspect of this change in work clothes is that comfort can now become one of its central elements. In our book, we talk about how work clothes should provide comfort both mentally and physically. Some say it's just a trend and that in five years everybody will be back in suits. I don't believe it. The way we work now is one of the reasons why casual clothing will stay. Everybody works from the moment they get up and check their e-mail to when they go to bed at night. It used to be the man in the grey flannel suit was also the man that worked 9 to 5. This seems ridiculous now. Do you know anyone who goes home at 5:30?
Tripod: No, I don't. Clothes do such an important job of setting your frame of mind. It used to be that you had your work clothes and they would put you in this work mindset, and you had casual clothes that were for leisure. Now that the workday has expanded to include all hours of the day, it would seem that the new casual uniform, acceptable in both the office and the home, is in keeping with this change.
JS: Our life and work have become more and more indistinguishable. Whether this is right or wrong is not for me to say. I'm just stating what I see happening. I don't know anybody who isn't cognizant of working later hours. It was interesting to watch how "Work Clothes" moved beyond being a fashion book and became a book about the change in the functioning of the American workplace. I thought it would be a quick and dirty book. Instead, it turned into this head trip.
Read more about Jeff Stone and Chic Simple in Tripod's Living & Travel section.
