海角大神

Boom-time casual is back

Toss the sharp clothes from the Great Depression wardrobe, and put on something that says 'laid back' and 'confident.'

On March 9th, 2009 the S&P stock index hit a low of 666. Also appearing on 3-9-09, was Jeffrey Tucker鈥檚 article 鈥�.鈥� Tucker was preparing job seekers for a new sensibility in work attire, writing 鈥渂e ready for today鈥檚 tight job market, which seeks serious men, not goofs in sweats and polos.鈥�

Tucker waxes eloquent about the smashing dress of the Great Depression: hats, suits, shoes and ties, with everything well put together. 鈥淭he point is that these men were under pressure to perform, to show that they were valuable, to demonstrate on sight that they were desirable commodities as workers,鈥� Tucker writes.

Two years have passed and the job market remains tight. On the other hand, the Federal Reserve has been, shall we say, loose. Zero interest rates. Quantitative easing one and now QE2, with QE3 and beyond under contemplation. There was TARP and TALP and now TARP Jr. A ballooned Fed balance sheet has money gushing into likely (the aforementioned S&P has doubled) and unlikely places.

Every Monday is now (this week鈥檚 big deal has ) and social media businesses are popping up everywhere playing the Google lottery after huge valuations were hung on Facebook and Groupon.

So while the out of work paper shuffler may need to heed Tucker鈥檚 advice, New York Times reporter Austin Considine writes 鈥溾��.

In web-land, everyone鈥檚 gone Zuckerberg. T-shirts, jeans and hoodies. 鈥淚t seems that if you dress up too much, you run the risk of not being taken seriously,鈥� said Erica Zidel, a Seattle-based Web entrepreneur who attended Harvard around the same time as Mr. Zuckerberg. 鈥淭here is an unspoken rule in entrepreneurial culture that your look should be laid back.鈥�

鈥淚t goes back to a mind-set that I think we鈥檝e had in this country for a long time, and that is, 鈥業 don鈥檛 have to work very hard to prove it if I actually have it, if I actually own it,鈥欌�� says Mark-Evan Blackman, a professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Nathan Tone is trying to cash in on Zuckerware, creating . Tone believes entrepreneurs dressed in suits are handicapping themselves in obtaining venture capital. 鈥淟ike you can鈥檛 get VC funding if people aren鈥檛 wearing sweat pants,鈥� says Mr. Tone.

Erica Zidel beat out out four suit-wearing competitors in a competition for start-up capital for her site, SittingAround.com. 鈥淚 wore jeans and wound up winning. Not only did the audience look past my outfit, I actually think it helped convey the confidence I had in my company.鈥�

And while Ms. Zidel felt confident in her jeans, maybe the problem was her competitors were not comfortable in their suits. Tucker councils not to be stiff or stuffy in your refined attire. 鈥淵ou must be confident enough to wear them as if you belong in them,鈥� Tucker writes. 鈥淭he more you can look like your clothes are in fact no big deal, just part of your life, the more compelling the message will be.鈥�

The last two years haven鈥檛 been boom times for too many, but for those picking the low-hanging fruit from the Fed鈥檚 liquidity tree, it couldn鈥檛 be better and they couldn鈥檛 be smarter. That鈥檚 why they鈥檙e the current masters of the universe, they鈥檙e smart and who cares what they put on in the morning. 鈥淭he idea behind shabby vogue was to give the impression that you don鈥檛 really care what others think,鈥� writes Tucker. 鈥淵ou are the cutting edge, the smasher of idols and conventions, a person who doesn鈥檛 give a flip about how society judges such artificial external superficialities as pant creases and ties and things. Your value is in your very person, the fact of your existence on this planet. In the boom times, the message of fashion is 鈥業t鈥檚 all about me!鈥欌��

What to wear, what to invest in? T-shirts and stocks or gold and wool suits.

------------------------------

海角大神 has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on the link above.