Formals to Smart Casuals- Corporate India Is Witnessing a Rapid Change
For the B-School grads and other executives who gave up their wardrobe of casual wears, India's corporate culture is giving way to the smart casual wears!
Pictured below- Nadella who is Microsoft's CEO, often wears a shirt topped with a semi-formal jacket & a pair of denims for important business presentations. The CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg also rarely bothers about formal attires & always wears his trademark black hoodie. The founder of Apple, Steve Jobs was the one who single-handedly started the trend of wearing black St.Croix turtlenecks & denims for all his presentations thus making formal wears acceptable outfits for corporate world.
The head honchos of the corporate world in casuals!
Cleared the interview in denims!
Smart casual wears like T-shirts, branded denims & chinos are witnessing great demand. A 25-year-old management trainee, after getting a B-school degree in IIM-Lucknow, gave a job interview for Godrej. He wore a Ducati T-shirt & smart denims. And guess what? The person was hired!
Godrej expressed, "We don't force candidates to come in stiff, formal attires."
Formal wear prevents out-of-the box thinking?
One employee at Godrej said, "We are allowed wearing smart casuals during office hours. It displays the openness in work culture."
Adi Godrej says, "Formal wears prevent out-of-the box thinking during certain times. This happens as the attire makes the entire setting seem formal & serious."
Being Casual-Setting a swift corporate trend
The president group HR of Mahindra & Mahindra says" Being casual aids people to be more relaxed. It promotes an environment which is not bureaucratic."
#Casual wears are said to promote equality in business
Being Casual does not give the feeling that a certain person is more important hierarchically due to his/her style of formal attire. As a result, equality prevails. This breeds greater co-operation & equal opportunities amongst all gender & age groups.
Does this mean that casual wear segment will impact formal wear segment?
Yes, it will. Mr. Ashok Sharma, President of Indian Academy of Management (IAM) says, "Casual wear segment at present contributes to more than 50% of retailer's sales. This is up from 25% in just a few years. Also the casual wear category is growing at double the rate of formal wear category. Hence, it may affect the sales of formal wears. However, the formal wear culture won't end. The senior management still and almost everywhere suits up for big company occasions. The sectors of banking, finance & consultancy advise wearing conservative office attires even for the young. Having said that I feel that this is unlikely to prevent the spread of casual wears like pricey tees & branded denims across India Inc's offices."
Ajith January 25, 2017 at 2:59 PM
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