Early in my professional career, every day was “business attire”.   I don’t want to date myself but for a woman business attire meant a dark suit (navy blue usually) with a skirt (no pants) and a jacket with large shoulder pads, pantyhose, dark pumps and a light-colored blouse with a floppy bow at the collar.

My first job after graduate school introduced the concept of “summer hours”.  We worked an extra hour Monday through Thursday and on Friday, we could wear “business casual” and leave at noon.   The HR people had to send around a memo to explain what “business casual” meant.   I’m pretty sure it did not include the skimpy white knit number with a mid-drift top and cutouts down the outside of the Capri pants that one young lady tried to wear to the office one Friday.  I suspect she wore the same outfit out on the Thursday evening before and probably never made it home to change.  In any event, the office manager (a matronly woman) snagged her heading over to her desk and sent her right back home before any of the executives (all men) saw her.  I’m not sure if this was for the young lady’s benefit of the rest of us that would surely lose the Friday “summer hours” for this one infraction.

The next place I worked did not have “summer hours” but was slightly more casual.  Pants suits and skirts with blouses and blazers more the norm.

My most recent employer was business casual all the time.  Which meant jeans and T-shirts to some people and suits to others.  For years, we always wore suits when we traveled to the corporate headquarters in NYC.  And, if a contingent from NYC was at out offices in the Midwest, we’d wear suits as well.

At the time I owned two pair of jeans.  Well actually four.  Two I could fit into.  One pair were my “skinny” jeans which I could fit into on certain days but was never really comfortable in them.  And one other pair that were my “incentive” jeans.  They were there to motivate me to exercise more and diet so that I could fit into them.  (I never did wear those jeans and recently gave them away in a clothing drive because I was just kidding myself and better that someone else could get some use out of them.)   And so, I essentially had two pair of jeans.  And that was more than enough.  I traveled a fair amount on business, often over a weekend.  And half the year, on the weekends, I would be in shorts or Capris.  So two pair was plenty.  Especially because I don’t really have a jeans body.

But over the past year, things got more and more casual at work.  While Monday  Thursday was “business casual” for most executives (Dockers for the gentlemen and skirts or dresses for the women), when Friday rolled around, everyone pulled on a sweater and a favorite pair of jeans.  Executives essentially adopted their own “casual casual” Fridays.  And I discovered that even though it’s not the best look for me, I really like jeans.  With a nice sweater and boots or flats.  You can dress them up or down as the mood strikes you.  And so long as it’s not my “skinny pair”, they are comfortable.