Non-silly clothes for open-collar workers - how home-based workers dress - Workstyles - column

Home Office Computing, Sept, 1991 by Nick Sullivan

Non-Silly Clothes For Open-Collar Workers

Today I'm dressed like a 1920s British civil servant in India: khaki shorts, short-sleeved muslin shirt, tan socks, and sandals. I'd never in a million years walk into a corporate office looking like this, unless I happened to be on business in Australia. But working from home, I can experiment with different business attires.

Paul and Sarah Edwards (contributing editors to HOME-OFFICE COMPUTING) have coined the term open-collar worker, implying that the color of the collar (white or blue) doesn't matter as long as there's no tie around it. I'd have to agree that the open collar - T-shirt or sport shirt - is standard dress for homeworkers, depending on whom you're meeting.

However, I donned a jacket and tie one Monday morning as an experiment. The custom of dressing authoritatively on Monday mornings was one I adopted when teaching school many years ago. I believed then that only by wearing imperious clothing to distance myself from the urchins could I gain the upper hand and make it through the week. And so I still dress more formally on Mondays, just to get myself in the mood for work. Sometimes my wife wonders why I'm wasting a pressed, starched shirt to go sit in a room by myself, but I assure her it's a psychological gimmick well worth the laundry bill.

Despite my apparent fascination with the subject, I've never paid much heed to dressing and thus have never taken my work-from-home freedom to dress down as seriously as I could. But whenever I run into people wearing corporate armor, they are quick to note my somewhat casual approach. "God I envy you," said one insurance executive, loosening his paisley noose, "being able to dress like that."

Of course, the grass being greener on the other side, I sometimes long to stuff myself into a straitjacket, slip a noose around my neck, spray myself with antiperspirant and cologne, hermetically seal myself in an air-conditioned car, and drive to work while talking on the car phone. But I overcome the urge.

At the beginning of the summer, when I thought about new clothing for the season, I made my first effort to purchase items specifically for home-office wear. Previously, my wardrobe was stuffed with traditional garb - dress shirts, pants, jackets, sport shirts, dungarees, and so on. Then, in the J. Peterman catalog, I saw an item that had "home office" written all over it: the J. Peterman shirt (99 percent Thomas Jefferson, 1 percent Peterman). Instead of throwing on the cleanest rag I could find, I asked myself, Why not inject some style into my dress?

"Jefferson disliked stuffy people, stuffy houses, stuffy societies," read the copy. "So he changed a few things. Law. Gardening. Government. Architecture. Of the thousands of castles, mansions, chateaux you can walk through today, only Monticello, only Jefferson's own mansion, makes you feel so comfortable you want to live in it. I think you will feel the same about his 18th-century shirt. Classic. Simple. Livable."

That Monticello housed one of the country's first home offices is by now part of the home-office collective unconscious, so I was like putty in the hands of the copywriter when I read this description: "Non-silly 18th-century collar. No collar-stays to lose. No points to button down. Authentic dropped seams at shoulders."

Could an open-collar worker ask for a more perfect shirt? I was on the phone immediately, credit card in hand. Since the catalog described the shirt as "generously cut," I thought I should order a medium. But the clerk recommended a large.

That was a mistake. The shirt was too big - big enough for me and a laser printer. So I sent it back. I know baggy clothing is fashionable these days, but I like to swim in the sea, not in my clothes.

Nonetheless, I have ordered other clothes from J. Peterman and been quite satisfied (their cotton chambray Island Pants are as comfortable as a loincloth), and I think that a J. Peterman Owner's Manual ([800] 231-7341) belongs in every home office. Put it on the shelf with Hello Direct ([800] HI-HELLO), Crutchfield's Personal Office ([800] 521-4050), MacWarehouse ([800] 255-6227), PC Connection ([800] 243-8088), MacConnection ([800] 334-4444), Power Up Software ([800] 851-2917), and other favorite catalogs of the informed direct buyer.

Peterman's clothes and boots are designed for comfort, modeled on classic designs of the past, and bespeak a certain independence that every homeworker should understand. J. Peterman even sells colorful, rough-woven ties (Smiling Irish Ties) for people who ordinarily don't wear ties. Could the open-collar worker ask for a more perfect tie?

My idea of dressing for work at home has evolved since my recent shopping experience. Novice homeworkers often toss a wide board across two file cabinets and call it a desk, only to discover later that they're running a real office and need real office furniture. So, too, I once threw on any old garment, only to find that I feel and work better while wearing well-made clothes with some style. And that's how I ended up looking like a British civil servant - I mean, a civilized American homeworker.