[ArbitraryLimits]

Here's my favorite example of how it's not really so different, at least among status-conscious people:

I live in California and work with someone who recently moved here from Baltimore. He's kind of an older gen-X guy, and he likes to go to thrift stores, buy old suits for < $10 and wear them ironically, like with dress shoes but ankle-length white socks and the sleeves pushed up, and the front end of the tie shorter than the back end.

Every few months, a manager will pull him aside and say in a trying-to-be-friendly way, "You know, you really don't have to wear a suit around here." To which he'll respond, "Yeah, I know, it's just my thing, man." And then there manager will stare at him a little harder and say something along the lines of, "No, I mean you really don't have to wear a suit around here." Eventually the manager gives up and writes him off as an incorrigible free spirit.

TL;DR The West Coast is a place where you can wear whatever you want to work, as long as it's a Hawaiian shirt.

[geebee]

Huh. I thought the counter culture of suits was well understood. Though honestly, why would a suit have to be worn ironically in the first place? I love how suits look. Was I the only guy who watched Gattaca and found myself wishing that it were more socially acceptable to wear a suit to my job? ;) I wouldn't want to emulate much about that world, but man did they look good in their suits.

Anyway, I agree with you that the tech industry, especially in the west, rigorously enforces the presence of the absence of a dress code. Even PG said "Nerds don't just happen to dress informally. They do it too consistently. Consciously or not, they dress informally as a prophylactic measure against stupidity."

Bummer, cause I actually kind of like it when people dress with some style.

[tlack]

I think he meant that the quirky individual was wearing frumpy "1980s English professor"-style suits, not some sleek expensive architectural thing.

[chubot]

That's f'ing hilarious. I am an east coast person who has lived in California for 10 years now. One of my first comments about this place 10 years ago was:

"Wow they take being laid back VERY SERIOUSLY."

Your anecdote is a perfect illustration of that!

[zasz]

Yeah, but he ended up being able to wear a suit anyway, right? Do you think the equivalent scenario of a guy wearing a Hawaiian shirt at a traditional law firm in DC would've worked out? Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I suspect our free spirited DC lawyer would have been forced into a suit at the end.

[ArbitraryLimits]

That's true, but the partners at a DC law firm don't go around talking about how they're so <insert positive adjective of choice here> that anybody who want to can wear a suit to work.

[zasz]

I think West Coast enforcement of dress codes is still the lesser of two evils. You can still wear what you want; you'll just be weird, as opposed to fired.