Blair plums the depths with unsuitable suit

Feb 20 2003 By Peter Jackson, The Journal

I sympathise with Tony Blair, I really do. I'm not thinking of the Iraq thing, no, it's that deeply unfortunate plum-coloured suit, a suit universally condemned as one of history's great fashion mistakes.

For, having changed career and entered the world of public relations, I too now ask: what on earth does one wear for work?

Do I stick with the suits or do I opt for the relaxed, for the open-necked shirt and casual jacket?

It's an unwanted dilemma, for, to be honest, I've never been entirely happy with clothes, not since I was a toddler and my mother knitted me a pair of trousers - as hideous as they were uncomfortable.

And clothes are still a trial. Even when I've bought a jacket, trousers, sweater, or whatever, I can't bring myself to use them, they are just too good, too new. I put them in the wardrobe to mature until they are out of fashion and don't fit.

For years I had a prized pair of white trousers, which my wife wouldn't let me wear in public. Eventually I gave in and donated them to a Balkan clothing appeal. It still rankles to think of some Kosovan cutting a dash in my white bags.

And I'm not alone, today the whole British business world is insecure in its threads.

We had the dot.com types a byword for informality, who've gone bust. And do you remember dress-down Friday? At JP Morgan bank, the head of corporate access, former Gurkha captain David Hitchcock has memoed his staff saying their dress down code had led to "dress collapse" in some cases.

The beauty of a suit is you don't have to worry about what you're going to put on. You open the wardrobe and you opt for the blue or the grey and then off you go.

For women, the whole work clothes business has always been tougher, and a darned sight more expensive, which is why so many businesses have gone in for uniforms, which usually seem popular with the staff.

It would certainly be popular with me, especially if I could wear something involving a plumed helmet and ornate gold-braided epaulettes.

Formality is easier on everyone, avoiding expense, time-consuming contemplation of the wardrobe and misjudgements involving plum-coloured suits.

Trust me, formal is back - it's the new casual.