Analysis: it has been removed from basket of goods to calculate UK’s annual inflation rate but is thriving
It might have been removed from the basket of goods used to calculate the UK’s annual inflation rate but that does not mean the suit is dead. If it really were the death knell for the staple of men’s business attire then surely the Office for National Statistics would have replaced it with some tracksuit bottoms or even some shorts? Instead, what’s taken its place is “a formal jacket or blazer”. It is an admission that these two very strange years of pandemic living have altered our daily sartorial habits but not transformed them completely.
As offices vacated and many of us adapted to working from home, a clear shift to “top-down dressing” emerged (remember the “Zoom shirt”?). But when the government dispensed with Covid restrictions, a return to the workplace forced us to dust off our commuting wear and re-evaluate our wardrobes in a fresh light. The transition from elasticated waistbands and Uggs to formal trousers and brogues has been a tricky one, however, and most of us are navigating our new style somewhere in between.
