Institute of Directors trial the end of the suit

Is this the end of business attire? The slow degradation of the standard issue suit has reached the Institute of Directors — the Pall Mall-based bastion of all things business. Its website says that members should ‘make the decision on what they would normally wear to do business, as long as it is not deemed indecent.’ So, what does that mean?

‘Members will be permitted to wear jeans, T-shirts, shorts and all variants of footwear. There is a very mixed view about the dress code and this will be for a trial period of 3 months.’

The trial is advanced: my mole says that there have been at least seven noted ‘incidences’ of short-wearing, which sounds positively Californian.

This may look like the end of an era; but the institute denies that it is running the pinstriped flag up the mast of sartorial surrender:

‘The IoD has always been a forward looking organisation, and we recognise that the definition of a modern Director does not rest with the clothes they wear.