In message , at 15:07:28 on Sat, 14
Mar 2015, Neil Williams remarked:

Something's wrong if it's tight.

I'm only comfortable if it's so loose it looks untidy.

Then there's something wrong with your collars.

And there's nothing more distracting than one person turning up in
£500 worth of Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen impression. The first thought
through many people's minds will be "did he get dressed in the dark
and forgot to put on his cufflinks?"

Only if they're really uptight about dress.

They aren't uptight about dress, more they don't want to be distracted
by people making fashion statements when they are supposed to be making
serious technical or policy statements.

But then I suppose Sir Alan's part of the IT industry was curiously
formal compared with the rest of it.

Lord Sugar, now, of course. And yes, most of his people who had any
contact with the outside world would wear a suit and tie, just like he
and Nick still do on "The Apprentice", and most of the male contestants
too. Here's the winner of the first series:

http://www2.vismedia.co.uk/newslette...05/amstrad.jpg

Several of the female contestants dress as masculinely as possible, to
avoid people looking at what they are wearing rather than listening to
what they are saying. The opposite is a useful tactic in other
circumstances, but it's important to dress appropriately for the
occasion.

And back in the 80's most of the public-facing personal computer people
wore suits - although Hermann Hauser pushed the envelope (as they say)
with a trademark polo-neck jumper or cravatte underneath much of the
time.

Just to prove that there were exceptions to that:

http://www.cabume.co.uk/images/stori...startups10.jpg

It's almost impossible to find a photo of Clive Sinclair not wearing a
suit and tie; and look: here's the two of them:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/...3_1417899i.jpg

This is what I wore to the office around then (1985), my jacket would be
hanging on the back of a chair. [You can also see one of my engineering
staff with a tie on in the background].

When I was trying to "look cool" in front of end-users at the weekend I
might dress like this [the full t-shirt slogan was "I built Arnold"],
but there's still a jacket:

http://cpcrulez.fr/im4/3/Roland_Perr..._Show-1985.jpg

Sometimes it wouldn't be a suit jacket, and I did have rather long hair
(for current tastes):

http://www.retrogamer.net/wp-content...1/more-roland-
603x630.png

After I left Amstrad this was my provocatively casual publicity photo:

http://perso.wanadoo.es/amstradcpc/i...olandperry.jpg

Continuing the cap theme, 25yrs later Bruce Schneier turned up to an
OECD meeting I was at, wearing his signature cloth cap, an open shirt,
and jeans; and although you may regard it as prejudiced, the main
reaction from the people round the table was clearly "who is this idiot,
and how quickly can we get him to stop talking".

He *does* have a shirt/tie/suit though:

http://www.american.edu/uploads/stan...ruce-Schneier-
300x200.jpg
--
Roland Perry