Techies now become 'suit'able boys

BANGALORE: They were the guys who gave dressing down a new respectability and made lower case letters of the alphabet the norm for company names.
In the great big software and dotcom boom, IT whizkids making presentations in T-shirts, jeans and sneakers made a cult of casualness, almost sneering at stiff-upper lip, Old Economy executives in their formal suits and ties __ those poor things, horribly behind the times and stuck with ideas older than the grey in their hair.
But now, it is Old Economy which is having the last laugh and the rebel, maverick techie who is quietly and resignedly returning to formal wear.
There couldn''t be a clearer sign that the IT hype bubble has burst. A few months ago, software major Infosys Technologies issued a circular to its workforce that techies had to dress formal __ formal shirt, tie and decent footwear, if the client was in a sector that demanded it. And naturally so, since a significant number of Infosys'' clients are in the banking sector, which has a rarefied culture of its own where even attendants are more seriously dressed than most techies.
Techies in Infosys say the new regime took some getting used to. ``It was uncomfortable in the beginning, because most of us did not even have decent formal wear. Now, we are used to it, though we still miss the good old days,'''' says a software engineer. Another Infoscian recalls that initially it was quite amusing to see previously casually dressed techies switch to formal dressing, struggling with ties which they were unaccustomed to and adopting a more formal bearing as well.
i-flex Solutions, which only provides banking and finance solutions, has always had a dress code, so there were no rude reawakenings there. HR head of the company, Vidyasagar, says the company has a formal dress code for Mondays (with tie) and business casual on the other days (sans tie).
Banks and financial institutions are the biggest customer base for the software industry here, as per Nasscom data, with each of them spending Rs 10 crore and upwards on technological upgradations. This is a moneyed segment even the mighty IT companies cannot afford to offend. A banking industry source candidly says that all the techie casualness was something his industry would never accept, so this shift was natural.
All this of course translates into roaring sales for leading formalwear brands. Internationally too, more dressing up has been happening since last year, which Prakash Nedungadi, president, Madura Garments, says indicates a change in consumer sentiment. Post-9/11, nobody wants to take anything for granted and there is more seriousness in dressing now. At the company''s Planet Fashion outlet, a large number of IT guys now buy lightweight suits for use here and abroad, he says. Formal shirt brands of all makes have also been selling better than ever before among the New Economy guys, a sign that the winds of casual rebellion have clearly blown over.