Once upon a time, in another life, I worked briefly in London for a company headed by two middle-aged brothers who were very traditional in their views on how to dress.

From Monday to Thursday they came to the office in dark-grey, pin-striped, formal suits with matching waistcoats. And on Friday, the day they left for a weekend with their families at each of their country retreats, they dressed down - into dark-brown tweed suits, again with matching waistcoats.

That was about as far as "casual" went for people like them in those days. Even for lowly people like me, casual wear only stretched to wearing a sports jacket or blazer and trousers instead of a suit, or maybe a V-necked pullover. There was seldom a time when you didn't wear a tie.

We now have Tony Blair talking about it being "one of the tyrannies of modern life that men have to dress in conventional suits the whole time". He told Prima magazine that he was "trying to get out of suits", which must have caused hearts to sink in what's left of Britain's wool-textile and clothing industries. It's just what they need, isn't it - a Prime Minister setting a dressing-down lead for the rest of the country.

And now British Telecom have taken up the theme, telling their 127,000 employees that formal wear is no longer compulsory for work. They're quite happy for them to adopt what's known as the "soft office" look - although they do draw the line at them arriving at work in shorts or track-suit bottoms, which is a blessing.

This has all happened before, although back at the end of the 1960s into the 1970s it was a spontaneous thing which sprang out of the younger generation. Ties were often dispensed with, even for work. Formal trousers were replaced by "loon pants" with huge flares. Jackets owed more to the example of pop singers than politicians.

So some of us have done the dressing-down thing already and got around to dressing up again. Are we ready for another round of dressing down?

Not if it's officially motivated, we're not.

When it comes to clothing, people like to do their own thing - or at least, what they believe to be their own thing (though usually they're being skilfully manipulated by the fashion industry). They don't want to be led by politicians and company chief executives.

So with a bit of luck this "casual" movement could backfire, with people reacting against it by going out and buying a new suit out of defiance. Bradford's surviving textile mills will boom again and we'll all live happily - and smartly - ever after.

How does that idea suit you, eh?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.