Aloha Friday!!

Friday's always brings cheers to me...and I'm sure to all of you as well. 

For one, its the end of a full week of slogging on work...sort of marks the beginning of a temporary short lived Freedom. Secondly, it also means the freedom from formal dressing....

Yes! How all of us workhorses would love to get out of those creased trousers and crisp shirts and that pain in the neck Tie that reminds us time and again that we are salve to this grind. Friday is the FreeDay...well for most of us. My deepest commiserations with the brethren who are not as lucky as some of us.

Sitting today in office, dressed in cool casuals and delighted by splash of Color around me, I wonder who was the wise guy that came up with this million dollar idea. Yes, it is a "Million Dollar" idea alright as it actually gave birth to the need for a new kind of dressing and thence put the [F] in Fashion and dollars in the banks of apparel manufacturers.

A bit of research (it's Friday guys remember...so kool off...don't give me that 'you don't have work to do' looks) led me to an interesting story behind the concept of Casual Dressing in the workplace or shall we say Aloha Dressing!!

We are all familiar with those flowery Hawaiian shirts (actually called as Aloha shirts) made popular by Nelson Mandela...well these shirts get the honor of being the first 'casual dress' in the workplaces. The concept originated in Hawaii in 1947 when the workers in the City of Honolulu were allowed to wear Aloha shirts for a part of the year. In 1946, the Honolulu Chamber of Commerce funded a study of Aloha shirts and designs for comfortable business clothing worn during the hot Hawaiian summers. Subsequently, the Honolulu Mayor passed a resolution allowing their employees to wear sport shirts from June–October. 

In 1962, Hawaiian Fashion Guild began to promote aloha shirts and clothing for use in the workplace, particularly as business attire. Their campaign was called "Operation Liberation", as a part of which, the Guild distributed 2 aloha shirts to every member of the Hawaii House of Representatives and Senate! Subsequently, a resolution passed in the Senate recommending aloha attire be worn throughout the summer. The resolution stated its resolve to let "...the male populace return to 'aloha attire' during the summer months for the sake of comfort and in support of the 50th state's garment industry." Of course this was majorly backed by the motivations of the Hawaiian garment industry to sell more shirts. So what began as a marketing stunt went on to define the work culture.

In 1965, Bill Foster, the President of the Hawaiian Fashion Guild, started a campaign for "Aloha Friday", a day when employers would allow men to wear aloha shirts on the last business day of the week. Hence was the official humble beginning 'Aloha Friday' in 1966.

From there on the fashion spread to California first and then became a worldwide norm. Hell....it even inspired a song!! Check this out - 

Another interesting snippet - most of the IT companies had a strict formal dress code right from the beginning. During the 90's dotcom burst... a number of IT companies actually used  it as a "No Money" perks ploy to cheer up the workforce. So the freedom that Honolulu workers got in 1950s came to the rescue of the poor IT guy only in 1990s. 

So men...we all owe it one cool dude from Hawaii called Bill Foster. I say three cheers for the man and his noble soul...without him... Fridays wouldn't be the same.

Thank God It's [Aloha] Friday!!