the abbreviated reign of “neon” leon spinks

CULTURAL NORMS RESIST RADICAL CHANGE 171
ger had formal dress codes, and more than half specifically allowed casual
clothes at the office. Whether the change really gave men more sartorial
freedom is questionable, since the coat-and-tie requirement often was replaced
by equally rigid but more complicated guidelines about what sort
of casual clothes were acceptable.
As a result, the workplace often became an equally monotonous sea
of long- sleeved buttoned-down denim shirts and tan or olive khaki trousers.
Sportswear maker Levi Strauss actually established a toll-free number
for employers who were uncertain about what sort of attire they should
allow. Makers of traditional suits tried to dismiss the business casual look
by derisively comparing it to the leisure suit—but eventually came to see
it as an equally grave threat. They tried to deter the new style by publicizing
a survey by an employment law firm in which 44 percent of companies
saw an increase in lateness and absenteeism after they allowed casual
dress, and 30 percent reported a rise in flirting. (In fairness, the same
survey also showed that 40 percent of companies reported a rise in productivity
when they went casual.) Nevertheless, as the 21st century began,
the necktieless world that leisure suit designers had envisioned seemed to
have arrived, albeit in a different form.
Meanwhile, Kim Jong Il continues to champion the leisure suit as
determinedly as he’s apparently pursuing development of his nuclear missile
arsenal. He’s said to reward the designers of his wardrobe with imported
luxury automobiles and other perks when they come up with a new
garment that particularly piques his atavistic sartorial sensibilities. As
fashion critic Jess Cartner- Morley of the British newspaper the Guardian
once noted, sardonically: “No one wears it with quite the flair that Kim
does. Look at him: he’s loving the camera. He knows he looks hot.”
THE STYLE THAT WON’T DIE
Since the leisure suit’s brief but intense popularity in the mid-
1970s, designers have periodically tried to revive the garment. In 1986,
designer Bill Robinson showed updated versions of the leisure suit at the