Fashion Terms — the Apparel Search fashion terminology directory
Casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation, formality and conformity. Casual clothing is worn to make the wearer look and feel relaxed and comfortable, and wearing this category of clothing helps people feel at ease. Casual clothing is acceptable in many business environments — though you most definitely need to learn your company's dress code requirements before making your casual fashion statement. This page defines casual wear and sets it beside its famous workplace offshoot, Casual Friday.
Casual is the dress code that emphasizes comfort and personal expression over presentation, formality and conformity. Casual clothing is worn to make the wearer look and feel relaxed and comfortable. Wearing this category of clothing helps people feel at ease.
Casual clothing in many business environments is expectable. However, you most definitely need to learn your companies dress code requirements before making your casual fashion statement.
Casual Friday (also known as dress-down Friday or casual day) is a trend that has spread around the globe. The general concept is that some business offices relax their dress code on Fridays. Some businesses that usually require employees to wear suits, dress shirts, neckties, and dress shoes allow more casual attire on Fridays.
Learn about dress codes in the fashion definition section.
Let's all be cautious of casual everyday. It may be a problem.
Learn about casual Friday.
Do you know the difference between casual wear and leisure wear?
“Casual” covers a wide range, and the useful skill is matching the level to the occasion. At the relaxed end sit t-shirts, jeans, shorts and sneakers — clothing for leisure, errands and informal social life. A step up, often called smart casual, keeps the comfort but restores some structure: clean, unripped denim or chinos, knit polos or button-down shirts, loafers or clean minimal sneakers, and an unstructured blazer where a jacket is wanted. Business casual sits above that again, trading jeans for trousers or skirts and tees for shirts and blouses, while still leaving the suit and tie behind. The pieces overlap; the difference is finish, fit and how deliberately the outfit is put together.
The rise of casual wear is one of the biggest shifts in modern dress. Through most of the twentieth century, public and workplace dress codes expected formality by default; from the 1990s onward, technology workplaces, Casual Friday policies and the general premium placed on comfort moved the default steadily downward, a shift this directory's Casual Friday page traces in the office context. The pandemic years accelerated it further into home working wardrobes. None of that makes casual a synonym for careless: the definition on this page pairs comfort with personal expression, and the expression still reads best when the clothing is clean, fits properly, and suits the setting it is worn in.
Clothing chosen for comfort and personal expression rather than formality — the relaxed end of the dress-code scale, meant to make the wearer look and feel at ease, from jeans and knit tops to unstructured jackets and comfortable shoes.
In many business environments, yes — but dress codes vary by company and by role. This page's advice is direct: learn your company's dress code requirements before making your casual fashion statement.
Also known as dress-down Friday or casual day: the trend, now spread around the globe, of business offices relaxing their dress code on Fridays. It has its own term page in this directory, linked from here.