Why did the shirt, jacket and tie become the international standard dress code for business and governments?
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The suit itself evolves as a more casual version of the frock coat, which replaces the justacorps formal coat. The frock coat is a formal version of the frock, a loose casual coat which had been around for a long time. It also became fashionable for trousers to be worn instead of breeches. In Victorian England it was fashionable that lounge suits be of one material, and the colours of both frock and lounge suits became more restrained, at least for for “formal” city wear. Companies and governments require dress standards for employees/ civil servants, and they went with the prevailing fashion, which was the British one. Britain was the largest trading empire in world history, and France, Portugal, Spain and the Dutch were responsible for most of the rest, so it’s natural that across the rest of the world businesses and government sought to maintain respectable appearances by keeping in line with European fashion, or as colonies had fashions dictated to them as acceptable for work with the civil service/trading companies, or not. Some people don’t follow the standards, like the saudis. Some maintain the more formal morning dress which is an evolution of the frock coat.
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