"DRESSING DOWN" ON ITS WAY UP

America is loosening its corporate tie.

For many companies, golf shirts and khakis, not three-piece suits, are par for the workday course.

High heels have been replaced by sneakers and the business Oxford or conservative blouse has given way to t-shirts.

"Dressing down" is on its way up.

More and more corporate offices and businesses have relaxed their dress codes for a day each month, or week, in response to employee suggestions.

A recent survey tells the story.

Of more than 200 companies surveyed nationwide, 78 percent reported no formal dress codes, and 55 percent said casual wear is allowed during the course of the normal business day.

That's not to say that grunge is becoming routine at the office.

Every company has its own unwritten constitution about clothing.

"We've never had a dress code," said a spokesman of Deere & Company's Moline, Ill., headquarters. "But, no one comes to work in shorts and sneakers."

Gradually, however, and particularly in paperwork environments, neckties, button-down shirts, frilly blouses, women's high heels and men's long-revered wingtips appear to be going the way of the typewriter and mimeograph.

Casual dress codes, at least on specified days, have been adopted by a number of Cape Girardeau businesses.

Not only is the trend embraced by executives and employees, but also by charities that receive small windfalls on some company "dress down" days.

"We gear most of our casual, or dress down days to charity," said Jeannie Goodman, a vice president at Boatmen's Bank. "Employees pay a dollar to dress down, with all funds going to charity.

"Our employees love it," added Goodman. "The dress down is for everybody -- from the top to the bottom."

On occasion, Boatmen's employees may be asked to bring items instead of money.

Recently, Boatmen's employees were asked to bring pet food, which was given to the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri.

"On another day, employees were requested to bring toiletry items for the Safe House," said Goodman. She added that dress down days are usually planned for a Friday or before a holiday.

"We usually have a blue jeans day once a month," said Dorothy Ludwig, a secretary at South East Bank. "We have t-shirts here with our South East Bank logo. During Riverfest, we wore Riverfest shirts with jeans."

Ludwig said the special dress day is a big hit with employees.

"It's fun to wear tennis shoes instead of high heels at work occasionally," she said.

Schnucks Food & Drug holds its "dressing down for charity" day each Saturday.

"Every employee can participate in the program," said store manager Dennis Marchi.

Marchi said the company raised $3,500 last year that went to the Salvation Army and American Red Cross.

"Employees, however, must still wear nice clothing for casual days," said Marchi. "No shorts are permitted."

The Southeast Missourian has three casual days a month, one of them geared toward charity.

"We started with one ~dress down day a month," said Southeast Missourian spokesperson Kim McDowell. "By employee request, this was increased to three, including the one charity event."

In Cape Girardeau, most of the relaxed dress codes are for "dressing down" Friday or Saturday. In many instances nationwide, codes are being relaxed on every working day as the executive suites and offices of corporate America turn away from the conservative business wear that has long been the rule.

Although most companies have slipped from traditional office attire into something more comfortable, that was not the case at the Miami headquarters of Burger King Corp.

It took a hurricane to bring casual dress to Burger King, according to an Industry Week article.

A Burger King company spokesman said that almost half of the employees in the office had their homes wiped out or damaged during Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

"It's hard to enforce a dress code when people are living out of plastic bags," said the spokesman, Michael R. Evans.

"Before the hurricane, we were as buttoned up as any corporation could be," said Evans. "Then, when we had to squeeze into makeshift offices for a year and come to work with whatever clothes we saved, we all started thinking of ourselves as survivors. We seemed to begin working together more closely. We learned you don't have to wear a uniform to get the job done."

However, casual dress has its limits at some companies.

Slacks and sweaters are fine for both men and women, but in other instances, blue jeans, spandex, sneakers and tank tops are off limits.

There are many variations of casual wear. Some desk-bound workers might consider blazers and slacks as confining as a suit.

But, Kenneth A. Hoffman, president and CEO of Hart Schaffner & Marx, which has one of its top producing facilities in Southeast Missouri -- Thorngate Ltd., at Cape Girardeau and Chaffee -- says he sees a preponderance of blazers, ties and well-pressed chinos in lieu of suits as he commutes by rail to downtown Chicago.

"That's casual wear at its best," he told Industry Week.

Dressing down is old hat to IBM, a company once noted for its blue suit, white shirt, quiet blue tie and black oxfords. This was not a hard rule, however, and IBM salesmen were making calls in Honolulu in Hawaiian shirts, and in California in the 1950s in polo shirts and chinos.

"The aim at the company is to dress the same way our customers dress," said a corporate spokesman.