2019年经济学人 和着装风格斗争(1)（在线收听）

Summer's arrival in the northern hemisphere brings with it a dilemma that plagues every office worker.

北半球夏季的到来带来了一个困扰每一位上班族的困境。

What does a casual dress code mean in practice?

休闲的着装实际上意味着什么呢？

The happy medium between looking like Kim Kardashian or Hagrid the giant is hard to pin down.

即像金·卡戴珊这样前卫，又像巨人海格一样随意的折中方案很难确定。

Goldman Sachs has just implemented a "flexible dress code"

高盛集团刚刚实施了一项“灵活的着装规定”

although the executive memo noted gnomically that "casual dress is not appropriate every day".

虽然执行备忘录中笼统地提到“休闲着装并不适合每天穿着”。

Besuited corporate clients might not take kindly to investment-banking advice offered by someone wearing a tank top and ripped jeans.

西装革履的企业客户可能不会接受穿着背心和破洞牛仔裤的人提供的投资银行建议。

It makes sense that banking would be one of the last bastions to fall to the advance of casual workwear.

银行业将是向休闲着装前进的最后堡垒之一，这么说是有道理的。

You want the people who look after your money to appear sober and respectable.

你希望那些帮你打理资金的人看起来冷静且受人尊敬。

For similar reasons, bank headquarters have deliberately been built in a grandiose style to emphasise the institution's financial solidity and historical roots.

出于类似的原因，银行总部刻意用宏大的建造风格强调该机构的财务稳固性和历史根源。

Depositors might hesitate about handing over their savings to people working under a railway arch.

存款人或许会犹豫是否将自己的积蓄交给在火车拱门下工作的人。

For men, the move to casual dress seems entirely positive.

对男性而言，转向休闲装似乎是非常积极的。

Few people will mourn the demise of the tie, a functionally useless garment that constricted male necks for a century.

几乎没有人会为领带的消亡而哀悼，一个世纪以来，领带一直束缚着男性的脖子，在功能上毫无用处。

The tie's origins date back to the 17th century, when mercenaries hired by Louis XIII of France wore a form of cravat.

领带的起源可追溯到17世纪，当时受法国路易十三雇佣的商人打着领结。

The modern version of the tie emerged in the 1920s and was popularised by Britain's Edward VIII

现代版的领带出现在20世纪20年代，并由英国的爱德华八世普及

who, when not flirting with the Nazis, developed the Windsor knot. It became standard office wear for the next six decades.

他在还没有与纳粹纠缠的时候发明了温莎结。在未来60年中，领带变成了标准的办公室着装。

In the 1990s ties started to go out of fashion because technology titans and hedge-fund managers refused to wear them—

20世纪90年代，领带开始不再流行，因为科技巨头和对冲基金经理拒绝打领带—

and were rich enough to ignore social convention. Once, when Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook,

并且他们的财富足以让他们忽视社会公约。有一次，Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格

was to meet a venture capitalist, he turned up wearing his pyjamas.

要会见一名风险资本家，他穿着睡衣就来了。

The jacket, by contrast, is a much more useful garment, replete with pockets to house wallets,

相比之下，夹克是一件更有用的服装，夹克里边都是装钱包、

spectacle cases and travel passes (or, these days, mobile phones).

眼镜盒和旅游通行证（或者像现在的手机）的口袋。

So the default work garb for men, when meeting clients, is jacket, open-necked shirt and dark trousers (denim excluded).

因此，男性在会见客户时，默认的工作服是夹克、开领衬衫和深色裤子(牛仔服除外)。

On days without meetings, men can slob out in t-shirts (though not too garish) and jeans, and no one will think the worse of them.

不开会的时候，男性可以穿T恤（虽然不能太花哨）和牛仔裤，没人会认为他们很糟糕。

Arriving in shorts or without socks is another matter entirely.

穿短裤或不穿袜子则完全是另一回事。