How casual business dress is hurting the apparel industry

Since 1977, the percentage of U.S. household spending on clothing has been cut in half. Retail woes are often blamed on Amazon.com Inc., but that’s not the whole story. Over the past five years, there has been a 10 percentage point spike in employers that permit casual dress any day of the week. The result is that we increasingly need just one wardrobe because there is so little difference between what we wear to work and on weekends.