Casual Fridays for the win

From the office to the gym and post-work to after-parties. The suit and the sneakers have coexisted for a few years now already. The most conservative sector has had a harder time adapting to the mix, but it is already very settled. Converse, Vans, Veja, Nike, New Balance or J'hayber, the possibilities are endless when it comes to choosing casual shoes that go with your office suit. The trend lies in Silicon Valley’s 80s nerds, in the mecca of technology and progress of the American state of California when the workforce of small but leading companies linked to the computer sector, broke with the established norms. These men were much more concerned with the results of their work than with the clothes they chose each morning to go to the office. The routines and ways of working were up for some fundamental changes. They spent more time in front of their computer screens than in offices or boardrooms participating in endless meetings. The dictatorship of the classic suit had ended and what we know today as casual business was born. The unspoken rule that encourages employees to explore their personal image through their clothing without the need to adhere to pre-established aesthetic codes. It was then that the step was taken to combine sneakers with a suit.

Trends and aesthetic demands relaxed over the years. In fact, in 1992, Dockers (the mother of men's favourite chinos) distributed among its employees a style manual in which they indicated how to dress correctly under the business casual label. An experiment that permitted the business fabric of the time and was extended to important entities such as Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan. The inexorable advance of the concept of how to combine sneakers with a suit was making its way into society, as footwear became more informal.

Today it is not difficult to find men wearing white sneakers, brightly coloured or black sneakers in any workplace. How to combine sneakers with a suit can sometimes be complicated precisely because there are many possibilities, just as there are many ways to wear a men's suit. Today's models offer endless possibilities thanks to their fabrics, prints and even the type of pattern you choose.

I am wearing a vintage grey suit. Double-breasted with a little horseshoe pin on the lapel, with the buttons done and wearing nothing underneath. My sneakers pop out with black and white vertical stripes and details in red like the laces. This limited collection Converse are one of my favourite pairs and I love how retro they look taking you back to its origins. The All-Star model sneakers have marked the course of our recent history. They were conceived as boots for playing basketball, but their popularity jumped from the court to the street. There is no urban tribe, no matter how antagonistic it may seem, that has not succumbed to them. I am adding a little bit of colour with the leather cross-bag and its colour block design in yellow, green and black. The dark sunglasses with their very thin frame in silver completes the look.