A few years ago, jeans were only acceptable on casual Fridays in the business setting. At meetings, jeans were never considered business casual. I think what was once Dockers as business casual has now relaxed to jeans in business settings and that is carrying over to ship attire. I work for a major corporation. In fact, as of this year, we are allowed to wear jeans EVERYDAY. We choose to dress by our own discretion, with many of us choosing to only not wear jeans when we have a major meeting.

You really can go on and on with the jeans topic...now that jeans are colored and can look a lot like nice slacks and can cost a lot more! So, are jeans only "blue?" Things have loosened up a lot in the past year in the business casual setting and dress jeans are now acceptable for everyday wear. Dress jeans are: "jeans must not have holes or be frayed." Folks tend to have brains and look nice. I am sure this will carry over to the ship setting. Mark Conroy is part of this corporate environment and is most likely responding to what he sees day in and day out, which is a much more relaxed attitude towards attire.