How would you react if
you walked into your
attorney’s office and found him adorned in mesh
shorts, flip-flops and a sleeveless neon tee? What if your
doctor stepped into your exam
room wearing an Armani suit
instead of a lab coat?
Though both scenarios are
absurd, they represent the
stringent ties between fashion
and expectation on the runway of corporate America.
“When people contact any
kind of (professional), they
have a preconceived notion of
what that relationship ought to
be, one of which is what the
person looks like,” says Steve
Ellis, partner at Tucker Ellis &
West LLP. “If we show up in
shorts and clogs, we’re going
to start off with an issue.”
Most businesspeople have
no trouble strutting comfortably down the middle of the
style continuum. As Ellis says,
“We all live in the middle of
the bell curve, and I don’t
know if there’s a great challenge to it.”
That’s not to say that some
guidance isn’t helpful. There
will always be outliers whose
previous experiences or lack
of self-awareness skew their
perceptions of acceptable
garb. To steer these exceptions toward the rule, a well-devised dress code can lead to
a perfect fit.
To begin, Ellis says you need
to come up with a list of things
that do and do not qualify for
either business dress or business casual.
“There are 10 items in any
category for top wear, bottom
wear or footwear,” he says.
“Most people sort of roll their
eyes because it goes without saying, but it’s not every person. For that very small group
of people, a list may be helpful.”
Ellis says you should avoid
going overboard when you’re
devising your own list of
acceptable apparel.
“If you have an endless list,
the conclusion is that the
employer essentially thinks
everyone is stupid,” he says.
“People are perfectly capable
of applying general rules.”
But once you define those
general rules, it certainly helps
to set the example.
“I would ensure that you and
your senior leaders dressed in
the manner that you wanted
others to follow,” Ellis says. “If
you’re serious about having a
business casual or a casual
summer dress, the leadership has to dress that way. If they
show up in a suit on Friday or
during the summer, most people will follow that lead and
come to the conclusion that
the published dress code isn’t
the real dress code.”
Reinforcing the dress code
entails more than simple modeling, though. Even though most
employees will have no trouble
mirroring the general norms,
you’ll inevitably still have to
confront individuals who either
come up a little short or miss
the boat completely.
For the former, Ellis suggests
taking them aside and pointing
out any discrepancies.
“We’ll have a conversation
behind closed doors and just
point out what’s occurring and
why it’s important,” he says.
For the latter — those show-stoppers who have become a
source of tension in the work-place — Ellis says that a private conversation is not
enough.
“If somebody is really out
there, we’ll send them home,”
he says. “We’ll say, ‘Here’s the
list. We ask you to return with
something more along these
lines.’”
In most cases, Ellis says it’s
not hard to provide some
rationale for your enforcement. If you frame the dress
code within the context of the
success of that individual and
the company, most employees
are more than happy to oblige.
“There is real value in helping people understand why a
dress code is important,” he
says. “If you put it in the context of how these rules
advance the interests of this
organization, and therefore,
their own careers, they’ll get
on board in a heartbeat.”
HOW TO REACH: Tucker Ellis & West LLP, (216) 592-5000 or www.tuckerellis.com
Dressing for success
There’s a big difference
between mindlessly following a
dress code and dressing to
impress. Randy Diamond has
been helping executives do the
latter for years as co-owner of
Diamond’s Men’s Stores and,
more recently, as regional director of custom clothier Astor &
Black.
Here are his tips to help you
stroll confidently down the office
runway.
- Buy for fit. “Make sure you
buy a garment that is the correct
fit. We don’t want to be sold into
something that requires a lot of
alterations. I would rather have a
lesser garment that fits me well
than one that is an Armani
$2,000 garment that’s not fitting
properly.” - Buy outside of your comfort
zone. “Be willing to go out of your
comfort zone when you dress.
We need to sort of look at the way
that other (people) are dressing,
and if we like it, don’t think that
that’s not for me because that’s
wrong.” - Buy from a trusted retailer.
“It’s important to establish a relationship with a person or a store
where you have a lot of confidence. If you put on a garment
and you think it looks great, you
need somebody there to say, ‘Are
you sure you want to buy that?’” - Buy quality. “Whatever your
budget is, it’s better to buy less
and to buy quality because it will
last, and you’ll enjoy wearing it.”
HOW TO REACH: Astor & Black Custom
Ltd., www.astorandblack.com or (216)
402-6666
