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Is Your Success
About Dressing
for Success?
Cary Grant Meets
Casual Friday
What do you
think about the
way people dress
at work today?
How would Cary
Grant fare if he
showed up for an
interview at
your
organization
today?
Cary Grant,
Hollywood screen
star of the 40s
and 50s, was the
icon of the way
a man ought to
dress. In
those days, men
wore coats and
ties to baseball
games and boxing
matches and Cary
Grant was
mentioned as an
example of good
business dress
in "dress for
success books"
well into the
1980s.
 In
the 1990s the
"wheels came
off" society's
consensus of
what should be
worn at work.
in the 1980s IBM
had a strict
formal dress
code.
Today it has
no code at all,
leaving those
decisions
strictly to
their employees.
Today there is
no general
standard
regarding dress
in the workplace
on the part of
management and
employees.
Casual dress
reached its peak
during the
dotcom period of
the 90s.
Now there is a
general feeling
that we have
gone too far to
the casual side.
However, the
ongoing war
about dress is
not about what
to wear but what
not to wear,
such as shorts
and flipflops.
We perhaps see
more traditional
business dress
in 2009 than we
did five years
ago, but it's
not making a
general comeback
except in the
White House.
When you wear
it, you are
usually in the
minority.
Today younger
workers tell us
that dress for
them is about
their own
personal
expression.
We agree.
Dress is not
about some
uniform created
for us by the
general society.
Dressing for
success today we
would define as
dressing so that
you feel your
best to do you
best work.
Clothes
communicate
powerfully,
whether we are
trying to
communicate or
not. We
want to
communicate with
clothes in the
best way we can
to ourselves and
those around us.
If you want to
be cool with
clothes, create
your own dress
style. The
only way you
know if you've
achieved a good
style is when
someone says,
"That shirt
(dress) looks
just like you."
Then you know
they recognize
your consistent
style.
It's also good
to look around
you and see what
others wear in
your workplace
and realize
that's
important.
Almost every
workplace has a
different way of
dressing, and
relating to
those around you
by what you wear
can be
important.
Having said
that, I think I
prefer to have a
consistent
personal
strategy of what
I wear. I
think everyone
has good colors
and those that
are horrible for
them.
Every time I
like a shirt,
but the color is
wrong for me, I
end up not
wearing it and
it spends years
alone in a dark
closet.
Pick the type of
pants, shirt,
dress, blouse,
shoes, etc.
that fit your
style. As
a guy, I like
denim for
everyday wear,
or slacks.
I dislike
Dockers because
they go on
fresh in the
morning and turn
into a shapeless
wrinkled mass by
the afternoon.
Some guys wear
billed caps
well, but
they're not for
me. Polo
shirts with
their little
collars look so
predictable and
dated, and
especially if
they have
something on
them like one of
those little
alligators.
I wouldn't wear
anything with a
brand on it
unless they were
paying me for
advertising.
Whatever you
choose to wear,
have the
confidence to
wear it like you
mean it.
If you're
dressed in army
fatigues--and
that can be
really cool--and
you walk into
a meeting where
several women
have fancy
scarves and
designer
clothes, don't
feel
embarrassed.
It's your
testosterone
day. If
you decided to
wear a suit and
tie to work,
don't make
people who are
in grunge
clothes take
away that
feeling of being
duded in a power
outfit.
Dressing really
is all about
what you have to
say to yourself
and those around
you. Having
a plan for what
you wear is
cool. It
tells everyone
something about
you, even if
you're trying to
communicate
nothing.
What you wear
may be different
from others, but
it's always
important.
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