William Wood

2/23/2010

Media and Pop-Culture Paper

The “Dress for Success” Mentality

We have all heard the saying that, “the clothes make the man”, and in the modern competitive

business market the statement could not hold more true. The idea comes from a certain understanding

that the way you dress, not just the clothes you wear, but the accessories you choose to accompany

your clothes, and the way you carry yourself within those clothes are all planned for a way to either

look like everyone else or to stand out as a individual who “knows better”. I know that on a personal

level, only engaging in social events that typically involve an atmosphere more “cultured” than my

friends such as the ballet, the opera, and the symphony, I am more fully aware of the impact that

clothing has on “the man” as John Molloy puts it in the excerpt from his book “Dress for Success” than

most of my friends are able to experience on their ventures out. In order to reflect both my own

personal experiences as well as the ideas conveyed in “Dress for Success” I will refer to both the book

“How to be a Gentleman” by John Bridges, and a later reading in chapter five, “The language of

Clothes” by Alison Lurie.

We all know that “clothing choices can impact how [we] are perceived” (225), or else there

wouldn't be an entire industry that is generating billions of dollars in revenue that is established on to

reinforce class distinctions. I have heard that rich people are the only people who can tell the

difference in status just by looking at a person and their attire, but most studies show that that sort of

perception is available to people from all walks of life. I asked the homeless people in front of my

building if their was a certain sort of person that they targeted when they were asking for money, and
they most definitely could tell the difference between people with money, and the people without, as

well as the people who were more willing to give it up (but that is a different topic). They, were able to

tell by factors such as overcoat, material that clothes were made out of and the “flash of da gold”, as

one put it, to help discern which common street goer wasn't “the common everyman”. As a correlation

to what is said in the Molloy article, he states that the “most raincoats sold in this country are either

beige or black” (226). Molloy also found that, statistically speaking, in the United States, “the beige

raincoat is generally worn by members of the upper-middle class and the black raincoat generally worn

by members of the lower-middle class, at a ratio of about four to one” (226). Knowing this, even

about the outer most piece of attire, if you are knowledgeable in the area, one is able to perceive the ,

“sex, age and class. . .and very possibly give important information (or misinformation) as to [one's]

occupation, origin, personality, opinions, tastes, sexual desires, and current mood” (255). The idea of

transmitting status, when analyzing modern fashion one sees a dual trend, those who understand that

those who know the difference will be able to tell the difference without labels, as higher fashion

companies use smaller and in most cases invisible labels on something like two hundred to three

hundred dollar shirts, while the other companies that are trying to transmit the facade of wealth such as

companies like Ed Hardy, they feel that the people will know that their shirts cost eighty to one

hundred and twenty dollars because of the massive size and presentation of their labels. The labels on

certain types of clothing present what Lurie calls the “vocabulary of dress”(255) as related to the

metaphorical and representational language of clothing.

Lurie states that, “the vocabulary of clothing includes not only item of clothing, but also hair

styles, accessories, jewelry, make-up and body decoration” (255). To prove this idea that clothing and

hair styles are communicative, Molloy asked one hundred executives questions about dress and

hairstyle among their junior business executives. His results which included one test where they were

asked to select which hairstyle was most appropriate and better suited for a junior executive, he found

that out of one hundred of the executives, “eighty-two of them picked [a man] with a moderate haircut
with moderate sideburns; three picked [a] very short haircut; and fifteen picked the [candidate] with the

moderate cut with long sideburns; [and] no one picked the [candidate] with the long hair” (229). When

asked if they would hire a the long haired candidate, “seventy-four said no”(229). In “How to be a

gentleman, certain standards of dress in order to be considered “a gentleman” are outlined in chapter

two “A Gentleman Gets Dressed”. Some of the specifics of dressing like a gentleman include, “A

gentleman has his shoes shined, a gentleman tucks his undershirt into his undershorts, [and] a

gentleman does not carry unnecessary paraphernalia in his pockets. A bulky key ring or a Swiss Army

knife destroys the line of even the most expensive pair of slacks” (24). Combined with the idea of

creating “an executive persona” the presentation of oneself as a gentleman in the “upper circles of

society” are as much silent status identifiers as the amount of money in your bank account, except you

can prove your status with your dress and attitude.

Now how does this relate to us students, especially students in an urban environment? What are

we trying to communicate to each other? I feel that the business environment is so rigidly controlled

by spoken and unspoken dress codes, as seen in part of the Molloy experiments when he asked the one

hundred executives if they, “had a written or an unwritten dress code”(230)? to which, “Ninety-seven

said yes. Three said no. Only two had a written dress code” (230). It is difficult for me to see a

profitable future in a business environment without knowing how to dress, look, or present myself. We

now have classes and sponsored seminars which address the issue of “What to wear” to certain events

such as a job interview. As an intern, or as a beginner in a certain business environment. People like

some of my friends who have graduated and are working a basic 9-5 accounting job, such as my friend

Patrick Butkus who works for Bank of America Co., said that he took a dress class and “cleaned up his

whole look, sort of smoothed edges and polished surfaces” so that, “he could simply fit in with the

other people in his area”. I also asked my girlfriend who works for a very very reputable music press

and PR company where there is no such thing as a dress code in the office, but when she is at an event

such as a concert where a band of hers is playing she has to, “dress with up to date fashion sense, and
present herself as a reflection of an her office”. Although it is certainly not restrained by any sort of

rigid definitions of what is acceptable, she said, “there are things that are most definitely unacceptable”.

If anyone wants to know the different types of clothing and hairstyle communication, one can simply

go out to the quad, the class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and social associations of most of the

students can be perceived by what each individual is wearing. Whether you are a hipster and you wear

designer tight jeans and “cool” sneakers, which do not include Reebok sneakers, as almost every girl I

asked, said if the first thing they looked at were shoes about ninety-eight percent said, “they would not

even consider a man who wears Reeboks”. Or if you are in the math/science department, and you have

your shirt tucked into your khaki pants, and you have a “lack of interest in things that do not seem

productive”(as a person with a tucked in shirt who turned out to be a calculus major put it). I myself

dress a certain way at school, plain and the same everyday because I understand that I am here to

receive an education and not attract a mate/promote myself socially. But when I go to meetings with

clients that I have outside of school in both my investing meetings, and product promotion ventures, or

I go to an event at symphony hall, I dress a certain way, mostly three-piece suits, so as to present

myself as an “adult that is about to graduate, but knows what he is doing before he graduates”. I can

also say from a personal perspective, I used to have long hair (past my shoulders), and I was more than

certainly treated differently by both people my age, and people older than myself. The difference in

treatment was not very noticeable until I actually cut my hair and I began to realize that people actually

listened to what I had to say with shorter hair, versus almost instantly dismissing my opinion with long

hair. Long hair is cool, but it most certainly wont get you anywhere in the business world.