Feeling like a dinosaur
Riding the subway to work in the morning, I occasionally feel like I have time traveled to modern Manhattan.
Wearing nylons and heels, I glance at the other female commuters and wonder if I am the only woman who doesn't wear flip flops to work.
In my knee-length skirts and blazers, I must look nearly Victorian to the working girls tarted up in lacy lowcut camisoles, supershort skirts, form-fitting city shorts and sequined everything.
Apparently there's no longer a distinction between what one wears clubbing and to the office? I feel like such a prude but I have to wonder if they really look in the mirror and think that their bosses will take them seriously when they're showing that much skin?
A woman walked in to my office building the other day wearing a midriff bearing see-through white tank top with a black bra under it. Black bra straps hung out, not that it mattered since the entire bra was visible through her tank. She wore a flouncy little short skirt and flip flops. I gasped at the chasm between my generation and hers.
I see dressing for work as part of how you convey an image of being professional and responsible. It's a uniform just as much as a nametag and polyester shirt at McDonald's. I would never, as our interns often did at U-M, show up in hip hugger jeans with my muffin top hanging out. But apparently somewhere along the same path that made it acceptable to send a professional email sans punctuation and capitalization and with greetings like "hey there," the call went out that business casual means what you wear to the bar on weekends.
Another "what the hell were they thinking?" style: it seems pretty common among 20-something women to dress for work, do their makeup and head out for the train with their hair still soaking wet. I'm not talking damp on the ends or maybe they got a little sweaty on the subway platform. This is "towel it off a little and you're good to go" wet. I don't care how many stops you have between home and the office, their hair is guaranteed to still be wet when they arrive at work. Why?? Everyone wakes up late once in a while, and maybe that's the day you just can't make time for the blow drier, but this is a common enough sight that it has to be a conscious decision. I can't imagine walking in to a meeting with my bosses looking like I just stepped out of the shower.
I know I'm not the only one who thinks there's still reason to dress professionally.
http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/louisville/content/story.html?story_id=1291693
http://www.ehow.com/how_49_dress-business-casual.html
http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=17400301%26method=full%26siteid=50082%26page=1%26headline=why%2dshowing%2dmore%2dskin%2dis%2dstill%2dan%2doffice%2dsin%2din%2dthe%2dprofessional%2ddress%2ddepartment%2d%2d%2d%2d-name_page.html
It only feels like I'm the only one.
posted by Colleen at
6:29 PM
4 Comments:
I'm sure that in your office, it's absolutely necessary to dress professionally. And I would certainly never go present at a conference without putting on my most professional clothes. But I think that there are jobs other women have, i.e., those women on the subway, that aren't like ours, that don't require a boss (who might be another flip-flop wearing woman, y'know!) who requires professional attire. I also think that the casual attire chosen by most of the staff in my department doesn't make anyone, boss or otherwise, take them less seriously. It's just a different kind of job.
By
Anonymous, at 8/20/2006 8:05 PM
There's a huge range of what might be called "casual attire" though. Jeans, for example, can be dressed up. But flip flops and really short skirts and see-through blouses don't project a professional image -- unless you're working at The Gap or Banana Republic and, who knows, maybe these women do. I wonder if the subway attire is different further downtown, around Wall Street.
I knew the flip-flop madness had gone too far when I saw someone wearing them a few years ago at a friend's wedding.
This also touches on something I've observed on my stays in New York. For all that the city is sophisticated and stylish, among the stylish I've noted a distinct sameness to the fashion. Everyone knows what's in, and by God everyone wears it. Sure, it's not what they're wearing in Peoria, but they're not in Peoria so who cares. It an anything-goes big city, it's interesting to see this kind of conformity.
By
Anonymous, at 8/20/2006 8:40 PM
I sound like such an old fuddy-duddy but, I can certainly see a difference between generations. Since I work in male dominated industry(engineering or consulting anybody?), I tend to be a little more conscious of being dressed right. Although I must say I can't give up those pretty, little, totally impractical shoes. No flip-flops but, hmmm...there are some days when I realize that if we were meant to live in those high heels, we would have been born with barbie-feet.
By the way, your picture in AP mag looks totally cool. I will need some tips on how to appear professional and friendly in the official photoes instead of mean and pissed off.
By
Anonymous, at 8/21/2006 10:19 AM
If I didn't already realize that the vast majority of people now dress casually for work, the experience of trying to find professional garb at Macy's in a sea of khakis and jeans would have telegraphed that message.
But I think there's a huge difference between casual dress and looking like a whore. You can wear modest shorts, a neat T-shirt and sandals and look put together, not like a slob.
I think even in a job where casual dress is acceptable, there should be a distinction between work casual and going to the bar casual or working in the garden casual.
How you look at the office represents your organization, and more importantly, it helps to create your professional identity.
Even discounting the fact that some large number of the girls on the train might work in retail or in the fashion industry, it troubles me to see women heading off to work dressed in a way that seems designed to call attention to their skin more than their brains. How you dress does influence how people see you.
A recent study about women's dress at work showed "Managers who dressed provocatively, however, were perceived less intelligent and less competent" -- that just doesn't do women any favors if they're already battling the glass ceiling.
http://jobs.aol.com/article/
_a/are-you-too-sexy-for-your-job/
20051207132909990002
By
Colleen, at 8/22/2006 8:55 PM
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