Dress as a Success

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You can debate all you want on whether it is right or wrong – but the fact is that clothes makes the person, at least in the eyes of those of business people.

Back in the early eighties, required reading for virtually everyone studying for a business degree was “Dress For Success”, by John Malloy. In the book, he showed where people were immediately summed up, mostly by how they were dressed.

For instance, businessmen usually wore either light beige or dark blue overcoats in the winter. Upper executives most always bought and wore the light beige – while middle managers more often liked to wear the dark blue overcoat. There was no written rule for this – just the way it usually happened, most likely because that is what their counterparts did.

What John Malloy did was to take the same man and to send him to a large number of big businesses, asking to speak with the top executive (research previously done for him to know that person’s name and request him specifically). The one difference would be ½ of the time he would wear a light beige overcoat and the other times he was in the dark blue overcoat. In a far higher percentage of times he gained access to who he had requested to see wearing the light beige overcoat – while more often than not that executive’s secretary would stop him cold, and send him on his way when he was wearing the dark blue coat. The executive secretary was mentally conditioned (most likely from observing the pecking order of the companies she had worked at) to judge the success level of the visitor simply by one article of clothing. While polyester Leisure Suits, satin shirts, white patent leather shoes and belt were great for going out to the Disco (if you did that then) when I studied this – it was never acceptable in any business more respectable than a used car lot.

The studies I had read also spoke of the proper mixing of patterns between suit, shirt and tie; the mixing of colors; and the types of fabrics attributed to successful businessmen. For instance, black shoes were more often worn by the top executives, while you would seldom see a top executive wearing brown shoes. It was suggested that Jewish businessmen associated brown suits with Nazis in WWII. Big men needing to tone down their authority were told to wear light gray, while smaller men needing to be taken more seriously were told to wear dark blue pinstripes. Only waiters wore black trousers – unless it was a formal Tuxedo. Executives always wore a suit (and never a sport coat to the office), always had their collar and cuffs fastened, and always wore the suit’s coat – unless working in their office alone.

Also based on studies, it was theorized that the type and amount of jewelry a man wore gave people a preconceived idea of the man wearing it. In business it was suggested that highly successful men wore a wedding band, a tasteful watch, and maybe their college ring – at the most. Those wearing less conservative jewelry like a pinky ring, bracelet, or a tie tack were less often treated as if they were a successful executive.

Again, it was the early eighties when studied the subject, and my focus was on the man’s part of the equation. Many trends have changed over the years. While many offices have gone more casual – those businesses are thought of as less professional by those wanting to do business with that type of business. My observances have been that the most successful people at the most successful businesses still adhere to the same principles I studied many years ago. Conservative dress never goes out of style with successful businessmen. While the number of buttons on a coat, the width of the tie and lapels, and the collar styles change – the colors, patterns, and how a suit is worn has not changed much at all in the last thirty years.

I can assure you that if you are a man who wears a loud suit, “Comfortable” looking shoes, diamond earrings, a gold tooth, a watch with a wide silver band and stones in it, and/or a Cadillac medallion suspended from a thick gold chain around your neck – you will not be considered successful unless you are a music promoter or pimp. A businessman who does not dress for success hurts the business he represents – and in turn himself when he is continually passed up in promotions or finding he again is looking for work and wondering why.

This section is meant to push the point that everyone is judged by how they dress, and while it is beyond the scope of this book to go into great detail on how you should dress for success – it is meant to get you to study this topic further. There general principles that also apply to the businesswomen on the road to business success – and women should research what the studies say about a businesswoman is dressed.