BY: Logan Matthews EDITED BY: Lydia Doss

Recently, the men’s clothier Allen Edmonds ran a marketing campaign citing statistics that 80% of hiring executives view shoes as being extremely important and only 51% of men wear the correct shoes to a job interview. They have an entire portion of their website dedicated to helping men choose the appropriate shoes for an upcoming event. Allen Edmonds capitalizes on the fact that clothes are communicative. They communicate information not only about the individual sporting them, but also about the context in which the individual finds themselves. This is of particular consequence within the workplace. The clothes one wears to work can indicate the type of work a person does, a person’s position within a company or even impact others’ views of a person. Simply put, clothes matter.

As upperclassmen college students, we will soon find ourselves in a myriad of workplace settings. Graduates might work in a trendy, digital marketing firm or a large corporate office. Wherever a student lands a job, the workplace environment will have an aesthetic and culture particular to that job; a significant portion of a job’s culture is the dress code.

This code, expressed either implicitly through employees’ outfits over time or explicitly by a written set of rules, determines the clothes the office has outlined as appropriate. It is important as students poised to enter the workforce to understand the meanings clothes convey and, subsequently, look to aptly select professional attire based upon the setting of our employment.

Communication researchers have taken notice of the importance of clothing in business settings. Peter Cardon and Ephraim Okoro, in their paper “Professional Characteristics Communicated by Formal Versus Casual Workplace Attire,” looked generally at the professional characteristics communicated by a workplace with casual versus formal attire. They also noted students’ expectations about the type of workplace dress code they will encounter once in the workforce.

They conducted a survey of business students from two universities. To identify beliefs about characteristics, they asked the students to rank different adjectives about authoritativeness, competence, productivity, trustworthiness and friendliness onna scale of one to five —with one being casual attire and five being formal attire—based upon which type of attire best communicated those particular characteristics. 

They found, somewhat predictably, more formal business attire projects authoritativeness and competence, moderately formal business attire is associated with productivity and trustworthiness and casual attire is thought to communicate creativity and friendliness. As far as the expectations of students entering the workforce, they found overwhelming support for business casual dress codes in all demographics. 

While, Cardon and Okoro focused on how business culture is communicated via clothes to an individual, this is only one of the directions in which clothes communicate. 

Peluchette, Karl and Rust in “Dressing to Impress: Beliefs and Attitudes Regarding Workplace Attire” looked not at what the workplace attire communicated to individuals, but how individuals understood the value of clothing and used their own attire to manage the impression of others. They were interested in the impact their subjects’ understanding and use of clothing might have on workplace outcomes, their effort and planning in dressing for work and how clothing made them feel. 

In their survey of MBA graduate students, they saw that valuing clothing tends to lead to individuals recognizing the use of clothing in managing others’ impressions. They found the perceived benefits of clothing were greater among those respondents who were identified as high self-monitors — those that place a greater amount of control on the way that they appear to others. These individuals were more interested in clothing and saw more value in attire. They also tended to believe more strongly than low self-monitors that clothing would impact others’ views, their own power within the workplace and workplace outcomes. They even found those who valued their workplace clothing reported feeling more competent at work. 

One surprising conclusion, is most respondents claimed to attempt to influence the perceptions of others with what they wore. It would be expected that a significant amount of time, money and effort would go into this influential attire. Conversely, their devotion of resources did not reflect the prioritization they claimed. Instead, they reported allocating only minimal resources towards work clothing. This could be a result of the thriftiness of the graduate students they interviewed.

 Reflecting on the research, there are some important takeaways. First, it is necessary to understand the different dress codes one might encounter when entering the workplace. While Cardon and Okoro highlighted that students expect a business casual workplace, correctly identifying the dress code has benefits. Taking note of the style — formal, business casual or casual — can give insights into the type of culture present within an office. For example, a start-up probably has a casual dress code intended to create a friendly and creative environment reflective of its goals. In contrast, a law firm might have a formal dress code in line with its projection of power and authority. 

Recognizing the dress code can also help a recent graduate dress appropriately for work. Being dressed appropriately expresses to others an understanding of the office culture, places one fittingly among coworkers and creates the opportunity to foster open relationships by being reciprocally dressed. 

Finally, as college graduates, we may find ourselves in managerial roles fairly soon creating dress codes for our office. It is important to craft a dress code suitable for the particular workplace, its culture, its mission and its employees. A manager should also be aware of what others are communicating with their dress and be able to tackle any issues related to work attire.

 Moving from college into the workplace can be a tough transition in many regards — figuring out what to wear to work is likely one of them. However, understanding the nuances and implications of business attire can make this aspect of the transition, not only easier, but also play in your favor.