Not long ago, a fellow senior professor gave me a ream of unsolicited advice, all of which I immediately decided to ignore, particularly the parts about how I should adopt a completely different style of professional attire.
In fact, my senior colleague’s sartorial suggestions would result in my looking very similar to ... my senior colleague. I have never particularly admired her wardrobe, and now we know for certain that the feeling is mutual.
My colleague meant well. She has clearly been successful as an academic and an administrator, and is, theoretically, in a good position to give dress-for-success advice.
Nevertheless, I was reminded of similar advice that I got many years ago when I was a graduate student: A tenure-track professor who favored suits, makeup, and heels told me that unless I started routinely dressing like her, I would never get a faculty position.
I ignored that advice as well, and yet here I am: a reasonably (by my own definition) successful, midcareer, tenured professor who would never be mistaken for a businesswoman.
Why do I always ignore well-meant advice about my wardrobe?
I think it is a combination of not believing that changing my style is a critical issue, and not wanting to believe it. Perhaps there are career opportunities that I have missed owing to casual attire, but it is hard to feel much angst about that because I am so happy in my job.
The senior colleague who most recently, and not so subtly, criticized my appearance and clothing is in a very different field from mine. I’m in the sciences and she is not. That may account for some of our differences of opinion about What to Wear.
When it comes to academic attire, there are major cultural differences among the disciplines. A colleague recently overheard a conversation among engineering professors in which one of them said a particular job candidate couldn’t be very “serious” because he wasn’t wearing a suit during a campus visit. Such a conversation would be considered bizarre in other departments. In fact, academics in certain fields might even be suspicious of a candidate who showed up wearing a suit.
That is confusing for early-career Ph.D.'s who are trying to figure out the norms and the boundaries of their fields. It’s probably not too difficult to figure out the norms: Just look around at a conference or pay attention if you have the opportunity to observe people in positions similar to ones that match your career goals. It may be more difficult to figure out the boundaries. Even within a particular field at a particular type of academic institution, some professors will have specific ideas about what is acceptable versus unacceptable. Meanwhile others (like me) in the same field aren’t so particular about how their colleagues dress or look (unless someone is chewing gum when talking to me; then I am as judgmental as the people with strong opinions about suits).
Gender may be a factor in wardrobe choices as well. And that, too, is complicated. Some people think that men have it easier than women when it comes to professional attire. I am not so sure about that (see conversation among engineering professors, above).
The myth of men-have-it-easier (in the matter of professional attire) was long ago shattered for me when, after years of being envious of my husband’s habit of wearing his favorite shirt year after year at a particular annual conference, a prominent man in his field approached him at a conference and asked, “Is that your ‘meeting shirt’?”
Of course, context is important, and the consequences of making the “wrong” decision about what to wear can vary considerably, depending on whether the context is a job interview, a conference, a class we are teaching, a day in the lab, or a few hours in the office, and depending on your career stage.
I dressed up a bit for interviews back when I was looking for a job, and I also used to make more of an effort to dress well at conferences. I was never too extreme about it, but I definitely tried to look professional and “serious.” Nowadays, I still attempt to look professional(ish) in many settings, but it isn’t a major concern for me (no doubt accounting for the fact that I am still getting fashion advice from concerned colleagues).
Note that I am not actually giving readers any advice about what to wear. I just think we should give each other more of a break when it comes to judging appearances, including clothing, shoes, and accessories (ties, jewelry, etc.).
It may well be important for engineers on campus to wear suits in many circumstances, but I would hope that someone not wearing a suit could still be seen as “serious” based on his conversation and behavior, not on what he wore that day.
I am not saying that it is OK to show up for an interview (or even a class) in a torn, grime-covered T-shirt, but I do think it is fine if someone doesn’t exactly fit the norms for dress or appearance in a particular field. If we have too-strict rules about what our colleagues should look like, we may exclude people who don’t look exactly like most of us.