Dress To Impress
link Dress to Impress, UBS Tells Staff – WSJ.com.
The fact that a big name conservative banking firm felt it neccessary to re-emphasize dress and presentation policy implies one thing. The sartorial standards of the staff must have declined so much over the years that a renewed focus on appearance was necessary to differentiate them from the janitors who cleaned the offices. The issue came to a head when the janitors started giving advice.
It’s been an interesting phenomenon over the past generation to observe that those with conspicuous wealth and fame often appeared in public in the most slovenly attire. It’s as if reverse snobbery were in play. How often do we see famous athletes and entertainment personalities appear publicly in shapeless sweat pants or track suits? Equally galling, are appearances in public by people with obvious bed head and that 5-days-overdue-for-a-shower-look. We’ll often see instances of mismatched colors or wrong sized clothing. T-shirts on many entertainers look as if they had been rescued from a Goodwill bin. Think Russel Brand who resembles many of the above accusations. Glancing at the gossip magazines at the checkout stands of the supermarkets yields pics of Hollywood actresses who resemble bag ladies.
Obviously, it’s not an issue of money. Perhaps it’s an issue of arrogance, or maybe just bad breeding. The Yassar Arafat unshaven stubble look for men has been ubiquitous for many years now. Personally, I’m not certain that look adds much to the credibility of an investment banker. How does the 3-days-lost-in-the-desert look enhance your banking persona? I mean, couldn’t they supply razors at the office? The look may work if you have a camel parked at the curb, but in an urban setting, it’s akin to wearing cowboy boots to the office. Personally, I wouldn’t feel comfortable dealing with a Michael Moore lookalike in matters of my money. Years ago, the idea of casual Fridays came to popularity in many workplaces. Of course, this was the beginning of the slippery slope whereby casual Fridays morphed into casual any days that ended in a ‘y’. Some people can carry off casual, many look like street dwellers on the way to the food line. Where are the mothers? We need them to chastise their grown up children for going out to work like they were college students in Cuba.
Maybe UBS’s initiative will catch on and the dark tide of slobbery will finally abate in society. It’s not a matter of cost. Over the years, with the decline in the cost of everything, clothes have never been cheaper unless of course you aspire to bespoke suits and Hermes ties. We know the old cliche that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but what’s the matter with having better looking books?