What (Not) to Wear to Work

By Lisa Takeuchi Cullen

I draw the line at flip-flops. the prevailing dress code at my office and those of many white collar workers in the U.S. could be defined as business casual--if any of us knew what the heck that meant. My employee handbook offers no guidelines, so I'm left with my own interpretation: no nylons (like 39% of American women, I haven't worn a pair in more than a year), but then again, no flip-flops (because I respect my colleagues enough to shield them from my unsightly toes).

As 1.5 million new college graduates start streaming into the workforce this month, it's no wonder they're not sure what to wear. Even longtime workers still flounder at the wardrobe, because almost two decades since the term first appeared in corporate dress codes, our understanding of business casual remains far from uniform. Jeans are one thing--half of us have recently worn them to work, according to a Shopzilla.com survey. But only 55% of those surveyed by the job-hunting site Monster.com think exposed underwear is an office no-no, a stat that suggests a gaping generational divide. "I call it the three D's: distracting, disgusting and--although it'll betray my age--disrespectful," says Eileen McAvoy Boylen, 54, a Boston-area marketing executive, of the way young workers dress. Liz Dean, 21, a Mount Holyoke graduate about to join Teach for America, views office attire differently. "Nobody my age wants to conform," she says.

Clothing chaos has led many employers to simply give up. The number of companies allowing workers to dress casually every day dropped from 48% in 2004 to 37% in 2007, according to human resources trade group SHRM. And the trend has left corporate America a sartorial mishmash. At opposite ends of the spectrum are Lehman Bros., which has reinstated its daily-suit mandate, and IBM, which has tossed its famously conservative dress code altogether. Last summer the U.S. Commerce Department banned employee flip-flops. This summer Texas A&M University is urging its staff to dress "comfortably" so the school can ease up on air-conditioning.

Whether the corporate culture leans toward ties or tie-dyes, how we dress at the office has consequences. Bottom line: your appearance can keep you from getting hired--or even get you fired. "Legally, an employer has every right in most cases to regulate how a worker looks," says attorney James McDonald, senior partner at employment law firm Fisher & Phillips. Clothes can also hamstring careers. Barbara Pachter, a top business-etiquette coach, boils it down to fit (avoid too-short skirts or too-tight anything), accessories (particularly footwear), color (when in doubt, go with darks) and style (when in doubt, dress like the boss). The No. 1 mistake: looking too sexy. "Cleavage," she says, "is not a corporate look." Neither are toes.