I have been told that in professional contexts, the goal should be to dress conservatively and unobtrusively so your clothes are the least interesting thing about you and the focus remains on your work. I don’t disagree with this statement, but I don’t want to look sloppy or bland. How can I dress in a manner that places style in the background but doesn’t ignore it entirely? — Maria, Boston
This is a misinterpretation of the situation, a sort of inane inverse of the adage that children should be seen and not heard. It suggests that adults should be heard but not seen, and in an increasingly visual world, that idea is a nonstarter.
The issue is not that you don’t want to be noticed for your clothes — it’s that you don’t want to be noticed for the wrong thing about your clothes. You don’t want your clothes to be so loud or crazy or otherwise distracting that they become the only thing people remember or talk about after an encounter.
You do, however, want your clothes to help you be memorable. As much as they shouldn’t suck up all of the attention from those around you, they shouldn’t be so boring that you fade into the background, or so banal that they make you seem thoughtless and uncreative. That actually makes your job harder. It’s difficult to make a point, or be convincing, or get people to buy your ideas, if they confuse you with the wallpaper. Or a sofa.
Instead, the goal should be to get your clothes to convey a vibe: confident, pulled together, unique, professional. The focus should be on style, not fashion.
That may seem semantic, but it’s not. Style is about consistency and commitment to a concept; fashion is about constant change. Style means dress that is mostly unidentifiable, that doesn’t have logos all over it or seem immediately associated with a specific decade. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does have to be considered.
Think, for example, of Steve Jobs and his Issey Miyake mock turtlenecks and jeans, or of Katharine Hepburn and her men’s wear tweeds. Both managed to suggest that their minds were on matters other than dress specifically by dressing the same way every day — and look great while doing so. That is why the two have stood the test of time as sartorial reference points. Their clothes said something about their broader value systems.