Power-Dressing is Back!

These guys are not models. They are Michael Gardner and Bill Brewer, hiring partner and co-founder at Bickel & Brewer, the law firm featured in the Wall Street Journal's, "Inside a Bastion of Old-School Power Attire."

The return of old-school power dressing is something of a "duh" moment for Bill Brewer, co-founder and managing partner of the law firm, which has offices in Dallas and New York City. He never really got the appeal of khakis and rubber-soled Gucci loafers at the office. He prides himself on custom three-button suits with a center vent and shirts from Bruce Clark in New York. His voice tightens with disdain when he describes "those square-toed club shoes" that some young recruits wear to the office.

"I think people expect high-powered lawyers to look like high-powered lawyers," Mr. Brewer says. "Anything else is sending the wrong signal."

This is a great article.

I noted the other day that when I first started teaching at Long Beach City College I wore a coat and tie every day, and some days I wore a blue pin-striped suit. For various reasons I'm dressing much more casual now (mostly it's because I'm heavier, I need a new wardrobe, and my mood has been somewhat out of it), but when the time is right, I'm going to get all decked out again for lectures. There's just nothing that compares to feeling like a million bucks teaching in a crisp ensemble with a pair of spit-and-polish cap-toe oxfords (my dad wore Brooks Brothers and Cable Car suits when I was a kid, so there's some family history there).

In any case, Christina Binkley, the author of the article, also has an interesting blog post on Bickel & Brewer, and parents should be sharing this passage with their kids:

We’re not all litigators, but many of us in public or client-facing jobs communicate our professional roles through our clothes. Research once showed that Dan Rather’s evening newscast was deemed more trustworthy when he wore a sweater or sweater vest. I was dismayed several years ago when the orthopedic surgeon treating my son was wearing shorts under his white smock. He might have been being practical — dressing both for work and his after-work hike? — but I wondered how focused he was on his work that day.

In recent years, workplaces have transformed themselves to take employees’ lifestyles into consideration. Casual dress codes are comfy and it’s nice to have a sense of ease in our increasingly hectic, demanding world. I’m writing this in blue jeans and a black turtleneck. Still, it can be comforting, when hiring a lawyer, doctor, accountant and other professionals, to not be introduced to their lifestyle. Sometimes, we only want to see their game face.