Dress up in downturn

Until recently, Haroon Qureshi’s custom-made, pin-striped suits didn’t fit in with the more casual dress code at Lawrenceville’s Imagine Airlines, where his twentysomething colleagues wore khaki pants and polo shirts.

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Jason Getz / jgetz@ajc.com

Haroon Qureshi (left) and Benjamin Hamilton, president of Imagine Air, leave the company’s weekly management meeting. Employees have dressed more professionally at the airline.

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Jason Getz/ jgetz@ajc.com

Well before the recession started, Haroon Qureshi’s suits helped him stand out at Imagine Airlines.

Has casual dress gone out-of-style at your workplace?

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But then the economy stumbled — and his co-workers stepped up their wardrobe.

No more golf shirts or cotton trousers in the office of this charter airline at Gwinnett County Airport. They’ve been replaced by suits and yellow power ties. Even shiny wingtip shoes.

“Before it was like, I don’t want to look too stuffy or stiff, and we wanted our clients to feel relaxed,” said 29-year old Qureshi of Atlanta. “Now, we want them to know we are serious and that we are paying attention to details.”

In the face of a sluggish economy and almost daily workforce downsizings, some employees are paying more attention to their threads — convinced they can’t afford to look disheveled or too laid back.

From power dressing for after-work networking to looking their best for a boss they might see in the elevator, some employees are picking their outfits as if their jobs depend on it. In some offices, casual Friday has become a casualty of the recession.

“People are dressing up because they want to show the boss they are engaged,” said Tom Darrow, founder of Atlanta-based Career Spa, a career counseling and job recruitment firm. “They are dressing like they mean it.”

And research suggests dressing well can make a difference. A 2008 CareerBuilder.com survey found 41 percent of employers said people who dress professionally tend to be promoted more often than others in the organization.

Too casual Fridays?

While many clothing outlets don’t provide specific sales figures, menswear retailer Paul Fredrick has been touting an uptick in sales of ties, suits and white and blue shirts. In fact, the company sold 170,920 ties in 2008, a 42 percent increase over 2006. Sales of mens suits at the catalog and online store increased by 17 percent during the same time period, while sales of more casual wear were flat, according to Dean White, executive vice president of merchandise.

Macy’s is also seeing a trend toward dressing up, though the department store chain would not provide specific sales figures.

“It’s not necessarily a suit and tie. But it’s business dresses. A nice sports jacket,” said spokeswoman Melissa Goff. “It’s more of a dressing up that than the more laid-back look. We are seeing people investing in themselves. In this competitive job market, people want to stand out and be noticed.”

Lori Holliday Banks, senior fashion analyst with New-York-based Tobe, a leading retail and trend consulting company, said employees everywhere are giving their outfits a second look before heading out the door.

“People are thinking, ‘I have to protect my income. I have to look more professional. I have to look the part,’” said Banks, whose company works with department stores and clothing boutiques across the country. “And I do think that those who might have worn jeans to work in the past might be rethinking that.”

But Banks said this does not necessarily translate into people rushing to department stores to buy new threads. Instead, she said, consumers are buying less and looking for value as well as new pieces that can complement their existing wardrobe.

Darrow calls the trend toward more conservative attire a “flashback” to old-school power dressing, when men dutifully wore suits and white-collar shirts to work every day.

The shift also marks a departure from the dot-com influence on corporate style. During the dot-com boom, employers felt pressure to create a more relaxed workplace atmosphere to attract talent and spur creativity. If that meant employees showing up to work in shorts or flip-flops, so be it. At the same time, many more traditional companies formalized the weekly dress-down called “casual Fridays.”

Darrow said while relaxed dress codes might be nice, casual Fridays often went too far — as in the recent episode of NBC’s comedy “The Office,” where one worker wore sandals and another a much too short dress.

Even as more offices grow more formal, Darrow says he is struck by how many people he sees at regular networking events look like they are coming directly from the gym.

“They could be meeting a potential employer, and you only have one chance at a first impression,” he said.

He added that dressing properly doesn’t always mean a power suit. And some office environments, such as a start-up or creative ad agency, might be turned off by a suit and tie, he said. It’s important, he said, to tailor the outfit for the company.

Still, he advises, the best strategy is “next-level” dressing. In other words, dress for the job you someday want.

No detail too small

Ruth Ann Moore has been ahead of the curve on putting dressy back into office dress.

And Moore, a Marietta woman who works in client services for a California-based financial firm, says there will be no softening her conservative professional look — especially during this economic downturn.

“I think it’s better to dress conservatively these days and not to go with a relaxed style,” said Moore, 46. “It’s so competitive these days, and you want to keep your edge.”

Moore often wears chocolate brown Bebe suits and matching camisoles — along with freshly shined leather slingback pumps and a designer handbag. She also pays attention to the details — cleaning up her eyebrows and making sure her lipstick color doesn’t clash with her ensemble.

A few years ago, Moore hired a professional image consultant Peggy Parks to work with her. The two now meet every few months for “refreshers” where they might discuss anything from flattering summer-time colors to tips on weaving the trend for florals into her wardrobe without overdoing it. No element of her look is overlooked.

“We recently had lunch and I asked her if my hair length was OK,” Moore said. “She said it was.”

Goodbye, lime green

Back in Lawrenceville, Imagine Airlines’ Qureshi also sweats the details.

On this afternoon — clad in a custom-made black, pin-striped suit, pale pink oxford shirt, tie with deep pink hot air balloons and black Cole Haan wingtips — he is hand addressing 200 envelopes going out to potential clients.

“It’s more personal when it’s handwritten. We want our clients to know we pay attention to details, whether it’s the envelope or our clothes,” said Qureshi, the company’s director of marketing and sales, said. “This says we are serious about every little detail.”

Business for the 4-year-old company — which does anywhere between 1 and 15 flights daily — has been on the rise during recent months, Qureshi said. That said, they don’t plan to take their clientele for granted — particularly during the recession. They’ve watched competitors go out of business.

Aaron Sohacki, the 25-year-old chief executive officer of Imagine, said Qureshi recently pulled him aside to discuss his lime green oxford shirt.

“He told me it’s nice to wear to a wedding or for going out to dinner, but it’s not business professional,” said Sohacki. He changed into a traditional blue oxford shirt.

Since then, he wears a white or blue shirt every day. He keeps a hanger on the back of his office door that holds dozens of ties. And he recently started wearing “collar stays” in his shirts to keep the collar flat and in place.

“I am used to it now,” he said. “We are trying to create an image here.”

At Big Brown, casual is the new dressy

While some offices are buttoning up their dress codes, Sandy Springs-based UPS recently relaxed its famously conservative clothing requirements, first with a trial period and then permanently.

This, of course, was for its office workers, not its brown shorts-clad truck drivers.

UPS spokesman Norman Black said the new dress code no longer requires suits and ties, or even a sports coat. But, he added, it clearly spell out the expectations, banning T-shirts and flip-flops among other items, to eliminate any risk of work attire going too laid back.

“To be honest, the men felt finally freed from their ties. This started on a trial basis and I can tell you we never went too casual. No one wanted to risk it and have to go back to the business professional,” he said.

He said employees still take great pride in looking professional, he said, but where they might wear a suit and tie, they now wear slacks and a crisp, collared shirt.

“There are a lot of companies that went with that dot-com relaxation in dress, and we just never went there. I can honestly tell you everyone pays great attention to what they are wearing.”

Dressing for success

Tips for dressing up from Peggy Parks, a local image consultant:

Make sure the suit fits. Even a great suit won’t look great if it doesn’t fit you properly.

Pay attention to details. If you wear open-toes shoes, make sure you get a pedicure. If you are not wearing hose, make sure your legs are shaven. Make sure your clothes are ironed and stain-free. And don’t overdo it with cologne or perfume.

Don’t show too much skin. You won’t be taken seriously.

For interviews, go with navy blue or gray. Black is too intimidating.

Always dress for your next job. People want to know where you are going in life.

Style strategies

Not able to buy a lot of new clothes? Karen Hughes of Image Assets offers these tips:

Evaluate your assets. Take a look at your clothes; maybe your black slacks simply need to be altered or pressed.

Invest in the basics. Avoid trendy clothes and purchase versatile basics such as black trousers, a well-fitting jacket and buttoned-down shirts. Buy classic styles you can wear for years. You can go trendy with accessories such as scarves or jewelry.

Remember, you need fewer clothes than you think. It’s a matter of purchasing the right clothes to mix and match.