The Professional Dress Code!!!

A point to make first, this is the 100th post on zhagdoo. So congrats to all.

The HR summit is a thing of past now, and the college has moved ahead. Something or the other is always happening here and there is plenty to talk about. For instance the college celebrated our DG’s birthday today. Well I don’t think it is the right place to comment on it, nor I have the right comments to make about it, so let us leave it for the time being. But let me take this opportunity to talk about one phenomenon which came to my notice during the HR summit itself. It is about the dressing for a formal event in a B school.

I don’t know if this kind of strict dress code [formal plane light colour shirt, preferably white with dark trousers and not to mention the tie] is followed in other B schools as well or not, but ours did made lot of fuss about it. Not only for guys, but for gals as well they were supposed to be dressed in western formal attire, during the HR summit.

Personally speaking, I do have certain questions regarding the dress code. First of all, why shirts, other than white do not count as formal? Stripes, checks and other patterns are a strict no, even plane coloured shirts were considered to be murder of formal attire. I also fail to understand the obsession with dark trousers. Well, white shirts do look good with dark trousers, but still it can also be coupled with something else. What is the harm in getting out of the white shirt-black pants routine?

Then guys wearing Indian formals [kurta-pyjama, in case you don’t know about Indian formals] is like making a mockery of the whole business culture. Why? If I may ask so. People do not consider Indian formals as formals, just because people in west do not wear them. But they are our formals, who will wear them if not we? Forget it; most of you will not get it. Advocating Indian formal attire in corporate world for males must be sounding like a crazy idea to you, but is it as crazy as wearing a black suit on a day with temperature anywhere around 40 C? There were people actually wearing the black business suits. Dude c’mon, look at the weather outside. It’s melting out there, tissues revolt just at the sight of dark coloured clothes, and still people were wearing black suits. Crazy!

Does following western attire means, forget about the local climatic conditions and blindly follow them. There in the west the weather conditions are much different then what we have here. Wearing a business suit all year long might be a viable option there, still they avoid during summers. But here back in the subcontinent it’s like killing yourself. Still many did it, and most were expected to do it. What will happen if one dresses appropriately, keeping the hot weather conditions in mind? Will it not be better if the person, who is talking serious business, is sensible enough to be dressed accordingly?

Now about girls, all the female HR’s present there, and the few female speakers as well, all were wearing Indian formals. That means women in Indian formals go well in the corporate world. But still our college kept on shouting for western formals for gals as well. Why are we deliberately killing our attire when people actually look far smarter in them then the western formals? What big deal it would have made, if the girl students were in Indian and not western formals, given the fact when all the corporate big shots were themselves in Indian.

I don’t know why being business professional means following west blindly? Why can’t we be in Indian dress, atleast in India? It is our dress; our culture who will follow it, if not us? Here in MBA they tell us to be original and innovative, what kind of innovation and originality do they talk about, when they can’t even dress originally? They can’t even think of appropriate clothes according to the weather, and they talk about making sensible business decisions. Strange! Isn’t it?