Susan Scafidi was quoted in a New York Times article about office dress code.
“There has been a dramatic change very recently,” said Susan Scafidi, a law professor at Fordham University and founder of the Fashion Law Institute.
She noted that last December the New York City Commission on Human Rights announced new guidelines for the municipal human rights law that expressly prohibited: “Enforcing dress codes, uniforms, and grooming standards that impose different requirements based on sex or gender.”
As a result, no employer may require men to wear ties unless they also require women to wear ties, or ask that heels be worn, unless both sexes have to wear them. And though this applies only to “official” dress codes, the trickle-down effect is inevitable.
“Dress is now open to the interpretation of the individual, rather than an institution,” Ms. Scafidi said.
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“There’s a strain of thought that says an employee represents a company, and thus dress is not about personal expression, but company expression,” Professor Scafidi said. “But there’s a counter argument that believes because we identify so much with our careers, we should be able to be ourselves at work.”
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Professor Scafidi said, “My business uniform is a black jacket with a fitted, knee-length sheath, classic 100-millimeter single-sole pumps, and usually our logo pin — my equivalent of armor, arms and insignia, respectively.”
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“We are moving into an era where personal expression is going to trump the desire to create a corporate identity,” Professor Scafidi said. “It’s a huge power shift.”
