Dear Annie: Please settle an argument. I work with a brand-management team of about 20, some of whom I really think take the notion of "business casual" clothing a few steps over the line. The question is, where is the line? I say acid-washed jeans (with holes), yoga pants, and tank tops just don't belong in the office. Not that everyone has to go back to the old days of wearing suits and ties all the time, God forbid, but it doesn't help a person's career prospects if they look like they just rolled out of bed, either.

    Several of my coworkers, who show up wearing all kinds of strange and sloppy things, disagree. Their argument is two-fold: First, if your work is really topnotch, it doesn't matter what you wear, you're still a star. And second, if Mark Zuckerberg can show up on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange for Facebook's (FB) IPO wearing jeans and a hoodie, it proves there are no more rules about clothes. What do you say? -- Fashion Fan

Dear F.F.: Interesting question. Slowly, over the past 15 years or so, startups' lack of office dress code has permeated the work world. "It started with 'casual Fridays' and devolved from there," says Lauren A. Rothman, author of a new book called Style Bible: What to Wear to Work.

    Rothman is a longtime professional fashionista whose consulting firm, Styleauteur, runs dress-for-success seminars at Fortune 500 companies and elsewhere. She's frequently called in to coach individual executives on sprucing up their personal style. "For instance, I've had law firms and major accounting firms call me and say, 'Can you work with So-and-So? He's not going to make partner until he starts looking like one,'" she says.

    There's a reason for that: "We'd all love to believe appearances don't matter, but the reality is, packaging counts. What you wear is part of your overall personal brand, your professional image. If you want to move up in your career at almost any big company, you have to look the part. The old adage 'dress for the job you want, not the job you have' is still true."

    In other words, if your boss and other higher-ups aren't coming to work in acid-washed jeans and tank tops, your colleagues might want to take the hint. And as for what Mark Zuckerberg wears, unless your coworkers also happen to be self-made billionaires, how relevant is that?

    Some uncertainty over how to dress for work springs from the fact that, although many companies do still have actual dress codes -- which tend to vary a lot from one industry, and one region of the country, to another -- "managers at most businesses don't do a great job of communicating what is expected, or what image the company wants employees to project," Rothman notes. "It's hard to hold people to a standard if you haven't told them what the standard is. Nevertheless, most employers do want you to dress differently than you would if you were just hanging out at home."  

亲爱的安妮：请您帮忙解决一个争论。我所在的品牌管理团队约有20人，我认为其中有些人对于“商务休闲”服装概念的理解有些过了。可问题是，界限到底在哪里？我认为漂白的牛仔裤（还带着洞）、瑜伽裤和吊带衫，都不适合办公室。我并不是说所有人都得像从前那样，在办公室必须西装革履，但如果穿着打扮看起来就像刚从床上爬起来一样，对一个人的职业前景也不会有什么好处。

    可我的几位同事却并不同意我的观点。他们经常穿着各种奇怪的、随便的衣服出现在办公室。他们给出了两条理由：首先，只要你的工作很出色，无论穿什么都是明星。其次，既然Facebook进行IPO时，马克•扎克伯格能穿着牛仔裤和卫衣在纽约证交所（New York Stock Exchange）亮相，这便证明职场着装规范早已不复存在。您认为呢？——F.F.

亲爱的F.F.：这是一个很有趣的问题。在过去15年间，创业公司自由的办公室着装，逐渐在整个职场流行起来。劳伦•A•罗斯曼表示：“最开始是‘休闲星期五’，后来便逐渐成为职场的一种着装趋势。”罗斯曼是《职场着装圣经》（Style Bible: What to Wear to Work）一书的作者。

    罗斯曼是一位资深时尚达人，其咨询公司Styleauteur曾在《财富》500强（ Fortune 500）和其他公司举办过成功着装研讨会。她经常被邀请指导高管如何塑造自己的形象，体现个人风格。她说道：“比如，有律师事务所和大型会计事务所对我说：‘你能帮一下某某人吗？他要想成为合伙人，起码要先看起来像一名合伙人吧。’”

    这是有道理的：“我们都认为外形并不重要，可现实情况是，包装非常重要。一个人的穿着是个人品牌的一部分，代表了一个人的职业形象。在任何大公司，要想有所发展，必须让自己看起来像那么回事。俗话说得好：‘按照你想要从事的工作挑选衣服，而不是根据想穿的衣服来挑工作。’”

    换言之，如果你的上司和其他高层没有穿着漂白牛仔裤和吊带衫来上班，你的同事们可能就会好好想想。至于马克•扎克伯格的穿着，除非你的同事恰好也是白手起家的亿万富翁，否则，扎克伯格的喜好与他们有什么关系？

    职场着装规定也有许多不确定性，原因是，虽然许多公司确实规定了着装规范（而且不同行业、不同地区之间存在较大差异），但罗斯曼认为：“大多数公司的管理者并没有很好的传达公司希望员工展现怎样的形象。如果你不告诉员工标准是什么，又怎么能让他们遵守标准。不过，大多数雇主确实希望员工在公司的穿着，不要像呆在家中时一样随便。” 

    In practical terms, that means that, for anyone who wears jeans to the office, "a professional look is still a good idea. Not just any old jeans will do," Rothman says, adding that office denim should be a dark wash, hemmed so they just brush the tops of your shoes, "not fashionably dragging on the floor, and free of rips, whiskering, or anything else that marks them as overly trendy, or old. Look for trouser-style jeans whose cut resembles dressier pants."

    Style Bible goes into lots of lively detail about how to put together a work wardrobe, depending on your job, your budget, and where you live. In general, Rothman says that some mistakes women make revolve around "the sexiness factor -- wearing too-short skirts, too-high heels, or too much makeup." For men, she's most often called upon to help address sloppiness, including "stained or wrinkled clothes, or clothes that don't fit properly."

    Your coworkers who think clothes don't matter might want to consider a couple of further thoughts. First, Rothman notes that advancing a career these days depends in large part on networking. So "even if you believe that the quality of your work should speak for itself, what about the way you come across to people who aren't yet familiar with how good your work is?" she says. "If you're going to networking events, people there are forming first impressions of you based in part on how professional you look." Until they've gotten to know you, they have little else to go on, so it's smart to make sure your style isn't getting in the way.

    And second, Rothman suggests that those who doubt that clothes matter conduct a small experiment: "Just try dressing more professionally for a week, or a month. Most of us feel more confident and more competent when we dress well. You may even find that other people respond to you differently. It can be hard to command attention and respect when you look as if you just don't care.

    "You have to get dressed every day anyway -- you can't go to work naked," she adds. "So why not try to make what you're wearing work for you?" Why not, indeed.

Talkback: Do you think "business casual" has gone too far, where you work? If your company has a dress code, what is it? Leave a comment below.

    实际上，正如罗斯曼所说，穿着牛仔裤上班的人，“最好还是让自己的穿着看起来比较职业。毕竟，不是所有旧式牛仔裤都可以让你具备职业感。”她补充道，适合办公室的牛仔裤应该是暗色锁边的，长度正好盖住鞋面。“不要赶时髦地拖在地上，不能有裂缝、猫须，或其他让牛仔裤看起来过度时髦或陈旧的标志。可以选择式样与正装裤类似的牛仔裤。”

    《职场着装圣经》生动详细地介绍了如何根据自己的职业、预算和地域选择职场服装。罗斯曼表示，女性所犯的错误通常围绕“性感因素——穿超短裙、高跟鞋或浓妆艳抹。”而男性经常犯的问题是太马虎，包括“脏的或起皱的衣服，或者根本不合身的衣服。”

    你那些认为着装不重要的同事，或许应该三思。首先，罗斯曼注意到，如今职业发展很大程度上取决于人际关系。所以，“即便你认为自己工作的质量是不言而喻的，但如果遇到对你的工作不熟悉的人该怎么办？如果你去参加社交活动，人们对你的第一印象基本上都取决于你看起来是否职业，”她说道。除非他们不得不结识你，否则他们不会继续了解你。所以明智的做法是，不要让自己的着装风格变成障碍。

    其次，罗斯曼建议，质疑着装重要性的人可以做一个小实验：“试着一周或一个月穿得更职业一些。我们穿着得体的时候，往往会更自信和更有竞争力。你甚至会发现，其他人对你的反应也截然不同。如果你整天一副对什么都不在乎的样子，估计很难获得关注和尊重。”

    她补充道：“无论如何，你每天都要穿衣服——毕竟谁也不能光着身子去上班。所以，为什么不尝试让自己的穿着为自己加分？”是啊！为什么不呢？

反馈：你是否认为自己公司内着装太过“商务休闲”？如果你的公司有着装规范，是如何规定的？欢迎评论。（财富中文网）

    翻译：刘进龙/汪皓