Often featuring employees as models, they present a series of appropriate outfits. Sometimes, the shows go a step further, highlighting dress-down don'ts as well. When companies turn to image consultants, they are usually seeking guidance for more than just deciding whether, say, open-toed shoes are acceptable. They also must make sure policies aren't potentially discriminatory. These things are sometimes held up in the legal department for weeks,'' says Isbecque.
Some consultants conduct seminars for managers in how to enforce the rules.
Isbecque, for example, leads role-playing exercises, holding up photographs of specific infractions and asking participants to demonstrate how they would confront a guilty employee. Not surprisingly, retailers have learned to take advantage of the current state of confusion. It also recently set up temporary on-site stores at the New York headquarters of three corporations, where employees could buy outfits tailored to each company's dress code. And a new effort called Dress-Up Thursdays, launched in September by two menswear execs, offers monthly events in scattered locations to publicize a new guide to appropriate garb. The bottom line is that while suits and ties may never regain their once ubiquitous presence in the workplace, companies are stopping well short of anything goes.