Kind of an interesting little piece in the CHE: “Sartorial Study Suggests Professors Should Wear What They Want.” A quote from the beginning of the piece:
How academics dress for a lecture doesn’t affect how students perceive them — at least in the long run.
That was the conclusion of a study at North Hennepin Community College that measured students’ perception of an instructor based on what type of clothing she wore to her lectures.
The study is kind of dubious, if you ask me; even the researcher/teacher, Yasmine L. Konheim-Kalkstein, admits that it probably matters a lot about where someone teaches.
In general, professors are notoriously bad dressers, I think mainly because of either a real or cultivated eccentricity (“wow, Professor Krause never bothers to wear socks– he must be so smart!”), a lack of funds for the fancy clothes (thus the difference between faculty and the “suits”), or because they can.
The third option seems most reasonable to me: I think most professors wear whatever they want mainly because there is essentially no dress code, and this seems to be the case just about everywhere, as far as I can tell. I took a PhD seminar from a very smart professor who routinely showed up in very baggy sweat pants. I worked with a colleague at my first job who occasionally showed up to work in what I presumed were his pajamas. Honest.
When I first started teaching classes (as a graduate student), I got my hair cut in a “professional” bob style, threw out my 5 inch heels and invested in some (slightly used) suits. How I dressed was important, according to one of the senior female faculty. She even gave me a pamphlet. It was called something like “Dress for Success” and was printed, I think in the late 70′s. Let’s just say, it lasted for one semester. My good friend ‘Steve’ bought three collared shirts. I think he still wears them today and calls them his ‘good’ shirts!